Kyoto

Kansai, Japan · City

The old capital holds a density no other Japanese city matches: the garden at Tenryu-ji is the only one in Kyoto that keeps the layout Muso Soseki gave it in the fourteenth century, To-ji's Kodo holds twenty-one sculptures arranged as a mandala in three dimensions, and the Imperial Palace is now simply walked into, no application and no ticket, while Katsura Rikyu has to be applied for months ahead. Then there is the torii forest of Fushimi Inari, the gold leaf of Kinkaku-ji and the sand sea of Ginkaku-ji.

The essentials

Getting there

Train — Connected by the Tokaido Shinkansen, very accessible

What it is genuinely strong in

🪴 Japanese gardens⛩️ Temples & shrines🏮 Festivals / Matsuri🎨 Art / Design🍃 Contemplative nature🎭 Performing arts🏯 History🏺 Traditional crafts

Frequently asked questions about Kyoto

What to do in Kyoto: 238 activities

• Byodo-in and the interior of the Phoenix Hall 2 h must-see Uji · 25 min

  The garden costs 700 yen for adults and 600 yen for groups of 25 or more, and includes the Hoshokan museum; there is no garden-only ticket. The garden opens 8:45 to 17:30 with last admission at 17:15 and the museum 9:00 to 17:00 with last admission at 16:45, every day of the year. Going into the Ho-o-do to see Jocho's Amida costs 300 yen more and works in slots every 20 minutes, from 9:30 to 16:10, with a limited quota per slot and tickets sold at the garden reception, not online. Be there 5 minutes before your assigned time; the commentary is in Japanese only (a leaflet is given in other languages) and the interior can close without notice for ceremonies. The official source gives two different capacity figures, 20 and 50 people per slot: confirm when buying.

• Fushimi Inari Taisha 2.5 h must-see

  Thousands of orange torii gates climbing the sacred Mount Inari.

• Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion and the sea of sand 1 h must-see

  Admission 1,000 yen, open every day with no closing day: 8:30-17:00 from March to November and 9:00-16:30 from December to February. The route is one-way and takes 30-45 minutes, so the crowding is felt above all on the ramp by the Ginshadan (the Kogetsudai sand cone and the sea of silver sand). It is the fifth most visited site in Kyoto, and the interior of the Kannon-den is never open: what you see is the exterior. Opening at 8:30 and going in during the first few minutes completely changes the experience compared with arriving at midday.

• Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) 1.5 h must-see

  A temple covered in gold leaf, reflected in its own pond — an absolute icon of Kyoto.

• Katsura Imperial Villa 2 h must-see booking Katsura · 35 min

  The benchmark work of sukiya architecture and of the stroll garden, admired by Bruno Taut and by half a century of modern architects. Entry is only on a guided tour of about 60 minutes and must be applied for in advance. Since 2019 it charges 1,000 yen from age 18; ages 12 to 17 are free and under-12s cannot enter, infants included. Capacity is 20 people per tour and 480 a day in the reserved quota; the online application opens on the 1st of the month three months ahead and closes three days before, with a lottery if demand exceeds supply and the result sent by email within three working days. Another 70 places a day (10 per tour) are kept for same-day entry on a first-come basis from 8:40 at the villa itself, with a passport. There are tours aimed at foreign visitors at 9:20, 11:20, 13:20, 15:20 and 16:20. Closed Mondays (Tuesday if the Monday is a public holiday) and from 28 December to 4 January. Photo ID must be shown at the entrance. A caveat about access: the sources consulted do not agree on whether the online application is settled first-come or by lottery when demand exceeds supply. What is certain is that a prior application is needed and that there is a same-day allocation of places; it is worth confirming on the Imperial Household Agency website.

• Kiyomizu-dera Temple 2 h must-see

  World Heritage Buddhist temple with a broad wooden terrace on pillars giving panoramic views over Kyoto. NOTICE: Jishu Jinja, the love shrine inside the grounds with the two stones you walk between with your eyes shut, has been closed for reconstruction since August 2022 and in 2026 was still fenced off with no reopening date. Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka are public streets and can be walked, but they sit inside the no-smoking ordinance zone, which carries a fine.

• Kyoto Imperial Palace without booking 1.5 h must-see

  The system changed and today you walk straight in: no prior application and no ticket, it is free and reached on foot. There are free guided tours with no sign-up, in English and Chinese at 10:00 and 14:00 (around 50 minutes) and in Japanese at 9:30, 10:30, 13:30 and 14:30; you have to be in the visitors' room at the start time. It closes on Mondays (if the Monday is a public holiday it closes the following Tuesday) and from 28 December to 4 January, and it can close without notice for Imperial Household events, visits by dignitaries or bad weather. You see the Shishinden, the Seiryoden and the Oikeniwa garden; the buildings are viewed from outside.

• Kyoto National Museum and the Meiji brick pavilion 2.5 h must-see

  The city's largest holding of Buddhist art, painting and ceramics, in Taniguchi Yoshio's Heisei Chishinkan wing. Open 9:30 to 17:00, with extended hours on Fridays, closed Mondays (if the Monday is a public holiday it opens and closes the following day) and at the end of the year. Important notice: the galleries are shut for building works from 7 September to 5 October 2026 and only the gardens can be walked; the car park is also closed from 7 September to 4 October. From 6 October to 29 November 2026 there is a special exhibition on the Genji Monogatari. The Meiji Kotokan, Katayama Tokuma's original brick building of 1895, does not open daily: in 2026 it opened to the public only from 11 to 20 July, with no advance registration. Confirm the calendar before going, because the museum alternates closures for installation.

• Nanzen-ji: the Sanmon gate and the Suirokaku aqueduct 2 h must-see

  The precinct and the brick Suirokaku aqueduct, part of the Lake Biwa Canal works, are free to enter; the Hojo garden and the climb up the Sanmon are paid separately, at around 500-600 yen each depending on the source (worth confirming at the ticket window). Hours 8:40-17:00 from March to November and 8:40-16:30 from December to February, with no closing days; there is a tea room with matcha and wagashi for about 500 yen. Important notice: the Nanzen-in subtemple is closed for works until the spring of 2027, so do not count on its pond garden. Following the aqueduct upstream leads to the Okuno-in and its small waterfall, almost always empty.

• Ryoan-ji and its fifteen stones 1 h must-see

  600 yen, from 8:00 to 17:00 from March to November and from 8:30 to 16:30 from December to February, with no closing days. It opens at 8:00, earlier than almost any temple in Kyoto, and that hour is the only real defence against the tour groups: japan-guide itself recommends going first thing because the Hojo veranda is narrow and fills up. Besides the kare-sansui there are the Kyoyochi pond, which predates the temple, and the tsukubai with the inscription ware tada taru o shiru. Within the grounds there is a yudofu restaurant with tatami rooms overlooking the garden, useful if you are chaining it with Kinkaku-ji and Ninna-ji.

• Tenryu-ji, the Sogenchi garden and the Hatto dragon 1.5 h must-see

  This is the temple the Arashiyama bamboo grove leads to, and its Sogenchi garden, designed by Muso Soseki in the 14th century, is the only one in Kyoto that keeps the original layout from the time it was made. The dragon on the Hatto ceiling is not on view every day: it opens 9:00 to 16:30 in the blocks from March to May and from September to December, and is paid for separately from the garden. From 14 to 30 November 2026 the garden has an early opening from 7:30, which is the only realistic way to see the pond without crowds at the height of autumn. On New Year's Eve the bell is rung from 23:30 for the first 108 groups, and from 3 January to 1 March winter shojin ryori is served at Shigetsu for 3,800 yen including tax, from 11:00 to 14:00.

• To-ji: the three-dimensional mandala of the Kodo 1.5 h must-see

  The grounds' gates are open from 5:00 to 17:00 and the Miedo and the Jikido are free; the Kondo and the Kodo cost 800 yen for adults, 400 yen for upper secondary and 300 yen up to lower secondary, from 8:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30. The Kodo holds twenty-one sculptures arranged as a three-dimensional mandala following Kukai's design, and that is what has to be seen even if the pagoda is what appears in the photographs. The Kanchi-in is paid for separately, 600 yen, from 9:00 to 17:00. The Homotsukan opens only in spring and autumn for 600 yen; in 2026 the autumn round runs from 20 September to 25 November.

• Tofuku-ji: the Tsutenkyo bridge and the Shigemori garden 2 h must-see

  Two separate tickets: Hojo garden 500 yen, and Tsutenkyo bridge plus Kaisando 600 yen, with a combined ticket at 1,000 yen that stops being sold from 14 November to 6 December, when the Tsutenkyo goes up to 1,000 yen. Hours 9:00-16:00, closing at 16:30 from April to mid-November; at the autumn peak the bridge opens as early as 8:30, and from 7 December to 31 March it closes at 15:30. During that special period photography from the Tsutenkyo and the Gaunkyo is banned for safety reasons, hand-written goshuin are not issued, and tripods, food, drawing and pets are not allowed. The Hojo garden is by Shigemori Mirei, 1939, and almost nobody visits it compared with the bridge, so in November it is the smart plan.

• Kabuki at the Minamiza in Shijo 4 h booking

  The oldest kabuki theatre in Japan by date of founding: the genre was born here at the start of the 17th century, on the bank of the Kamo. Its big fixture is the December Kaomise, when the maneki boards bearing the names of the cast are hung on the front of the building. Its marquee season is the December Kaomise, when the maneki with the actors' names go up on the facade. Dates and prices for each edition are not confirmed until the theatre publishes them.

• Miyako Odori, the spring dance of the geiko 1.5 h booking only 1-30 Apr

  All through April, the geiko and maiko of Gion Kobu stage a dance programme with a shamisen orchestra at the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo theatre. It has been held since 1872 and is the only occasion to see them perform without an invitation or an intermediary. There is an option that includes a tea ceremony beforehand. The 2026 edition was the 152nd, from 1 to 30 April at the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo, with performances at 12:30, 14:30 and 16:30.

• Autumn illuminations, temple by temple 2 h booking only late October to early December

  From late October to early December each temple opens at night on its own calendar, hours and price, and they do not line up. Verified data for the 2026 season: Kodai-ji from 23 October to 13 December, 17:00 to 22:00, 600 yen; Entoku-in same dates, 500 yen; To-ji from 31 October to 13 December, 18:00 to 21:30, 1,000 yen; Shoren-in from 6 November to 6 December, 18:00 to 22:00, 1,000 yen; the Momiji-en garden at Kitano Tenmangu from 7 November to 6 December, from sunset to 20:00, 1,200 yen; Hogon-in from 13 November to 6 December, 17:30 to 20:30, 1,000 yen; Chion-in from 17 November to 6 December, 17:30 to 21:30, 800 yen; Eikan-do from 20 November to 6 December, 17:30 to 21:00, 1,000 yen; Kiyomizu-dera only from 21 to 30 November, 17:30 to 21:30, 500 yen. Three require advance booking and are expensive: Tofuku-ji at 2,800 yen, Rurikoin at 7,000 and the Byodoin in Uji at 1,500 with an online application. The Kiyomizu night opening is the shortest and the most crowded; book Tofuku-ji and Rurikoin weeks ahead and confirm every date each year, because they are adjusted to the real state of the leaves.

• Hozugawa river boat descent 2.5 h Kameoka · 30 min

  A wooden boat poled by three boatmen, 16 km from Kameoka to the Togetsukyo bridge in Arashiyama, about two hours depending on the flow. Adults 6,000 yen and children from age 4 to primary school 4,500; under a safety rule, children shorter than 80 cm are not accepted. Normal season from 10 March to 10 December with departures from 9:00 to 15:00, and from 11 December to 9 March only four fixed departures (10:00, 11:30, 13:00, 14:30) in covered, heated boats and with compulsory booking. On 28 March 2023 a boat capsized and two boatmen died; the service was suspended for three and a half months and resumed on 17 July 2023 after an inspection by the Ministry of Transport. It is cancelled in heavy rain or abnormal flow and closes from 29 December to 4 January.

• Kawadoko in Kibune, eating over the water 3 h booking only 1 May - 30 Sep

  Official season from 1 May to 30 September (some places extend into October: confirm it). It is not the same as the yuka of the Kamo: here the platforms are built literally over the streambed, about 30 cm above the water, and the official Kyoto tourism source treats it as a category of its own. Lunch 3,500-8,000 yen, dinner 8,000-20,000; there is a cheap nagashi-somen option at around 2,000. Weekends in July and August fill up a month ahead; in September there is room and fewer people. Important notice: however sunny it is, if the river is running high after earlier rain they move you indoors or cancel. Access on the Eizan line to Kibune-guchi and then bus.

• Kurama no Hi Matsuri, the fire festival 5 h Kurama · 40 min only 22 Oct

  Fixed date: 22 October, the same day as the Jidai Matsuri, so you have to choose. At around 18:00 the kagaribi are lit in front of every house in the village of Kurama and then teams of men carry torches several metres long along the single street towards Yuki shrine. Admission is free, but the logistics are the real problem: the village is tiny, the Eizan railway is the only practical way in, one-way pedestrian flow is enforced, there are access closures and queues of hours to get back, with the last train very tight. In 2022 it was held in a reduced version and the final carrying up of the mikoshi was dropped; I could not verify whether that part has been fully restored, so check with the shrine or the Sakyo ward office in October. Wear closed shoes, not synthetic clothing, and expect to get back in the small hours.

