We made our way from Takayama to Kyoto to spend 6 days in the “Ancient Capital” of Japan. The city is way smaller than Tokyo, but home to roughly 1.600 temples and countless other beauiful and historic sightseeing spots. We picked out our personal highlights and visited: Fushimi Inari with its 10.000 Torii Gates, the Golden Pavillion “Kinkakuji”, the Bamboo Forest in Arashiyama, the Kijumizudera Temple, the Heian Shirne, the Gion District and the Nishiki Food Market.
Kyoto is also the perfect place to do a daytrip to Nara, the deer city. We expected the deers to be around mostly in the Nara Park and were surprised to see them throughout the whole city. It was a unique experience for us to get so near to wild deers roaming freely everywhere, eating grass or even approaching us to check if we had some deer cookies for them. The animals got so used to the people around them that they even bow with their head to thank you, just like all Japanese do when greeting or thanking someone. Definitely a very peculiar and funny thing to see!
We made our way from Kyoto to Osaka to spend our last two days here, as we are flying out to Manila from Kansai Airport. Osaka is a very lively city with its beautiful castle and many nice pedestrian areas full of decorated bars and restaurants, which can be found near the river in Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori or in the Shinsekai district. A very nice ending to our 16 days here.
Apart from the countless beautiful sights, Japan offers another great thing to explore and enjoy – the delicious food. We tried the most typical stuff and loved it!