• Mount Hiei and Enryaku-ji from Kyoto 6 h Otsu · 25 min

  A combined ticket to the three precincts (Todo, Saito and Yokawa) is 1,000 yen, plus 500 for the treasure hall, 9:00 to 16:00 all year. Allow 3 or 4 hours as a minimum; between Todo and Saito there is a pleasant forest path, and the shuttle bus between precincts costs 700 yen per trip or 1,200 for the day pass. Important notice: the Eizan cable car and the ropeway, the natural route from Demachiyanagi via Yase, close from early January to mid-March, as does the direct bus from Kyoto Station; in that period the only option left is the Sakamoto cable car on the Shiga side (870 yen per trip). The Konpon Chudo has emerged from a long restoration begun in 2016 and partial interior closures are planned for 2026-2027: confirm before going.

• Noryo-yuka on the Kamo river, the summer terraces 2 h booking only 1 May - 15 Oct

  The 2026 season is confirmed from 1 May to 15 October, on the west bank of the Kamo between Nijo and Gojo; they are grouped in four stretches (Kamikiyamachi, Pontocho, Nishiishigaki, Shimokiyamachi). Many places close their yuka at the end of September even though the official season continues, so you have to confirm venue by venue. The real range runs from about 2,000 yen (cafes and Italian or Chinese places, which also set up yuka) to more than 20,000 for kaiseki. A booking is effectively compulsory for dinner and during the Gion Matsuri period; if it rains they move you to the indoor dining room, but cancelling yourself because of rain does not exempt you from the cancellation charge. The whole area is a no-smoking zone on the street.

• Sagano scenic train through the Hozu gorge 1.5 h booking Saga-Kameoka · 25 min only 1 Mar - 29 Dec

  Narrow-gauge tourist train between Torokko Saga and Torokko Kameoka, 7.3 km in about 25 minutes along the Hozu ravine. One-way ticket 880 yen adult and 440 child (6-12), a flat fare whatever the section. All seats are reserved and online sales open one month before the date; the official English site says 00:00 Japan time, some Japanese guides say 10:00, so confirm it. Car 5, called The Rich, is completely open-sided, is not sold online but only on the day at the ticket window, umbrellas are not allowed inside, and if it rains there is no refund and no change of car: bring a rain jacket. It closes from 30 December to the end of February and has Wednesday rest days spread across the annual calendar, so check the year's calendar before counting on it.

• An obanzai dinner, the home cooking of Kyoto 2 h booking

  Worth knowing what you are buying: obanzai is home cooking based on dashi made from katsuo, kombu and shiitake, stewed Kyoto vegetables, pulses, seaweed and freshwater fish from Lake Biwa, traditionally without meat and without fresh sea fish because Kyoto has no coast. The word appears in an 1849 recipe book, but people in Kyoto simply said okazu; the term took hold from an Asahi Shimbun column that began on 4 January 1964, and today it works mainly as a commercial label. In other words: an obanzai set menu in a tourist restaurant and the obanzai of a household are not the same thing. In the small places in the centre with a counter and pots on view, booking is almost always required, and several have no English menu.

• Arashiyama Bamboo Grove 3 h

  Path through giant bamboo beside Tenryu-ji temple. The grove grows out of the Tenryu-ji grounds; the temple has its own entry and is the other half of the visit: without it you see the corridor and not the garden it came from. Less than 10 minutes from the end of the path are Okochi Sanso and the Iwatayama monkey park, which absorb part of the crowd. Inside Tenryu-ji is Shigetsu, its shojin ryori restaurant.

• Aritsugu, knives and utensils in Nishiki 1 h

  A knife shop with 450 years of history at the eastern end of Nishiki, in Kajiya-cho, the blacksmiths' quarter. Open 10:00 to 17:00, but the counter stops taking new sales at 16:30; closed Wednesdays, from 1 to 4 January and on 31 January for stocktaking. Engraving the name on the blade is free and done by hand on the spot on a wooden block, in the Latin alphabet, katakana or whatever is asked for. Sharpening and chip repair cost 1,650 yen with a turnaround of about a month, collected in the shop or sent carriage forward, so it is no use on a short trip. It also sells copper pans, moulds and the wasabi grater.

• Baikasai, open-air tea among the plum trees 2 h only 25 Feb

  Fixed date: 25 February at Kitano Tenmangu, the anniversary of the death of Sugawara no Michizane, with the plum in blossom. Besides the rite, a nodate is set up, an open-air tea ceremony served by geiko and maiko from Kamishichiken, the district next to the shrine. Tickets for the nodate are limited and sell out; I have not been able to verify the price or the sales system for the 2027 edition, so confirm with the shrine in January. Access to the precinct and the market stalls is free.

• Breakfast at Inoda Coffee, the head house 1 h

  Founded in 1940 in a machiya on Sakaimachi-dori, with a courtyard and a small museum about the founder. The Kyo no Choshoku breakfast costs 1,380 yen and includes German ham, scrambled eggs, salad, croissant, juice and a drink; it is served from 7:00 to 11:00 (last orders). The house coffee, Arabia no Shinju, is 560 yen and arrives with milk and sugar already in it by default: if you want it black, say so when ordering. Context: Kyoto topped the Ministry of Internal Affairs' national ranking for household spending on coffee, and the city has a density of kissaten well above the Japanese average. It fills up first thing; no bookings.

• Chion-in, the largest wooden gate in Japan 1.5 h

  The buildings are free; only the gardens are paid: 500 yen for both, 400 yen for the Hojo alone, 300 yen for the Yuzen alone. Hours 9:00-16:30 with last admission at 16:00, with no fixed closing days although the gardens close irregularly. The Sanmon is 24 metres high by 50 wide and is the largest wooden temple gate in Japan, but the upper balcony is closed to the public except for special openings. The bell, which was the largest in the world between the 17th and 19th centuries, is rung on New Year's Eve and that is the busiest moment of the year.

• Cycling along the Kamo and Katsura riverbanks 4 h

  Two separate axes. The Kamo route runs without traffic lights from Kamigamo to the centre on the riverside path, with the hanami of the Nakaragi-no-michi on the botanical garden bank. The Katsura route is the Kyoto-Yawata-Kizu cycle way: 45 kilometres of flat surface from the Togetsukyo bridge in Arashiyama to the Izumi bridge in Kizugawa, past the confluence of the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers at Yawata, with the Sakura Deai-kan as the midpoint. KCTP hires out bicycles from nine pick-up points, two to three minutes from Kyoto Station, 9:00 to 18:00 all year, and there is a daily parking pass for 200 yen valid at several temples. Local rule: on the riverbanks the pedestrian has priority, and in the centre there are zones where parking a bicycle is banned and it gets taken away.

• Daigo-ji and the Sanbo-in garden 2.5 h Fushimi (Daigo) · 35 min

  Open 9:00-17:00 from March to the first Sunday in December and 9:00-16:30 the rest of the year; the ticket office closes an hour before and last entry is half an hour before. The combined ticket for Sanbo-in, Reihokan and Garan costs 1,500 yen for adults and 1,000 yen for students in high season (20 March to 15 May and 15 October to 10 December) and 800 yen and 600 yen the rest of the year; primary school children free. The Sanbo-in is the garden Hideyoshi had remade for his cherry blossom party of 1598 and it keeps the Fujito stone. There is an additional special opening from 17 October to 6 December 2026 for 600 yen, and in winter 2026 the Sanbo-in joins the Kyo no Fuyu no Tabi with Kaikei's Miroku. Parking costs 1,000 yen and the temple itself asks visitors to come by public transport because the surrounding streets are narrow.

• Eikan-do Zenrin-ji and the Amida that turns its head 1.5 h

  1,000 yen for the rest of the year, 1,500 yen by day in maple season and 1,000 yen for the night illumination, which runs between early November and early December from 17:30 to 21:00 with last admission at 20:30. Daytime hours 9:00-17:00 with last entry at 16:00. What has to be seen is the Mikaeri Amida, an image that turns its head back over its left shoulder, and the climb to the Tahoto pagoda, from where the city is visible. In 2025 the illumination ran from 15 November to 10 December for 700 yen and with no booking; for 2026 the dates are worth confirming, as they are usually published in early October.

• Fushimi sake tasting at Ginjo Shubo Aburacho 1.5 h

  The way to taste Fushimi without stringing together brewery visits: a shop-bar in Fushimi-Momoyama with between 80 and 90 ginjo and daiginjo from the local breweries, including editions that never leave the area, and staff who guide you. It is served in ochoko from 160 up to 1,290 yen a cup, or in a normal glass from 270 to 2,230, with tsumami at 200. It works with 19 of the breweries in the appellation (the Fushimi guild groups 22 across Fushimi and Joyo). The bar is designed for people coming on their own and for people who know nothing about sake. Opening hours and closing day were not verified in this review: confirm them. It complements, rather than replaces, the brewery visit already in the catalogue.

• Gion and Pontocho Walk 2 h

  Geisha district of traditional wooden houses, at its best at dusk. Important and recent notice: since 1 April 2024 the South Gion neighbourhood council has banned ENTRY, not just photographs, in the district's private alleys, with signs announcing a 10,000 yen fine; the ban on photography in those same streets is older, from October 2019. Hanamikoji and Shijo-dori remain public streets and can be walked. This is imposed not by the city hall but by the private ownership of the streets, and the English sign is badly translated. The stated reason is harassment of underage maiko.

• Gion Odori, the autumn dance of Gion Higashi 2 h booking only 1-10 Nov

  Gion Higashi, the smallest of the five districts, at the Gion Kaikan on Higashioji. It is the only one of the five dances held in autumn: fixed dates from 1 to 10 November, two performances a day at 13:30 and 16:00, an hour of show and doors an hour before. The 67th edition is the one from 1 to 10 November 2026, that is, still to come. Ticket with tea service 7,000 yen, without tea 6,000, programme 1,000. Booking through the form at gionodori.base.shop or by telephone on 075-561-0224. Five minutes on foot from exit 7 at Gion-Shijo. Falling in the middle of peak red-leaf season, it is the easiest to fit into an autumn trip and the one that sells out least.

• Going into the first floor of the To-ji pagoda 0.5 h only openings in January-March, April-May and October-December

  The five-storey pagoda is the tallest in Japan and its ground floor opens only during specific campaigns: January, May and November, for 1,200 yen for adults. In 2026 it forms part of the 60th Kyo no Fuyu no Tabi, from 9 January to 18 March, and also of the spring opening of cultural properties not normally on view, from 25 April to 10 May, this last one with extended hours of 8:00 to 16:30 and prices of 1,200 yen for adults, 700 yen for senior high school and 500 yen up to junior high. Inside you see the central pillar treated as the Buddha Dainichi and the four images that surround it. No individual booking is needed, but groups of 15 or more must give notice.

• Gozan no Okuribi, the mountain bonfires 2 h only 16 Aug

  On the night of 16 August five giant bonfires shaped as characters and figures are lit on the mountains ringing the city, to see off the dead of Obon. The same night of 16 August the Torii-gata at Sagano is also lit and the Arashiyama Toro Nagashi is held, so you have to choose a part of the city: they cannot all be seen from one spot.

• Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year 2 h only 1-3 Jan

  Fixed dates: 1 to 3 January, with queues from midnight on the 31st. Fushimi Inari Taisha and Yasaka Jinja are Kyoto's two mass focal points and both allow access through the night; Fushimi is right beside JR Inari station, which on those days runs one-way flow and extra services. The visitor figures circulating for Fushimi are around two and a half million people over the three days, but I have not been able to verify them in an official source: worth confirming. The full climb up the Senbon Torii is unworkable on those days; for the mountain circuit you need to come back from 5 or 6 January. The food stalls on the approach to Fushimi run for more days than the official three.

• Historic tea houses of Uji 2 h Uji · 25 min

  Tsuen, at the east end of the Uji bridge and right in front of Keihan Uji station, claims a founding date of 1160 and is one of the oldest businesses still trading in Japan; it opens from 10:30 to 17:30 with last orders at 16:00, every day of the year. Hideyoshi and Ieyasu passed through it, according to its records. On the other side, Nakamura Tokichi has its head house in Uji and a branch next to Byodo-in; its matcha namacha jelly generates long queues and the numbered-ticket waiting system changes with the crowds: worth confirming on the day. Uji is eaten along a 600 m stretch between the two stations and the river; going first thing avoids almost all of it.

• Hosen-in: the framed garden and the blood ceiling 1 h Ohara · 60 min

  900 yen for adults, 800 yen for lower and upper secondary and 700 yen for primary, and it includes matcha and a Japanese sweet served facing the garden; hours 9:00-17:00 with last entry at 16:30. The point of it is the Bankan-en, a garden meant to be seen from inside through the pillars, which work as a picture frame, with a five-needle pine of some seven hundred years as the centrepiece. The building's ceiling is a chi-tenjo: boards salvaged from Fushimi Castle where the defenders killed themselves in 1600, and the stains are still visible. Its best moments are the new green of May and June and the maples from mid to late November.

• Imagine Noh, noh and kyogen with an introduction in English 2.5 h booking only scattered performances in October-November

  A programme created for foreign audiences at the Kyoto Kanze Kaikan, with four one-off performances in the 2026 season: 14, 22 and 28 October and 5 November. Reception with refreshments at 16:30, performance at 17:30 and finish at 19:00. Selected scenes of noh and kyogen are staged, preceded by an explanation in English from specialists and followed by a talk with the actors with consecutive interpreting. The price is high and steeply tiered: 23,000 yen from age 25, 5,000 yen from 18 to 25 and free from 6 to 17. Booking through imagine-noh.com, GetYourGuide, Viator, Peatix or the theatre box office. It is the most convenient way to understand noh in a single session, but it costs three times what an ordinary performance in the same hall does.

• Ippodo and its Kaboku tea room 1.5 h

  A tea shop on Teramachi-Nijo with an adjoining tea room, Kaboku, reopened after refurbishment on 15 December 2023. Hours 10:00-17:00, last order 16:30, 44 seats, closed the second Wednesday of each month. This is not a tea ceremony: here they bring you the tea and you brew it at the table following the instructions, with a sweet. From 4 February 2026 there is a long course, Ikka Goyo wo Hiraku, at 8,800 yen: five teas (Kaorifu sencha, cold-brewed Ippo-en gyokuro, koicha matcha, usucha matcha and mugicha) with their sweets, chosen from the 30 teas the house sells. On the second floor there are classrooms for brewing courses.

• Jingo-ji and disc throwing over the valley 2.5 h Takao · 55 min

  1,000 yen, 9:00 to 16:00, and it has to be earned: from the river you climb hundreds of stone steps before reaching the first building, and there is no shortcut and no transport. It is the most visited of the three Takao temples and the site of kawarakenage: you buy clay discs and throw them into the void from the viewpoint over the Kiyotaki valley to be rid of bad luck. Autumn here usually arrives around mid-November, a week before the centre of Kyoto. Get there by JR bus from Kyoto station every 20 or 30 minutes, 230 yen and about 50 minutes, or on municipal bus 8, about 45 minutes.

• Kamogawa Odori, the dance of Pontocho 2 h booking only May, most of the month

  Pontocho, at its Kaburenjo on the bank of the Kamo. It is the only one of the five held in May and the one with the longest run: the 187th edition ran from 5 to 22 May 2026, with three performances a day at 12:30, 14:20 and 16:10. Published prices: 7,000 yen for the special seat with a tea voucher, 6,000 yen special without tea and 4,000 yen general, but the ticketing site itself warned that general seats were not going on sale for the current edition: confirm this before counting on the cheap option. Tickets are bought online by card, by phone on 075-221-2025 with a bank transfer, or through an agency; seats cannot be chosen, there are no changes or cancellations once charged and there is no guarantee that a group will be seated together. Wheelchair spaces are available if you give notice by phone.

• Kawai Kanjiro's house and kilns 1.5 h

  The house and workshop that the potter Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966), one of the founders of the mingei movement, designed for himself, and which his family still runs. You go round barefoot, you may touch the furniture and sit beside the irori, and in the back yard is the noborigama, the stepped wood-fired kiln that reached between 850 and 1,150 degrees, with pieces left unfinished by the workshop. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, with last entry half an hour before; closed Mondays and also closed 10 to 20 August for Obon and 24 December to 7 January. It costs 1,000 yen for adults, 500 yen high school and university, 300 yen primary and junior high. A good hour covers it.

• Keage Incline, the Nanzen-ji aqueduct and the spiral tunnel 1.5 h

  A short industrial archaeology circuit, free and open at any hour. The Keage Incline is a railway ramp of about 582 metres that between 1891 and 1948 raised and lowered the canal barges over a 36-metre drop; today you walk on the sleepers, among some 90 Somei Yoshino cherries that form a tunnel from late March to early April and fill with people. A step away are the Suirokaku, the brick aqueduct of Roman arches that crosses the Nanzen-ji precinct, and the Nejiri Manpo, a pedestrian tunnel with the brick laid in a spiral to take the oblique load. The track surface is gravel and uneven sleepers, and the rails are slippery in rain: closed shoes. There are no toilets along the line.

• Kennin-ji, the oldest zen temple in Kyoto 1 h

  800 yen, 10:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, no closing days. It opens later than almost every other temple, so it does not work as the first stop of the day. It sits at the end of Hanamikoji, a step away from the crowds of Gion, and is still one of the quietest of the great zen temples; the twin dragons on the ceiling of the Hatto were painted by Koizumi Junsaku in 2002 for the 800th anniversary. The gold screen of Fujin and Raijin shown in the hall is a reproduction and the original is deposited in a museum: confirm this at the temple itself.

• Kinunkei gorge, from Takao to Kiyotaki 3 h Takao · 55 min

  About 3 km and two hours alongside the Kiyotaki river, with almost no change in elevation, between the three temples of Takao (Jingo-ji, Saimyo-ji, Kosan-ji) and the village of Kiyotaki. The Takao maples turn earlier than those in the centre, around the start of November, because of the altitude. You get there on the JR Bus Takao-Keihoku line from Kyoto station or from Shijo-Omiya, about 20 minutes and 230 yen from Shijo-Omiya. There are no toilets between the start and the finish. There are stretches of slippery rock, a bad business after rain. Coming back, Kyoto Bus number 94 from Kiyotaki to Arashiyama in 19 minutes, or 50 minutes on foot. Note: Jingo-ji sits at the top of a long, steep stairway up from the river.

• Kitano Odori, the dance of Kamishichiken 2 h booking only late March to early April

  Kamishichiken, the oldest geiko district in Kyoto, next to Kitano Tenmangu, in its own Kaburenjo. The 74th edition ran from 20 March to 2 April 2026, with two performances a day at 14:00 and 16:30, doors opening an hour before and about 90 minutes on stage. A ticket with a tea serving costs 7,000 yen and without tea 6,000; the separate tea voucher costs 1,000 yen and can be bought on the day, and the illustrated programme 800. All seats are numbered but you do not choose your seat. Children under six who are not yet at school are not admitted. The 2026 sale opened on 13 January, that is about two months ahead: for 2027 you need to be watching from early January. It is the smallest and the most intimate of the five.

• Kodai-ji, the temple of Nene 1.5 h

  9:00-17:30 with last entry at 17:00, no closing days. 800 yen for the temple with the Sho museum, 1,200 yen for the combined ticket that adds Entoku-in, which on its own costs 500 yen. The best of it is the Otama-ya with the images of Hideyoshi and Nene, the tea houses on the slope (one attributed to the circle of Sen no Rikyu) and the bamboo grove that leads out towards Nene-no-michi. It runs night illuminations in spring and autumn with projections; in 2025 these ran from 24 October to 14 December, 17:00-22:00, for 600 yen and with no booking. It also takes part in the Kyo no Fuyu no Tabi between 9 January and 4 March 2026 for 600 yen, its first opening in that series in six years.

• Kurama Onsen, the sulphur bath in the mountains 3 h Kurama · 40 min

  Important and recent: this bath was closed from 2021 by the pandemic and typhoon damage, and reopened on 1 November 2024 after a 30 million yen refurbishment funded in part by 10 million yen of crowdfunding. Sulphurous water. Two day rates: full plan 2,500 yen on weekdays and 2,700 yen at weekends and on public holidays, 1,300 yen for children from age 3 to primary school; rotenburo only 1,400 and 1,600 yen, 700 yen for children. Open 11:00 to 20:00, with the dining room 12:00 to 15:00 and 17:00 to 20:00. There is an indoor bath with three pools (thermal, jacuzzi and cold water) and an outdoor bath facing the mountain, plus a meditation room and a tea area in the forest. It is a 13-minute walk from Kurama station on the Eizan line, or bus 52 from Kokusaikaikan to the end of the line. The station pick-up service was under study and was not running: confirm it.

• Kurama-dera and the climb to the Hondo 2.5 h Kurama · 40 min

  The entry donation for the mountain is 500 yen and the precinct can be visited from 9:00 to 16:15. The temple's own cable car covers half the climb for 200 yen per trip, but skipping it and walking up the path is the part worth doing, with Yuki Jinja and the exposed roots along the way. From the Hondo to Kibune takes around an hour along the ridge. The Kurama Onsen, closed since the pandemic, reopened in November 2024 and is 10 minutes from the station: 10:00-21:00, around 2,600-2,700 yen with indoor and outdoor baths and 1,500-1,600 yen for the outdoor bath alone, with different rates on weekdays and at weekends. The Kurama no Hi Matsuri is held at Yuki Jinja on 22 October.

• Kyo no Fuyu no Tabi: the temples that open only in winter 5 h only early January to mid-March

  From 9 January to 18 March 2026 the city opens 15 sites that are closed the rest of the year, with general hours of 10:00 to 16:30 and admission until 16:00; the base fee is 800 yen for adults and 400 yen for primary pupils, though several sites charge between 600 and 1,200 yen. The 60th edition includes the Hatto and the Kyozo of Daitoku-ji (the Kyozo opening for the first time in its history), the Daiko-in, the Kannon-do of Ninna-ji after 21 years closed, the Hiunkaku of Nishi Hongan-ji from the outside, the first floor of the To-ji pagoda, the Sanbo-in of Daigo-ji, Kodai-ji, Hoko-ji, the shoin and the museum of Toyokuni Jinja after 30 years, and three outright debuts: Fukusho-ji, Kako-ji and Kosei-ji, the last of these with a garden by Shigemori Mirei. Most require no booking, but the two monk-led guided visits (Nishi Hongan-ji 3,000 yen and Higashi Hongan-ji 2,700 yen) do need a web reservation. Socks are requested and photography is banned at several sites; telephone information centre 075-585-5181.

• Kyo Odori, the dance of Miyagawacho 2 h booking only the first half of April

  Miyagawacho, the district south of Shijo between the Kamo and Kiyomizu, at the refurbished Kaburenjo Mitsuwaza. The 75th edition ran from 4 to 19 April 2026, with Monday the 13th off, and two performances a day: the first from 13:00 to 14:00 with access to the tea room from 11:30 to 12:50, and the second from 16:00 to 17:00 with tea from 14:30 to 15:50. First-class seat with tea 7,000 yen, the whole stalls; second class with tea 6,000 yen, the whole balcony. Sales exclusively online, opening on 25 February 2026 at 10:00. Children under 10 are not admitted. The performance lasts only an hour: half the real time goes on the tea, which is not optional in either category.

• Kyoto Isshu Trail, Higashiyama section 8 h

  The most accessible section of the circuit: 24.6 km from Fushimi Inari to the Mount Hiei funicular station, passing Sennyu-ji, Shogunzuka, Nanzen-ji and the aqueduct, the Philosopher's Path and the Daimonji. There is also a 9.5 km branch through Fushimi-Momoyama and Fukakusa. It is walked following numbered waymarks that match the official map, which costs 600 yen and is sold in bookshops and tourist offices in the city. It can be split over two or three days because there are many exits to public transport. There are current black bear warnings at waymarks 63-64 and 68-69 and temporary closures around 33-1 to 33-3: check the notices page the day before.

• Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Garden 2.5 h

  The oldest public botanical garden in Japan, opened in 1924, 24 hectares right beside exit 3 of Kitayama underground station. Admission 500 yen general, 250 yen over-65s and high school, free up to junior high; the annual pass is 2,000 yen. Open 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:00, and the glasshouse 10:00 to 16:00 with last entry at 15:30, included in the price with no supplement. It closes only from 28 December to 4 January. The day-night inversion room in the glasshouse is closed from November to April. The Nakaragi wood, inside the grounds, gives the upside-down maples reflected in the pond that are the November postcard.

• Kyoto Takigi Noh, noh by torchlight 3 h booking only the first Friday and Saturday of June

  Watch for the change of calendar: up to the 75th edition it was held on fixed dates, 1 and 2 June, but the city council has announced that from the 76th, in 2027, it moves to the first Friday and Saturday of June. In 2026 it was on 1 and 2 June, from 18:00 to 20:30, with doors opening at 17:00, in the outer grounds of Heian Jingu, and with the Rohm Theatre Kyoto as the alternative venue in case of rain. Tickets 4,000 yen general, 3,000 for under-23s and up to 15,000 for the premium seats; advance sales from 1 April at Ticket Pia and Lawson. Each night combines a noh piece from a different school with a kyogen; there are no subtitles, so read the plot beforehand.

• Lake Biwa Canal boat, from Otsu to Keage 2.5 h booking Otsu (Shiga) · 25 min

  A cruise along the canal that Sakuro Tanabe laid out at the age of 21 in 1890 to bring water, transport and Japan's first commercial hydroelectric plant to Kyoto, running through hand-dug brick tunnels under the mountain. It operates only in two seasons, spring and autumn, and only with an online booking: they do not take bookings by telephone. Landing stages at Otsu-ko, Miidera, Yamashina and Keage. In the autumn 2026 season the Otsu-Keage run costs between 6,000 and 14,000 yen depending on the day, about 130 minutes in total with 85 of them sailing in the downstream direction; the short Yamashina-Keage legs run from 4,000 to 5,000. Capacity is 9 to 12 people per boat, which is why it sells out. Cancelling the day before costs 10% and on the day 100%, except for suspension due to bad weather, which is refunded in full.

• Mibu Kyogen, the silent theatre of Mibu-dera 2.5 h only 2-3 February, 29 April to 5 May and the October long weekend

  Wordless Buddhist pantomime, accompanied only by gong, drum and flute, in the Dainenbutsu-do of Mibu-dera, a building listed as an Important Cultural Property. Three windows a year: setsubun, on 2 and 3 February from 17:00 to 20:00 with a performance every hour and free admission; the big spring run from 29 April to 5 May, fixed dates, from 13:00 to 17:30 and with a night session on the last day; and the October long weekend that includes Sports Day, 3 days, from 13:00 to 17:30, which in 2026 fell on 10, 11 and 12 October. Outside setsubun it costs 1,000 yen for adults and 500 for junior and senior high school students. There is no booking and no numbered seating: tickets on the day and open seating. Photography is banned. The repertoire runs to 30 pieces and the most famous, Horakuwari, always opens the run by smashing hundreds of clay plates. Designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1976, the first in the prefecture.

• Mitarashi Matsuri, wading into the sacred water 1 h only 10 days around the Day of the Ox (July)

  Moveable dates around the day of the ox in July: in 2026 it ran from 18 to 30 July, with the main rite on the 26th, 9:00 to 20:00 and last entry at 19:30. You pay 500 yen for the candle offering, take off your shoes, wade knee-deep across the Mitarashi pond to leave the lit candle before the altar, and finish by drinking the spring water. The water wells up from the bottom and is freezing even in the middle of August. Public transport is recommended: the car park charges 1,000 yen for the first hour and 500 for each half hour after that, with no cap. Bring a towel and shoes that come off easily.

• Motomiya-sai, the ten thousand lanterns of Fushimi 2 h only the weekend of the Day of the Ox in July

  Moveable date: the weekend after the day of the ox in July. In 2026 the Yoimiya was on 19 July at 18:00 and the Motomiya on the 20th at 9:00. On the night of the Yoimiya the lanterns are lit across the whole precinct, including a good part of the mountain, and around 400 lantern paintings donated by artists go on display. It is the only occasion in the year when the Senbon Torii and the upper paths are walked lit up, and the one that best repays the heat. Free, no ticket. JR Inari station is right at the foot of the torii and the turnout is high but far below that of hatsumode.

• Murin-an, Yamagata Aritomo's Meiji garden 1 h

  The villa that the soldier and prime minister Yamagata Aritomo had built in 1896, with a garden by Ogawa Jihei VII, fed by water from the Lake Biwa canal and with Mount Higashiyama taken in as borrowed background. It broke with the traditional garden by imitating a mountain village landscape with a fast-running stream. It has been a Place of Scenic Beauty since 1951. Open 9:00 to 18:00, and since 2022 it applies variable pricing by visitor numbers: 600 yen normally, 900 in the high bands (1 to 14 and 27 to 30 April, all of May, 28 to 30 September, 14 to 21 October, 1 and 4 to 8 and 11 to 14 November, 1 to 7 December and 29 to 31 March) and 1,300 yen from 2 to 3, 9 to 10 and 15 to 30 November. Guided tours with a gardener and the moss workshops are separate, expensive (from 11,000 yen per group) and require 10 days to 3 weeks' notice via a form.

• Myoshin-ji: the Hatto dragon and three open subtemples 2.5 h

  It is the largest Zen complex in Japan, with some fifty subtemples, and is walked like a neighbourhood: the internal streets are public and free. The Hatto, with the ceiling dragon that changes direction depending on where you stand, is visited on an accompanied tour from 9:00 to 16:00 for 500 yen. Of the subtemples, three open daily: Taizo-in, 700 yen from 9:00 to 17:00, with the 15th-century dry garden and the pond garden from the 1960s; Keishun-in, 500 yen from 9:00 to 17:00 and until 16:30 from November to February; and Daishin-in, 300 yen from 9:00 to 17:00. Torin-in adds a short opening from 30 October to 8 November 2026 for 800 yen. Shunko-in is also here, already in the catalogue for its zazen.

• Nijo Castle 2 h

  The former residence of the Tokugawa shoguns in Kyoto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its "nightingale floors" and painted halls.

• Ninna-ji: the imperial Goten and the five storeys of the pagoda 2 h

  The precinct is free outside cherry blossom season; what you pay for is the Goten, the palace residence with gardens, 800 yen adults and free up to high school. Hours 9:00-17:00 from March to November and 9:00-16:30 from December to February, with the ticket desk closing half an hour earlier. The Reihokan museum opens only from April to May and from October to November, for 500 yen. In autumn 2026 there is a special opening from 1 October to 29 November for 500 yen, and from 9 January to 17 March 2026 the Kannon-do opens with its 33 polychrome images for 700 yen, something that had not happened in 21 years.

• Nishi Hongan-ji: Goei-do, Amida-do and the Hiunkaku 1.5 h

  Free entry and open 5:30 to 17:00 every day of the year, which makes it perfect as a first stop on foot from Kyoto Station. The two monumental halls, the Goei-do dedicated to Shinran and the Amida-do, are visited barefoot and without paying. The Hiunkaku, a national treasure and one of the three celebrated pavilions of Kyoto, is not normally seen: in 2026 only the exterior opens, from 20 January to 14 March, within the Kyo no Fuyu no Tabi. In that same period there is a monk-led guided tour of the Shoin for 3,000 yen, which does require advance booking online.

• Nishijin Textile Center 1.5 h

  Heart of Nishijin brocade, with 1,200 years of history: hand looms at work, kimono shows and a workshop where you weave a piece of your own. A necessary caveat: the Nishijin Textile Center is above all a shop with a kimono show. For looms and the real process there is Orinasu-kan, and for the merchant's house, Tondaya; both have their own entries.

• Okera Mairi, the year-end fire at Yasaka 1.5 h only 31 Dec - 1 Jan

  Fixed date: the night of 31 December. The Joya-sai starts at 19:00 and the distribution of the sacred fire runs from roughly 19:30 until 5:00 on 1 January, when the Okera-sai proper is held. You buy a plaited bamboo rope (kicho-nawa) at the shrine office or at the stalls, light it from the lanterns in the grounds and carry it home swinging it so it does not go out; that ember lights the fire for the New Year zoni. It is the busiest night of the year in Higashiyama and there is crowd control at the gates; public transport is saturated and there are special services. It is worth confirming the price of the rope and whether the transport operator allows you to board with it lit.

• Okochi Sanso villa and garden 1.5 h

  A two-hectare strolling garden that the silent film actor Denjiro Okochi built over 30 years on the slope of Mount Ogura, right where the Arashiyama bamboo forest ends. Admission 1,000 yen with matcha and a sweet included, served in the tea house at the end of the route. A good 45 minutes are needed. It is the direct antidote to the crowds in the bamboo: most people get as far as the fence and turn back. The view over the Hozu and Mount Hiei from the upper part of the circuit is among the best in Arashiyama.

• Raku Museum and the bowls of the Raku family 1 h

  The museum of the family that since the 16th century has made raku tea bowls by hand, without a wheel, the bowls Sen no Rikyu turned into the standard of chanoyu, in the same workshop house it has always occupied next to Nijo. Open 10:00 to 16:30 with last admission at 16:00, and no booking needed. Closed Mondays except public holidays and, this is the important part, closed completely during the changeover periods between the four annual exhibitions, so there are whole weeks when it cannot be entered. The price varies by exhibition. It runs a programme called Tangible Museum in which some pieces from the collection may be picked up and held.

• Sanjusangendo and its 1,000 Kannon 1.5 h

  120 metres of wooden hall with 1,001 gilded Kannon statues lined up, carved in the 12th and 13th centuries: one of the most striking sights in Japan.

• Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, the protected slopes of Higashiyama 1.5 h

  The two cobbled slopes climbing towards Kiyomizu-dera are an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings and are packed with late Edo and Meiji machiya turned into shops. They are public streets and are not covered by the April 2024 ban on entering the private alleys of Gion, but they are a strict tobacco control zone under the municipal ordinance, with a fine, and they sit at the epicentre of Kyoto's overcrowding problem: between 10:00 and 16:00 the flow is continuous and you walk in single file. They are worth it first thing, before 8:00. The surface is uneven stone and turns slippery in rain; a local superstition holds that falling on Sannenzaka brings three years of bad luck.

• Sanzen-in and the Ojo Gokuraku-in of Ohara 1.5 h Ohara · 60 min

  The monzeki temple that anchors the Ohara valley, with the Yusei-en moss garden and the warabe jizo, small stone figures hidden in the moss that people hunt for as a game. The Ojo Gokuraku-in hall holds a 12th-century Amida triad with the two attendant figures kneeling, an uncommon posture. The existing entry for the Ohara valley does not distinguish Sanzen-in from Hosen-in and the two should be separate, because the experience differs and each charges its own admission. I could not verify the current price or opening hours in this session: confirm at sanzenin.or.jp before planning.

• Sento Kuyo at Adashino Nenbutsu-ji 1.5 h only the last Saturday and Sunday of August

  Note that the date has changed: for decades it was fixed on 23 and 24 August and it is now held on the last Saturday and Sunday of August, which in 2026 were the 29th and 30th. Reception from 17:30 to 20:30, start at 18:00 and gates closing at 21:00. Visitors themselves light candles before the eight thousand stone stelae and buddhas that gather the nameless remains from the old Adashino charnel ground. A contribution of 1,000 yen from secondary school age; primary school children and younger enter free when accompanied. It is at the top of Sagano, beyond Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, and the last bus down is early: plan the return before going up.

• Sento Palace and its Kobori Enshu gardens 1.5 h booking

  The retirement residence of the abdicated emperors, inside the same Gyoen park as the Imperial Palace but with the opposite rules: entry only on a guided tour with an advance application. It is free, lasts about 60 minutes and there are five tours a day (9:30, 11:00, 13:30, 14:30, 15:30), in Japanese only, with a capacity of 50 people per tour and 250 a day. Under-18s are barred, with no exception for babies. The online application opens on the 1st of the month three months ahead and closes three days before; if demand exceeds places, they go to a draw. Another 50 places a day (10 per tour) are held for same-day entry, handed out first come, first served from 8:40 at the gate, with photo ID. Closed Mondays, from 28 December to 4 January and on days with official ceremonies. A caveat on access: the sources consulted do not agree on whether applications are settled first come, first served or by lottery. An advance application is needed and there is a same-day allocation of places; confirm this.

• Setsubun at Yasaka with the four hanamachi 1.5 h only 2-3 Feb

  Fixed dates: 2 and 3 February at Yasaka Jinja. On the 2nd from 13:00 to 15:00 and on the 3rd from 11:00 to 15:00, geiko and maiko from four of the five districts dance on the stage in the precinct and then throw the beans. It is the cheapest and surest chance of the year to see maiko dance with no ticket and no middleman, which is why the front row fills up an hour beforehand. Access is free; the bags of beans and charms run from about 250 to 2,500 yen. Check each year which district performs in each slot, because they rotate.

• Setsubun at Yoshida Jinja 2 h only the eve, the day and the day after Setsubun

  Fixed dates: 2, 3 and 4 February. On the 2nd there is the Ekijin-sai in the morning and the Tsuina-shiki at 18:00, the Heian courtly version of the rite, with the masked Hoso-shi chasing three demons, blue, red and yellow, and firing a peachwood arrow. On the 3rd the Karo-sai burns the old amulets at 23:00 on an enormous pyre. The 4th is the post-festival, at 9:30, and by then the stalls are gone. The food stalls, which local sources put at around 800, are only set up on the 2nd and 3rd; the figure of half a million visitors that gets repeated is not confirmed by any official source. Amulets cost around 1,000 yen. The climb starts from the Kyodai-Seimon stop, 5 minutes on foot, and the precinct is on a slope and in the dark.

• Shimogamo Jinja and the Tadasu no Mori forest 1.5 h

  Free and open 6:30 to 17:00 every day, which makes it one of the best first stops of the day in Kyoto. Tadasu no Mori is 12 hectares of primary forest inside the city, with more than 40 tree species and specimens up to 600 years old, crossed by streams: the walk from the south entrance to the honden takes 20 minutes and is half the visit. In July the Mitarashi Matsuri is held, in which people wade barefoot into the cold water of the stream to ask for health. The Aoi Matsuri of 15 May, which is already in the catalogue, stops here before going on to Kamigamo, and on 12 May there is an earlier procession, the Mikage Matsuri.

• Shisendo, the retreat of the poet Ishikawa Jozan 3 h booking

  Two gardens 10 minutes' walk from each other on the Ichijoji hillside. The Shisendo, the retreat of the poet Jozan Ishikawa, costs 700 yen for adults, 500 for senior high school and 300 for primary and junior high, opens 9:00 to 17:00 with tickets sold until 16:45 and closes a single day a year, 23 May, for the founder's anniversary; that is where the original bamboo shishiodoshi that sets the rhythm of the garden stands. Enko-ji, with the Jugyu-no-niwa garden, applies dated and timed booking in autumn to spread out the crowds: from 10 November to 10 December, 8:00 to 17:00, 1,500 yen for adults and 800 for schoolchildren, with booking open from 20 October and the option of booking on the day if there is space left. Outside autumn Enko-ji requires no booking.

• Shojin ryori at Shigetsu, inside Tenryu-ji 1.5 h booking

  Tenryu-ji's own restaurant, within the grounds and looking onto the Sogenchi garden. Three set menus: Yuki 3,800 yen (one soup, five dishes), Tsuki 6,500 (six) and Hana 9,000 (seven). Note: admission to the garden, 500 yen, is paid separately and is compulsory; and cards are not accepted. Lunchtime only, from 11:00 to 14:00, closed Thursdays. Yuki is booked 2 days ahead; Tsuki and Hana require a minimum of 2 people and 3 days. It fits well on the same day as the bamboo grove, which is at the temple's north exit.

• Shugakuin Imperial Villa and its three hillside gardens 2.5 h booking

  Three villas stepped up the slope of Mount Hiei, built for Emperor Go-Mizunoo in the mid-17th century, with the Yokuryuchi pond at the top and genuinely farmed rice fields in between. Admission is free but only on a pre-booked guided tour: it lasts around 80 minutes, the walk covers about 3 km with slopes, and there are 50 places per tour and 250 a day. Over-18s only. Tours at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 13:30 and 15:00 (in July and August these are cut to 9:00, 10:00 and 15:00) and in Japanese only. Applications online from the 1st of the month three months ahead until three days before, with a lottery if demand exceeds the places; 10 places a day are left for same-day allocation from 8:40 at the entrance. Closed Mondays, 28 December to 4 January and on days with ceremonies. A caveat on access: the sources consulted disagree on whether the online application is settled first come, first served or by lottery. A prior application is required and there is a same-day allocation of places; confirm on the Imperial Household Agency website.

• Special opening of Ginkaku-ji's Hondo and Togudo 1 h booking only spring (March-May) and autumn (October-December)

  From 1 October to 7 December 2026 Jisho-ji opens the Hondo, the Togudo and the Rokuseitei on a guided tour of about 30 minutes, six tours a day (10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:30, 14:30 and 15:30). It costs 2,000 yen on top of the 1,000 yen grounds admission and includes a commemorative souvenir. Registration is done on the day by signing the sheet placed in front of the Hondo, there is no online booking and groups of seven or more are not accepted. Photography and filming are prohibited, and socks must be worn. This is where the fusuma by Yosa Buson and Ike no Taiga are, and the Dojinsai, the four-and-a-half-tatami room regarded as the origin of the tea room.

• Special opening of Kyoto's non-public cultural properties 4 h only late April to mid-May and late October to early November

  A campaign by the Kyoto Ancient Culture Preservation Association that opens buildings and images normally not shown, in spring and in autumn. The spring 2026 round runs from 25 April to 10 May with reception from 9:00 to 16:00 and costs 1,000 yen per site, 500 yen from lower to upper secondary school and free for accompanied primary school children. The fourteen sites include Kamigamo, Shimogamo, the Sanmon and the Ryogin-an of Tofuku-ji, Fushimi Inari, Rozan-ji, Chion-in, the To-ji pagoda, Manpuku-ji and several houses and temples in Uji such as Hojo-in, Eshin-in and Kosho-ji. No individual booking is needed; groups of fifteen or more must give notice on 075-451-3313. The dates and the list change each season, so check kobunka.com before counting on it.

• Spring illuminations and cherry trees at night 2 h

  From mid-March to early May several temples in the east open at night to coincide with the cherry blossom: Kodai-ji keeps a night opening from mid-March to early May, and Kiyomizu-dera, Shoren-in, To-ji and the Gion Shirakawa canal do the same in the short flowering window. Important notice: the Higashiyama Hanatoro, which was the great March lantern route through this neighbourhood, no longer exists, and neither does the Arashiyama one, so any guide that mentions them is out of date. The exact dates are published each year at the end of February, depending on the blossom forecast, and the fees run to around 500 to 1,000 yen per temple. Confirm them before organising the evening.

• The Daitoku-ji subtemples that open only a few weeks 2 h only openings in autumn and winter; they change

  This is where the good part of Daitoku-ji is, and almost nobody plans for it. In 2026 Korin-in opens from 6 to 21 September for 800 yen, Obai-in from 9 October to 6 December for 1,000 yen (800 yen when Kyoto Shunju runs it, with reception from 10:00 to 15:30) and Soken-in from 10 October to 30 November for 800 yen. In winter, from 9 January to 18 March 2026, two open for the first time: the Kyozo beside the Hatto with Kano Tanyu's dragon, and the Daiko-in subtemple, the funerary temple of Toyotomi Hidenaga, which had not opened in four years. Shinju-an and Juko-in appear far more sporadically and Juko-in has cost as much as 2,000 yen. No individual booking is needed, but the dates change every year and must be checked.

• The dawn service at Chion-in 1 h

  The jinjo horyo, which people in Kyoto call o-asaji, is held every day at 6:30 in the Mieido of Chion-in, lasts around an hour and is open to the general public, not only to guests, and is free. It is real liturgy, not a tourist demonstration: incense, hyoshigi and hundreds of monks. The start time can shift with the liturgical calendar, so it has to be confirmed the day before. It works well as the first activity of the day before Higashiyama fills up, and it combines with a walk through Maruyama.

• The Kamo delta at Demachiyanagi 1.5 h

  The point where the Takano and the Kamo meet, next to Demachiyanagi station, is the open-air living room of Kyoto's students: grass, konbini beer and the stepping stones shaped like turtles and birds for crossing the water in hops. Free, always open. The stones go under and become dangerous when the flow rises after rain, and on those days there are signs telling people not to cross. The herons and the black kites are part of the place: the kites steal food out of your hand, so it is unwise to eat with your arm raised. Opposite, under the Demachi arcade, are the market and the old-town mochi shops.

• The Omuro cherries of Ninna-ji, the last in Kyoto 1.5 h only late blossom, mid-April

  The Omuro-zakura are low cherry trees, about 2 or 3 metres tall, that flower between a week and 10 days later than the rest of Kyoto: they are the city's last chance for hanami. During the Omuro Hana Matsuri the precinct, free the rest of the year, charges 800 yen for adults, free up to high school age and 720 yen for groups of 15 or more; the takings go to conserving the trees. The dates depend on each year's blossom and are announced at short notice, so check the official website in March. This is the place where the five-storey pagoda appears behind the flowering crowns, which is why it fills up by mid-morning.

• The permanently open subtemples of Daitoku-ji 2.5 h

  Daitoku-ji is a walled precinct with more than 20 subtemples and only a few open daily: Daisen-in 500 yen adults and 300 yen children, 9:00 to 17:00 from March to November and until 16:30 in winter; Ryogen-in 400 yen adults, 300 yen high school and 200 yen up to junior high, 9:00 to 16:20; Zuiho-in 400 yen adults and 300 yen school pupils, 9:00 to 17:00 and no closing days. The bonsai garden at Hoshun-in costs 1,000 yen and opens 10:00 to 16:00, and Unrin-in, outside the precinct, is free. Warning: Koto-in, the subtemple with the maple avenue that appears in every photograph, has been closed for years with no reopening date and was still closed and fenced off in January 2026. The central buildings (Sanmon, Butsuden, Hatto, Hojo) are not normally open.

• The real cherry and maple calendar for Kyoto 3 h

  Figures from the Kyoto meteorological observatory, not approximations. For somei-yoshino the 1991-2020 average is first bloom on 26 March and full bloom on 4 April; in 2026 it ran early, on 23 and 30 March. Worth knowing that the 1971-2000 averages were 31 March and 7 April: the shift of almost a week in 50 years is real and older guidebooks run late. For maple, the full colour date for iroha-kaede at the city-centre observatory is 1 December and for ginkgo 21 November, but that is the date when the reference tree is fully red in the middle of the centre: the good moment in the outlying gardens and at altitude (Takao, Ohara, Kurama) falls between 10 and 25 November, and in the centre between 20 November and 5 December. The weeping cherries at the Gyoen and at Heian Jingu run a week ahead of somei-yoshino, and the yae-zakura at Ninna-ji one or two weeks behind.

• Yabusame Shinji in the Tadasu forest 2.5 h only 3 May

  Fixed date: 3 May at Shimogamo Jinja, as a rite preceding the Aoi Matsuri. Mounted archers at full gallop shoot at three targets along a track some four hundred metres long inside the primeval forest of Tadasu no Mori. General access is free but the fence line is taken up well in advance; there is paid seating whose price and sales system I have not been able to verify. The usual time for the run is early afternoon: worth confirming with the shrine, because the morning programme is ceremonial only.

• Yudofu and yuba around Nanzen-ji 1.5 h

  Tofu simmered in kombu broth is the dish associated with Nanzen-ji ever since the monks ate it here. Important operational warning: Okutan Nanzen-ji, the house most quoted in the guidebooks, has been under prolonged temporary closure since 2025 and its Tabelog listing is marked as status unknown; do not assume it is open without calling. The safe alternative is Nanzenji Junsei, open, the Hana course from 3,300 yen, 11:00 to 14:30 and 17:00 to 19:00, closed Wednesdays, takes cards and does not accept table-only bookings. The other Okutan house, the one at Kiyomizu, is running: closed Thursdays, cash only, raised its prices on 1 October 2025 and takes bookings a month ahead. Junsei also serves yuba.

• A Kyoto Hannaryz match in the B.League 3 h booking

  The city's basketball club plays the 2026-27 season split between two halls: the Nissin Denki Arena Kyoto, which is the municipal gymnasium, and the Shimazu Arena Kyoto, the prefectural gymnasium. Tickets are bought on the official B.League platform and you have to open a new account on the sales system; sales start at 18:00 on each announced date. Club members get a presale with a 10% discount on the base price according to seat category, and from the general sale onwards dynamic pricing applies, meaning the same seat goes up if the match draws interest. The regular season runs from October to May.

• A neighbourhood sento route in Kyoto 1.5 h

  The bath price is regulated by the prefecture and rose on 1 April 2025 to 550 yen for adults, 200 for children aged 6 to 11 and 100 for under-6s; there is nothing to negotiate, it is the same everywhere. A relevant point for anyone with tattoos: Kyoto is among the most permissive Japanese cities in its public baths, with 69 of 93 listed establishments confirmed as tattoo-friendly, among them Funaoka Onsen and Umeyu. Even so, some places only admit you if the tattoo is covered with a patch or a rashguard, so each one has to be checked. The public bathhouse law does not allow refusal on the grounds of a tattoo alone, but in practice each house decides.

• A Nishijin machiya at the Tondaya house 1.5 h booking

  A Nishijin kimono merchant's house open as a living museum, where the workings of a textile merchant's machiya are explained from the inside: the tooriniwa, the seasonal changing of the furniture, the role of the inner garden. The visit lasts from half an hour to two hours depending on what is booked and is offered in English every day, but the visit cannot be booked on its own: at least one module has to be added, tea ceremony, dressing in a silk kimono or Kyoto food. Bring socks or buy them there, because nobody goes in barefoot. Cancelling with less than two working days' notice costs 50 per cent and on the day itself 100 per cent.

• Adashino Nenbutsu-ji and the eight thousand nameless dead 1 h

  500 yen for adults and 400 yen for students, from 9:00 to 16:30 with last entry at 16:00 and an earlier close at 15:30 from December to February. Some eight thousand gravestones and stupas gathered from the surrounding area are grouped in a terraced, moss-covered field called Sai-no-Kawara: they are the graves of poor people buried nameless in this area, which for centuries was Kyoto's place for abandoning corpses. Behind the grounds there is a bamboo path far quieter than the one in Arashiyama. The Sento Kuyo, the ceremony in which candles are lit before each stone, is held on 29 and 30 August 2026, from 18:00 to 21:00 with reception until 20:30, for 1,000 yen and with no booking.

• Aoi Matsuri 3 h only 15 May

  On 15 May a procession of the Heian-period imperial court, with ox carts and costumes of the time, crosses the city to the Kamo shrines.

• Arashiyama Toro Nagashi on Okuribi night 2 h only 16 Aug

  Fixed date: 16 August, at nightfall, on the Oi at the Togetsukyo bridge. Lanterns are released onto the water to see off the dead, and from the same bank you watch the Torii-gata light up, one of the five bonfires of the Gozan no Okuribi. It is the way to combine the okuribi with something more than looking at a mountain from a distance, but it means giving up the big Daimonji, which is seen from the east of the city; the two on the same night do not work. The bridge is closed or pedestrian traffic is controlled, and the trains back are packed. Worth confirming each year where the lanterns are released and whether a donation is charged.

• Borrowed scenery from Mount Hiei: Entsu-ji and Shoden-ji 3 h

  The two purest exercises in shakkei in Kyoto, both in the north and both almost empty. Entsu-ji, the former villa of Emperor Gomizunoo, charges 500 yen from high school age and 300 for primary and junior high, opens 10:00 to 16:30 from 1 April to 30 November and until 16:00 the rest of the year, and closes on days with services; its flat garden, designated a Place of Scenic Beauty in 1954, uses a hedge of 50 species to frame Mount Hiei. Shoden-ji, in Nishigamo, costs 400 yen from high school age, 300 junior high and 200 children, 9:00 to 17:00, and works the same trick with clipped azaleas in groups of seven, five and three against a white wall; the ceiling of its hondo is a chitenjo, boards from Fushimi Castle bearing the stains of the warriors who killed themselves there in 1600. Both are reached only by city bus, with a quarter of an hour on foot from the stop.

• Braiding kumihimo in English 2 h booking

  Kumihimo is the braided cord that ties the obi, the sword scabbard and the lacquer box. At DOMYO Kyoto (330-1 Benzaiten-cho, 5 or 6 minutes from Shijo or Karasuma, next to Daimaru) there is a course taught entirely in English, for beginners, lasting an hour and a half to two hours and costing 8,800 yen including tax: braiding is done with professional tools and 100 per cent silk, the thread colour is your choice, and the result is a keyring, a bracelet or a seasonal accessory. Maximum 8 people per session. Booking goes through the calendar on their form and you must arrive 10 minutes early or you miss the historical part. Same-day cancellation is charged in full. Alternative in Nishijin: Adachi Kumihimo-kan (Kamigyo-ku) lets you learn braiding by prior booking only, but I could not confirm the price or the language.

• Carving a wooden Jizo with a Buddhist sculptor in Yase 6 h booking Yase · 30 min

  A Buddhist image carving workshop with the sculptor Noda Kodo in Yase, north of Sakyo-ku, near Ruriko-in and Renge-ji. It lasts 360 minutes, is private for between 1 and 5 people, includes an English-speaking guide and costs from about 314 dollars per person. You start from a roughed-out block and work the head, shoulders and face of a palm-sized Warabe Jizo with chisels, and take it away with you. No previous experience is needed. The principle of ittosanrai, one cut and three prayers, is also taught. A Kyoto bento can be added by booking it beforehand. It is a booking request subject to host confirmation and cancellation is free up to 11 days before. It is a full day: nothing else fits that day.

• Climbing Mount Atago and the Atago shrine 6 h Sagano-Atago · 60 min

  924 m, the highest mountain within the Kyoto city boundary. The classic Omote-sando route starts at Kiyotaki: 8.6 km there and back, about 5 hours 15 minutes of walking and 904 m of cumulative ascent, almost all of it steps. At the top is Atago-jinja, the source of the fire-protection amulet that hangs in almost every kitchen in Kyoto. In winter the path ices over and light crampons or chains are essential. There is no water or food on the way up, and the bus back from Kiyotaki is Kyoto Bus line 94 to Arashiyama. On the night of 31 July to 1 August the Sennichi-mairi is held, when climbing counts as a thousand days of visits, and the mountain fills with people in the small hours.

• Daikichiyama viewpoint in Uji 1.5 h Uji · 25 min

  A 131 m hill above Uji, also called Buttokusan. The climb starts from the Sawarabi path, next to Ujigami shrine, and takes about 20 minutes on a wide, gentle track; 40 to 60 minutes there and back. Free and open with no set hours. From the viewpoint you see the Uji river, the island of Nakanoshima and the roof of the Byodo-in. It is one of the recognisable settings of the series Hibike! Euphonium, which is why there are people climbing up at sunset; coming down in the dark without a torch is a bad idea because the path is unlit.

• Day bathing at Arashiyama Onsen Fufu no Yu 1.5 h

  A day-use-only hot spring bath one minute from Hankyu Arashiyama station, useful for closing an Arashiyama day without changing area. Simple alkaline water. It opens at 12:00 and closes at 21:30 with last admission at 21:00, with no fixed closing day although it has occasional seasonal closures. Adults 1,000 yen on weekdays and 1,200 at weekends and on public holidays; children 600 and infants 300. Towel hire 200 yen; shampoo and body wash included. It has a rotenburo, a silk bath, a sauna and a steam sauna for women only, plus a tatami room with some 1,200 volumes of manga. It has no accommodation and no private bath. The tattoo policy is not published: worth confirming.

• Demachi Masugata shotengai 1.5 h

  A short neighbourhood shopping arcade in Kamigyo, north of the Kamo delta: greengrocer, katsuobushi shop, butchers, second-hand bookshops, yakitori, ramen and even a Palestinian kitchen. There are no souvenir shops and no tourist queues here; it is the honest version of what Nishiki once was. It houses the independent cinema Demachiza. It holds a Tanabata night market in July, an autumn festival in October and mochitsuki in winter. Hours are set by each shop, so on a Monday mid-afternoon it can be half shut. It became known to Japanese audiences as the setting of the anime Tamako Market.

• Enko-ji, the garden with compulsory booking in autumn 1 h booking

  Out of season it costs 800 yen and opens from 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, every day. But at the maple peak, which in 2025 ran from 10 November to 10 December, it switches to requiring an online booking and admission rises to 1,500 yen: without a booking you do not get in, and this catches a lot of people by surprise. It has a pond garden with many maples and a suikinkutsu, a buried jar that makes the dripping water resonate. Behind it there is a rise with views over the city. Tokugawa Ieyasu founded it in 1601 as a school.

• Fukuda Art Museum in Arashiyama 1.5 h

  Some 1,500 works of Japanese painting from the Edo period to modern times, with Maruyama Okyo, Yosa Buson, Yokoyama Taikan and Takehisa Yumeji, in a new building at the foot of the Togetsukyo bridge with one of the best views of the Katsura river in all of Arashiyama. Open 10:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, closed on display changeover days and at New Year, not on a fixed day of the week, so check the calendar. It costs 1,500 yen general and university students, 900 yen high school and 500 yen primary and junior high. There is a combined ticket with the Saga Arashiyama Museum of Arts and Culture for 2,300 yen. The cafe and the shop are inside the paying area.

• Fushimi Sake Brewery District 2.5 h

  20 sake breweries beside the canals in the south of the city, with a museum, tastings and a boat ride among wooden warehouses. The Fushimi union takes in 22 breweries. To avoid a chain of separate visits, the Ginjo Shubo Aburacho tasting bar gathers 80 to 90 ginjo and daiginjo from 19 of them in a single place.

• Gio-ji, the moss garden of Sagano 0.75 h

  A tiny thatched hermitage at the far end of Sagano, with a carpet of moss under maples that is the no-paperwork alternative to Saiho-ji. Entry 500 yen adults and 100 from primary to high school, 9:00 to 16:30 with last admission at 16:50. There is a combined ticket with Daikaku-ji for 1,000 yen instead of the 1,300 the two come to separately, but it is not valid for the Osawa pond area of Daikaku-ji. It is 25 minutes on foot from Saga or Arashiyama stations. The moss looks best in the June rainy season and on damp days in November; in a dry August it turns brown.

• Gion Corner: seven arts in an hour 1 h

  A condensed anthology of kyogen, maiko dance, tea ceremony, koto, gagaku, ikebana and bunraku puppetry, with subtitles. It is explicitly a format made for visitors rather than a repertory performance, but it works well as a first approach when you know none of the seven.

• Gion Matsuri 4 h only 1-31 Jul

  One of the three great festivals of Japan, held in July by Yasaka shrine with parades of yamaboko floats through central Kyoto. It has two halves, not one: the Saki Matsuri on 17 July with 23 floats and the Ato Matsuri on the 24th with 11, plus the Hanagasa Junko on the 24th and the Eki-jinja Nagoshi-sai on the 31st that closes the month. The paid grandstands on Oike-dori are allocated first by draw (27 April to 6 May in 2026) and then by open sale from 1 June: about 10,000 seats on the 17th and 4,000 on the 24th, at 6,000 to 8,000 yen for general seating. It goes ahead in the rain and there is no refund; parasols, tripods and flash are banned. To board a float you must pay or buy that float's chimaki, and on the Naginata-hoko women may not climb onto the body of the float.

• Gojozaka pottery fair 2.5 h only 7-10 Aug

  From 7 to 10 August, every year and from 9:00 to 23:00, Gojo street between Kawabata and Higashioji fills with hundreds of stalls run by potters and shops; it has been going since 1920 and is one of the largest pottery fairs in Japan. Kyo-yaki and kiyomizu-yaki are sold at fair prices and pieces with minor flaws go heavily discounted, along with work by young ceramicists. It coincides with Obon, when families visit the graves of Higashiyama, so the area is especially busy. Nearest station: Kiyomizu-Gojo (Keihan). Walking the whole line of stalls takes about 10 minutes one way. It is very hot and humid on those days: late afternoon is better.

• Hand-printed karakami paper 1.5 h booking

  A house founded in 1624, the last still printing paper decorated with woodblocks for sliding doors and folding screens; you can print a sheet of your own.

• Heian Jingu and the Shin'en garden 1.5 h

  Important operational notice: the shrine has been under phased repainting and seismic reinforcement works since the summer of 2024 and will be until the 2030 financial year, with part of the buildings under scaffolding; visiting the precinct and the garden is still possible, but photographs of the Daigokuden may come out with structure on top. The precinct is free and what you pay for is the Shin'en, the strolling garden of some 30,000 hectares of landscaped ground with ponds and the covered Taihei-kaku bridge, at about 600 yen. On 19 September 2026 the garden opens free. The 24-metre torii on the avenue dates from 1929 and is not the shrine's original entrance; the shrine was founded in 1895 for the 1,100th anniversary of the transfer of the capital.

• Higashi Hongan-ji and the Shosei-en garden 2 h

  Free, from 5:50 to 17:30 from March to October and from 6:20 to 16:30 from November to February, with no closing days. Its Goei-do is one of the largest wooden structures in the world and is 5 minutes' walk from Kyoto station, so it works as a filler for a morning with a midday train. The Shosei-en garden is 10 minutes' walk away and does charge, 700 yen, from 9:00 to 17:00 and until 16:00 from November to February, with last admission half an hour before. From 9 January to 18 March 2026 there is a monk-led guided tour of the halls and the bell tower, with paintings by Takeuchi Seiho, for 2,700 yen and with compulsory booking.

• Historic Funaoka sento 1.5 h

  A public bath from 1923 with carved wooden panels and majolica tiles; Kyoto still has more than 100 neighbourhood sento in operation and this is the finest.

• Hiwatari Matsuri, walking on embers at Tanukidani 2.5 h only the fourth Saturday of July

  Movable date: the fourth Saturday in July, at 19:00, at Tanukidani-san Fudo-in, on the Ichijoji hillside. It is the saito goma at its most spectacular: a pyre of cypress branches and, once only embers are left, some twenty yamabushi cross it barefoot, after which the public goes through guided by them, around a thousand people each year. Evening admission costs 1,000 yen against the 500 of normal hours from 10:00 to 15:00, and includes one tenugui per person; the hiwatari tablet is paid for separately. You have to climb some 250 steps from the Ichijoji Sagarimatsu-cho bus stop and come down in the dark. If you are going to take your shoes off, do not wear synthetic socks.

• Hosomi Museum of ancient Japanese art 1.5 h

  A private collection of more than a thousand pieces, from the Yayoi to the Edo period: haniwa, Buddhist sculpture, tea utensils, lacquer and textiles, with two outstanding Important Cultural Properties, the screen of blossom viewing at Yoshino and the image of Aizen Myoo. Open from 10:00 to 18:00 and closed Mondays, with admission around 1,400 yen depending on the exhibition. It rotates the display four or five times a year, so what is on view changes completely; the building, by Oe Masasuke, is conceived as a modern machiya with a central courtyard, a rooftop garden and a tea room where matcha is sometimes served. It is in Okazaki, a few minutes from the Kyocera museum.

• Hot spring baths in the Ohara valley 2 h booking Ohara · 60 min

  Ohara has its own thermal water and three small guesthouses that open the bath to people not staying the night: Ohara no Sato, Ohara Sanso (which is the source spring) and the Seryo. These are minshuku and ryokan with few rooms, not resorts: day-bath capacity is small, there are time slots and in maple season it is worth calling first; several require a booking for the day bath. It combines well with an afternoon at Sanzen-in and Hosen-in, ten minutes' walk away. The advantage over Kurama is that Ohara is closer to the centre by bus and the bath can be strung together with dinner. Exact prices and hours vary from house to house: confirm them directly, because they change with the season.

• Hotcakes at Smart Coffee, 1932 1 h

  It opened in 1932 on Teramachi as Smart Lunch, a Western restaurant, and became a coffee shop after the war; it is now on its third generation. The hotcakes cost 750 yen and are made with the same batter as ever, prepared by the owner in person. Open 8:00 to 19:00 (last order 18:30) with no fixed closing day; the first-floor dining room, with a Western lunch menu from 11:00 to 14:30, does close on Tuesdays. Coffee roasted in house and filtered through cloth. One minute from Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae metro station.

• Izusen at Daiji-in, shojin in monks' bowls 1.5 h

  Inside the Daitoku-ji precinct, in the Daiji-in subtemple, since 1963. It serves teppatsu ryori: the food arrives in stacked red lacquer bowls that imitate the begging bowls of the monks, and they are uncovered one by one. Ayame menu 4,500, Yuri 5,500 and Botan 6,500 yen. From 11:00 to 16:00 (last order), open all year except 28 to 31 December. Booking is only required from 6 people upwards; with fewer you can walk straight in, which is unusual in places of this kind. Large capacity, 160 covers, so it is not an intimate experience. Their own website warns that some of the dishes in the photographs are no longer served.

• Jidai Matsuri, the parade of the eras 3 h only 22 Oct

  On 22 October, 2,000 people parade in costumes covering 1,200 years of Japanese history, era by era. 22 October is also the date of the Kurama no Hi Matsuri, which begins when this one ends. Stringing the two together on the same day means a trip out to Kurama and long queues on the way back.

• Joya no Kane at Chion-in 2 h only 31 Dec

  Fixed date: the night of 31 December. The Chion-in bell, one of the three great bells of Japan, is struck 108 times and each strike takes seventeen monks: one hanging face up from the main beam setting the rhythm and sixteen pulling on the ropes. It is a physical spectacle, not only an aural one. Access to the bell enclosure is controlled by capacity and there is a long queue from several hours beforehand; many temples in the city, including Mibu-dera from 23:40, instead let the public ring the bell. It is worth confirming Chion-in's entry system, which has changed in recent years.

• June fireflies in Kyoto 2 h only late May to mid-June

  The genji-botaru appears in Kyoto from late May to mid-June, peaking in the second week of June on humid, windless nights from 20:00 onwards. There are two ways to see them: the open streams (the canal along the Philosopher's Path, the Kiyotaki at Takao, the Kibunegawa) and the organised events, which the city website lists each year. In 2026 these included Konkai Komyo-ji from 23 May to 14 June, the Hotaribi tea ceremony at Shimogamo shrine on 13 June, Daigo-ji on 30 May and Shozan Resort on 6 and 7 June and from 12 to 14 June. It all depends on the weather and events are cancelled without notice. No torches and no flash, and do not catch them: the species is in retreat because of the channelling of the streams.

• Kamigamo Jinja and the sand cones 1.5 h

  The older of the two Kamo shrines and, outside the Aoi Matsuri, one of the World Heritage sites in Kyoto that the tourist circuit ignores completely. Its signature are the tatesuna, two perfect cones of white sand in the courtyard that represent the sacred mountain. Around it survives the district of priests' houses, the shake-machi, with its water channels, which is a walk in itself. Its own calendar includes the Kamo Kyokusui no En on 13 April, a poetry ceremony in the Heian manner for around 1,000 yen, and the Kamo Kurabe Uma on 5 May, horse races that start at 14:00. Entry to the precinct is free; the honden has a paid visit with its own hours, worth confirming.

• Kamishichiken, the oldest geisha district 1.5 h

  The oldest of the five hanamachi of Kyoto, born beside the Kitano Tenmangu shrine and far less trodden than Gion: you walk it without the tourist pressure or the access bans of the southern Gion district. The accessible highlight is the beer garden at the Kamishichiken Kaburenjo theatre, which runs from 1 July to 5 September, 17:30 to 22:00, in five two-hour sittings, with closures on Sundays and some days in August; the entry set with beer and a snack costs 2,500 yen and you can talk with geiko and maiko in an informal setting. Booking by telephone, in Japanese, is recommended, though they take walk-ins if there is room. Confirm the dates each year.

• Kangetsu no Yube, the autumn moon on Osawa pond 2 h only the full moon of the 8th lunar month

  Moveable date: three nights around the full moon of the eighth lunar month, in mid-September. At Daikaku-ji the boats with dragon and phoenix prows, from which the Heian court watched the reflected moon, are taken out onto Osawa pond, and there is music and tea. Shimogamo, Kamigamo and Yasaka hold simpler versions on the same night. Boarding at Daikaku-ji is paid and sells out; I have not been able to verify the price or whether advance booking is required for the current edition, so confirm with the temple in August.

• Kifune Jinja, the shrine of water 1 h Kibune · 50 min

  The shrine of the water deity at the far end of the Kibune valley, with the flight of steps lined with red lanterns that is the image of the whole north of Kyoto. Its distinctive feature is the mizuura mikuji, blank fortune papers that reveal their text only when dipped in the sacred spring. In November the lanterns are lit up: in 2025 this ran from 7 to 24 November, from dusk until 21:00, at no cost beyond the train. I could not verify the opening hours or the price of the mikuji: confirm them. The existing kurama_kibune entry covers the traverse but mentions neither the summer kawadoko nor this shrine separately.

• Kitano Tenmangu: plum trees, maples and the god of exams 1.5 h

  The precinct is free, 7:00 to 17:00 every day. The two gardens are paid for separately: the one with almost 2,000 plum trees opens from early February to late March, and the maple garden on Hideyoshi's Odoi embankment runs from late October to early December, 9:00 to 20:00 with last entry at 19:40 and 1,200 yen, lit up after dark. The price the consulted source gives for the plum garden, 3,000 yen, is anomalously high and worth confirming. The Tenjin-san market on the 25th of each month, from 7:00 until dusk, is already covered in the existing mercadillos_templo entry, so this activity focuses on the gardens.

• Kiyomizu-yaki Pottery Wheel 2 h booking

  The kiln district that has supplied the slope up to Kiyomizu-dera for four centuries, with workshops open for throwing and glazing. The city's ceramic circuit does not end at the wheel: the Gojozaka-Chawanzaka slope concentrates workshops and the free Kondo Yuzo museum, and from 7 to 10 August the pottery fair is held there.

• Kozan-ji, the Sekisui-in and the first manga in Japan 1.5 h Takao · 60 min

  A World Heritage site founded in 774, open 8:30 to 17:00. The grounds are free and what you pay for is seeing the Sekisui-in and the Choju Jinbutsu Giga scroll, the Heian-period animal satire called the first manga in Japan: the source consulted quotes 1,000 yen to see it and a 500 yen fee in the autumn season, without making clear whether the two add up; confirm at the ticket desk. The scroll on display is a reproduction, the originals are split between national museums. The tea plantation, considered the oldest in Japan, has also been recovered and can be visited. Ten minutes' walk away is Saimyo-ji, 500 yen, 9:00 to 17:00 with entry until 16:30, with the red Shigetsukyo bridge over the river.

• Kurama to Kibune Hike 4 h

  An hour of trail over Mount Kurama among roots and small shrines, from the mountain temple to Kifune shrine, north of the city. Three things usually left out: in summer the Kibune kawadoko platforms operate over the stream, from 1 May to 30 September; Kurama Onsen was shut from 2021 to October 2024 and reopened on 1 November 2024, so older guides are no use; and on 22 October the Kurama no Hi Matsuri clashes with the Jidai Matsuri in the city, so stringing the two together on the same day is a risk, not a recommendation.

• Kyoto Art Theater Shunjuza 3 h booking

  The theatre of the Kyoto University of the Arts, in Kitashirakawa, with a stage equipped for kabuki, hanamichi included, and a small hall, studio21, for experimental work. An unusual programming mix: kabuki, noh, rakugo and contemporary theatre in the same season. In autumn 2026 it has kabuki by Ichikawa Danko from 16 to 18 October, rakugo on 23 October, a forum on the sarugaku archive on 3 October and Kyoto Experiment performances on 10 and 11 October; it also marks its 25th anniversary with a lecture series from 30 September. Box office on 075-791-8240, weekdays 10:00 to 17:00. It offers a childcare service and accessibility adjustments. It is a long way from the centre, reached by bus.

• Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art 2 h

  A 1933 building with an 'imperial crown' roof, reopened in 2020 after a renovation that added a glass facade sunk below street level. The building is part of the visit, which is rare among Kyoto museums: it keeps the imperial frontage of 1933 and gained the glazed Higashiyama Cube wing in the refurbishment by Aoki Jun and Nishizawa Tezzo with which it reopened in 2020.

• Kyoto City Science Centre for Youth and its planetarium 3 h

  A municipal science museum in Fushimi, aimed at schoolchildren but solid. Admission 520 yen for adults, 200 for lower and upper secondary and 100 for primary, and the planetarium costs the same again separately; schoolchildren registered as residents of Kyoto enter free at weekends. Open 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, closed Thursdays (or the next working day if the Thursday is a public holiday) and from 28 December to 3 January, although during school holidays it opens on Thursdays. It has an animatronic tyrannosaurus that talks, a globe showing environmental data, a collision laboratory using billiards equipment and a butterfly greenhouse. The planetarium is narrated live, in Japanese. Fujinomori station on the Keihan line, seven minutes on foot.

• Kyoto Experiment, international performing arts festival 3 h booking only three weeks between late September and October

  A festival of experimental performing arts that takes over the city for three weeks in autumn: the 2026 edition runs from 3 to 25 October, under the motto of carrying a pebble in your pocket. Venues spread between the Rohm Theatre Kyoto, the Kyoto Art Center, the Shunjuza and THEATRE E9 Kyoto, among others. The programme is divided into Shows, with international work, Kansai Studies, research on the region, and Super Knowledge for the Future, talks and workshops. Bilingual website and many pieces with no language barrier or with surtitles, but check piece by piece. I have not been able to verify prices or whether there is a festival pass: they are in the ticket section of kyoto-ex.jp.

• Kyoto Imperial Park and the Shusui-tei tea house 1.5 h

  The grounds of 1.3 km by 0.7 km surrounding the Imperial Palace are a free national park, open at all hours, on the site of the residences of the court nobility until 1869. Inside, two specific things can be visited: the Shusui-tei tea house, open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9:30 to 15:15 for 300 yen, and the storehouse and exhibition room of the Kaninnomiya residence, free, 9:00 to 16:00 all year except Mondays that are not public holidays and the end of the year. Drones, bicycles on the grass and feeding the animals are banned. The plum trees and the ito-zakura cherries of Konoe-tei flower earlier than the rest of the city.

• Kyoto International Manga Museum 2.5 h

  A former school of 1869 with 300,000 volumes on open shelves: take whatever you like and read it sitting on the lawn.

• Kyoto Isshu Trail, Nishiyama section 6 h

  12 km from Kiyotaki to Kamikatsura passing Toriimoto, Otagi Nenbutsu-ji, Nison-in, Arashiyama, Mount Matsuo and Jojū-ji, and ending beside the moss temple Saiho-ji. The stretch along the Kiyotaki river is flat and suitable for families. The full circuit is five courses (Higashiyama, Kitayama East, Kitayama West, Nishiyama and Keihoku) and about 132.7 km in total: 84 km for the main ring plus 48.7 km for the Keihoku branch. Current warnings: bears have been seen in the area and there are points where it is easy to lose the path near marker 6, at the Rokuchodoge pass.

• Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design 1.5 h

  A free museum gathering Kyoto's 74 recognised crafts under one roof, with live demonstrations by artisans.

• Kyoto Railway Museum 3 h

  More than 50 trains, from steam locomotives to the first shinkansen, with a working steam roundhouse and a ride on a real train.

• Making wagashi at Kanshundo 1.5 h booking

  At the east shop of Kanshundo (511-1 Chayamachi, Higashiyama-ku, 5 minutes from Kiyomizu-Gojo or Shichijo) you make four different sweets —raw sugar, uiro, nerikiri and kurikinton— in one or two hours, and at the end you eat your own with matcha. Ages 5 to 100 admitted, apron included, minimum 2 people. Booking must be made before 14:59 the previous day and there is a penalty for cancelling from one day ahead. The price varies with the date, so check it when booking. Explanation in English is not confirmed: if you do not speak Japanese, ask when booking.

• Manga, figures and video games in Teramachi and Shinkyogoku 2.5 h

  Kyoto's equivalent of Akihabara fits into a few blocks between Teramachi-Kyogoku, Shinkyogoku and Kawaramachi: Animate Kyoto, Mandarake, second-hand and retro video game shops, and arcades above the covered shopping streets. It is an afternoon circuit; almost everything opens around 11:00 and closes between 20:00 and 21:00. Notice: the Kyoani & Do Shop, the physical store of Kyoto Animation, has closed; the brand now sells only online and through partner shops and sets up occasional temporary stands, so if anything listed it as open, it no longer is. The Kyoto International Manga Museum, already in the catalogue, is 15 minutes away on foot and is the natural complement.

• Manshu-in Monzeki and shoin architecture 1 h

  800 yen, from 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, open all year. Its two halls, the Daishoin and the Koshoin, are among the best preserved early examples of shoin architecture, with rooms named after their paintings: the peacock room, the tiger room, the dusk room. The dry garden has a pine of some four hundred years clipped into the shape of a crane. The maples on the outer wall and by the east gate are what brings people here in late November. It is fifteen to twenty minutes on foot from Shugakuin station on the Eizan line, or bus number 5 from Kyoto station to Ichijoji Shimizucho, about fifty minutes and 230 yen.

• Meiji and Taisho architecture walk along Sanjo-dori 1.5 h

  Between Kawaramachi and Karasuma, Sanjo-dori holds the city's best group of Western-influenced architecture and almost all the buildings are still in use, so entry is free. The former Kyoto branch of the Bank of Japan (1906, Tatsuno Kingo and Nagano Uheiji) is now the annexe of the Museum of Kyoto. The Nakagyo post office (1902) was the first case of facade preservation in Japan and still works as a post office. The 1928 Building (Takeda Goichi, formerly the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun) now houses the theatre and galleries of Art Complex 1928. The SACRA building (around 1916, formerly the Fudo Savings Bank) has shops and a bar. The Yabetoku watchmaker's, from 1890, is now a fashion shop. The whole thing takes a good hour and costs nothing.

• Menbaka's fire ramen 1 h

  A soy negi ramen buried under Kyoto kujo spring onion, over which the cook pours boiling spring-onion oil that goes up in a half-metre flame in front of the counter. It is not a gimmick: the fire chars the onion and reheats the broth that the raw heap of it had just cooled. The shop, Menbaka Ichidai, opened in 1984 north of Nijo Castle and added the fire around 1985, after trying hot stones, a griddle and a blowtorch. Twenty seats, all at the counter; you get a paper bib, the rules are explained with illustrated cards, and the staff film the moment with your own phone, because you are not allowed to hold it yourself. Without a booking there is a queue. The price has climbed fast — 950 yen in 2009, 1,350 in 2019 — and in 2026 it is around 3,300 yen, although the booking page quotes 4,800 for walk-ins: worth checking first.

• Mifune Matsuri, the Heian court on the Oi 2 h only the third Sunday of May

  Movable date: the third Sunday in May, on the Oi river upstream of the Togetsukyo bridge, organised by Kurumazaki shrine. In 2026 it was held on 17 May, from roughly 13:00 to 14:15. Boats with dragon and phoenix prows re-enact the river pastimes of the Heian court: gagaku music, poetry and the throwing of fans onto the water. It is watched free from the two banks, which is where the crowds pack in; boarding is for participants only. It shares the stage with Arashiyama's high season, so the riverside fills up from mid-morning.

• Mimuroto-ji, Uji's hydrangea temple 1.5 h Uji · 30 min

  A hillside temple east of Uji, known for its thousands of hydrangeas in June, azaleas in May and lotuses in July, and for being one of the stations on the Kannon pilgrimage circuit of western Japan. I could not verify its admission price, opening hours or the exact dates of the hydrangea night opening in this session, so it is worth confirming all of it on the official website before scheduling it. If you combine it with Byodo-in on the same day, allow twenty minutes by bus or taxi between the two; it is not a comfortable walk. Warning: in hydrangea season it is one of the busiest places in Uji and the car park gets gridlocked.

• Monthly Temple Markets at To-ji and Kitano 2.5 h

  On the 21st at To-ji and the 25th at Kitano Tenmangu, more than 1,000 stalls of antiques, second-hand kimono, ceramics and food fill the grounds. The third one is missing here: the Hyakumanben Chion-ji craft market, on the 15th of every month. And worth knowing, the December editions (Shimai Kobo on the 21st and Shimai Tenjin on the 25th) and the January ones (Hatsu Kobo and Hatsu Tenjin) are much larger than those of the rest of the year.

• Mount Daimonji Climb 2 h

  45 minutes of climbing from Ginkaku-ji up to the giant character '大' that is burned in August, with the best free panorama of the city. Daimonji is the only one of the five Okuribi mountains with normal access. The Torii-gata on Mount Mandara is expressly off limits by order of the owner and signposted no entry, and Hidari-Daimonji is reached only from the Kinugasa side because the route up from Kinkaku-ji is closed. Climbing the others is not an alternative: it is walking onto someone else's property.

• Museum of Kyoto and the old Bank of Japan annexe 2 h

  The prefectural museum tells 1,200 years of the city and has an Edo-era shopping street rebuilt at full scale (Roji Tenpo) with working restaurants and shops inside. The general exhibition opens 10:00 to 19:30 (last entry 19:00) and costs 500 yen for adults, 400 for university students and is free up to senior high school; the special exhibitions close at 18:00 except on Fridays. Closed Mondays (Tuesday if the Monday is a public holiday) and from 27 December to 3 January. The annexe is the former Kyoto branch of the Bank of Japan, built in brick in 1906 by Tatsuno Kingo and Nagano Uheiji, designated an Important Cultural Property, and entry is free: there is a cafe installed in the vault. On the third floor there is a cinema that screens the prefectural film archive.

• National high school ekiden championship, the Miyakooji 5 h only the Sunday around 20 December

  Japan's most important high school relay race is run in Kyoto on a Sunday in late December, starting and finishing at Takebishi Stadium Kyoto, the athletics stadium in Nishikyogoku park, on a course along the central avenues that is what is known as the Miyakooji. The women's race starts around 10:05 and the men's around 12:15, broadcast on NHK. Watching from the street is free and nothing has to be booked, but there are major road closures on Nishioji, Karasuma and Imadegawa all morning and the buses are diverted. The 2026 edition should fall on the Sunday around 20 December: confirm the exact date with the Japan Association of Athletics Federations.

• Nintendo Museum (Uji) 3 h booking lottery

  Opened in October 2024 in a former company factory in Uji, 20 minutes from Kyoto: from 19th-century hanafuda cards to the Switch. Admission is assigned by draw well in advance. It is not a booking: it is a monthly LOTTERY. Applications open three months before the month of the visit and the result is published on the 1st of the following month; a Nintendo account is required, payment is by credit card only, and photo ID is checked at the door, a passport for foreign visitors. Photography is not allowed in the exhibition rooms of building 1. If places are left over after the draw, tickets are sold on a first-come basis.

• Nishiki Market 1.5 h

  Covered street almost 400 metres long with stalls of pickles, sweets and local produce. Rule to know before going in: the traders' association asks explicitly that you do not eat while walking, but in front of or inside the stall where you buy, and return the rubbish there; this is not a city ordinance, it is the market's own rule. It runs about 400 metres with more than 130 stalls, and narrows to stretches 3 metres wide. General hours 9:00 to 18:00; the peak is 11:30 to 15:00 and the good window is weekdays from 9:00 to 10:30. Suitcases are not to be brought in. Aritsugu, the knife shop, is at the eastern end of the market itself.

• Noh at the Kongo Nohgakudo 3 h booking

  The seat of the Kongo school, the only one of the five shite schools based in Kyoto, at Karasuma Nakadachiuri opposite the Imperial Palace. It programmes the Kongo Teiki Noh on a monthly basis. Operational warning: the building was under refurbishment from May to August 2026 and resumed activity with the performance of 13 September 2026, so it is worth confirming this season's calendar before buying. The office is open from 10:00 to 17:00, closed Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays with no performance. It accepts group and school visits. I have not been able to verify the teiki noh prices: worth confirming by telephone on 075-441-7222.

• Noh at the Kyoto Kanze Kaikan 4 h booking

  Noh theatre of the Kanze school in Okazaki, a step away from Heian Jingu and the Kyocera museum. It programmes the Kyoto Kanze Kai Reikai about 10 times a year, 5 in the first half and 5 in the second, plus the big annual Kyoto Kanze Noh, whose 68th edition falls on 25 October 2026. Numbered advance seat 9,000 yen; unreserved seat 7,000 booked in advance and 7,500 on the day. There are annual passes at 50,000 yen for 10 performances and at 85,000 with a fixed seat all year. In July it programmes Omoshiro Nohgakukan, a session designed for beginners. A reikai performance takes half a day and carries no subtitles: without preparation beforehand it feels very long.

• Ohara Valley 4 h

  An hour north, a mountain valley with garden temples such as Sanzen-in and Hosen-in where the only sound is water striking bamboo. Sanzen-in and Hosen-in have separate entries and charge separate admission: they are not the same place and one does not stand in for the other. The valley also has hot spring baths.

• One-day kintsugi, with real lacquer or simplified 2 h booking

  An important warning before choosing: there are two very different kintsugi, the authentic one with urushi (natural lacquer, which can cause an allergic skin reaction and needs weeks of drying) and the simplified one with resin, finished within the session. Four Kyoto workshops offer it in two hours. POJ Studio, 7 minutes from Kiyomizu-Gojo, 16,000 yen, authentic urushi only, online booking and service in English. Kintsugi Kobo kulukulu, 1 minute from Nijojo-mae, 8,900 yen, both methods, online booking and service in English. Shikata Kizo Urushi-ten, 7 minutes from Karasuma, 7,800 yen with coffee included, both methods, but no service in English. Urujyu, in Nantan (outside the city), 22,100 yen, urushi only, booked by email or telephone and with no English stated.

• Orinasu-kan, Nishijin away from the textile centre 1.5 h

  The serious alternative to the Nishijin Textile Center, which is mostly shop and catwalk: Orinasu-kan is a restored wooden workshop in the middle of the Nishijin neighbourhood where you see real looms, the whole process from choosing the material to the pattern, and a collection of noh theatre costumes. Open 10:00 to 15:30, closed on Mondays that are not public holidays; admission is around 1,000 yen. It is 10 to 20 minutes on foot from Imadegawa station (Karasuma line), which leaves it off the usual circuit and explains why it is quiet. The annexe building, Susamei-sha, displays finished kimono. An hour and a half covers it.

• Otagi Nenbutsu-ji and its twelve hundred rakan 1 h

  It is 15 minutes uphill from Adashino Nenbutsu-ji, at the end of the preserved street of Saga-Toriimoto, and it is the last stop before the asphalt turns into a mountain road. The 1,200 rakan figures that cover the slope are not old: they were carved by ordinary people, amateurs with no training, during the 1980s, and that is why each one has a face of its own, with rakan laughing, playing instruments or holding a cat. It is one of the few places in Arashiyama where you can be alone in the middle of the morning. The exact admission price and opening hours are worth confirming, because the source consulted only describes the place.

• Painting a kyo-sensu fan in a machiya from 1913 1.5 h booking

  Workshop at Ohnishi Tsune Shoten, a fan house founded in 1913, inside a machiya more than 150 years old. It lasts 95 minutes, is private for 1 to 6 people and is led by an English-speaking host, so no Japanese is needed. It includes a tour of the house, an explanation of the history and etiquette of the sensu, painting a fan with the gold already printed by Tanaka Kinsai Kogei (no drawing skill required), matcha with a seasonal sweet and a gift case. From around 152 dollars per person. Booking is required; cancellation is free up to 8 days ahead. Cheaper alternative with no compulsory booking: the Kyoto Handicraft Center paints fans for 3,850 yen in about 90 minutes.

• Philosopher's Path 2 h

  Canal-side path lined with cherry trees, linking several temples between Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji. Two points to note: Nanzen-in, the pond garden at the southern end, is closed for works until spring 2027. And the canal is one of the city's firefly spots in the first half of June, at dusk.

• Ritsumeikan University Museum for Peace 2 h

  The first university peace museum in the world and one of the few Japanese museums that tackles Japanese aggression in Asia head on, not only Japan's own suffering: it covers the Fifteen Years' War, colonialism and the bombings. It opens 9:30 to 16:30 with last entry at 16:00 and costs 400 yen for adults, 300 for junior and senior high school and 200 for primary; the library is free. Watch out for the closures: it shuts on Sundays (unless one falls on a public holiday), at New Year and at the end of March for the change of university financial year, exactly the opposite of almost every museum in the city. It is next to Ritsumeikan, on the west side, 5 minutes' walk from the Ritsumeikan Daigaku-mae stop. I did not verify the level of signage in English.

• Rokudo Mairi, calling the dead with the bell 1 h only 7-10 Aug

  Fixed dates: 7 to 10 August, from 6:00 to 22:00, at Rokudo Chinno-ji, on the Matsubara slope on the way to Kiyomizu. This was believed to be the boundary between this world and the next, and over those four days the people of Kyoto come to strike the mukae-gane, the bell that calls the spirits of the ancestors for Obon, and take away a koyamaki branch to lead them home. The name of the deceased is written on a water tablet that is then purified. It is a domestic rite, not a spectacle: people queue in silence. Special Obon goshuin stamps between 800 and 1,200 yen. The temple also accepts requests by post and online.

• Rokuyosha, the basement that turns into a bar at night 1.5 h

  Opened in 1950 in a basement near Kawaramachi-Sanjo; the coffee shop later moved up to the ground floor and the basement became a bar, and since the mid-1980s it has roasted its own coffee down there. The underground room works as a coffee shop from 12:00 to 17:00 and as a cafe-bar from 17:00 to 23:00, closed Wednesdays; the blend is 600 yen. Its home-made doughnut is the order of the house. The ground floor opens from 8:30 and allows smoking in the afternoon, something ever rarer in Kyoto. Three generations of the same family; the man in charge of the basement is also a singer-songwriter.

• Ruriko-in in Yase, the reflection on the table 1.5 h booking Yase · 30 min only openings in April-May, July-August and October-December

  It only opens for special spring, summer and autumn openings; the rest of the year it is closed to the public. The autumn 2026 opening is announced from 1 October to 13 December, 2,000 yen adults, 1,000 junior high and high school and free for primary. Hours 9:00 to 17:00 on a normal visit and until 18:00 in the booked slots. Part of the period runs on compulsory advance booking and part does not, and which is which changes every year: check the temple website before going. It is 5 minutes from Yase-Hieizanguchi station on the Eizan line and has no car park. The famous image is the reflection of the maples on the lacquered table on the second floor; at the peak of November there is a queue for that one spot.

• Ryozen Museum of Bakumatsu History 1.5 h

  The only museum in the country devoted entirely to the Bakumatsu and the Meiji Restoration, on the Higashiyama hillside next to the graves of Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro. It shows material from both sides, supporters and enemies of the shogunate, including the sword said to have killed Ryoma, and pieces from the Shinsengumi. In 2026 it kept a Shinsengumi display running in two periods and exhibitions on Matsushita Konosuke, its founder. It has an English website but the bulk of the labels are in Japanese; confirm hours and price before going, because the site does not publish them on its English home page.

• Saiho-ji, the moss temple 2 h booking

  120 species of moss cover the garden; entry requires booking in advance and, before going through to the garden, copying a sutra with a brush. Confirm the application procedure before counting on it: the historic postcard request system has changed and the information in circulation is out of date.

• Sanga Stadium by Kyocera: guided tour and match 3 h booking Kameoka · 25 min

  A 21,600-seat stadium in Kameoka, right by the JR station, with a roof that covers every seat and juts two metres beyond the front row. The guided tour lasts about 60 minutes, goes into the changing rooms and the broadcast booth and steps onto the pitch and the dugouts: 1,200 yen adults, 1,000 yen junior high and high school, 500 yen primary and free for pre-school, gift included. There are two slots, at 10:00 and at 14:00, with about 25 places each, a minimum of 10 people for it to run and compulsory online booking; no cancellations are accepted. The following month's schedule is published on the 1st of each month. The stadium also holds the largest indoor climbing wall in Japan, a 3x3 court, an esports area, a VR area, a foot bath and a children's area, open 9:00 to 21:00 regardless of matches.

• Sanjo-kai, 800 metres of arcade without tourists 1.5 h

  A covered arcade some 800 metres long between Horikawa-Sanjo and Senbon-Sanjo, five minutes on foot from JR Nijo station. It was founded in 1914 with 72 shops and today has more than 180. Its slogan is 365 days of sunshine because the canopy makes it usable in any weather, which is no small thing in a Kyoto summer. Sanjo-kai Day falls on dates containing a 3, with promotions, and loyalty stamps at one stamp per 100 yen. It runs craft beer festivals and neighbourhood activities. It is the exact counterpoint to Nishiki: local prices, no English at most of the stalls. It is a step away from Nijo Castle.

• Sauna no Umeyu, the sento that came back 1.5 h

  A Shimogyo sento that was about to close and was rescued by Minato Sanjiro, who as a student had been round more than 700 baths. It heats the water with a thirty-year-old wood-fired boiler fed with offcuts from building sites. Open from 14:00 to 2 in the morning on weekdays, and on Saturdays and Sundays it adds a morning bath from 6:00 to 12:00; closed Thursdays. The price is regulated, 550 yen since April 2025 (you will find older listings saying 490). It has a sauna, a cold bath, a medicinal bath and a denkiburo, puts on concerts and sells merchandise. Tattoos are allowed. The predictable consequence: it is the most touristed sento in the city and there is a queue; if you are after the quiet neighbourhood sento, this is not it. 15 minutes on foot from Kyoto station.

• Sennichi Mairi, the night climb up Atago 6 h Sagano-Atago · 60 min only 31 Jul - 1 Aug

  Fixed dates: the night of 31 July to 1 August. Anyone who climbs to Atago shrine that night gains, by tradition, a thousand days of protection against fire; which is why half of Kyoto goes up with children and head torches, and the city's restaurants take the tablet home to the kitchen. The trail from Kiyotaki, in Sagano, is about four kilometres of sustained climbing with more than 900 metres of ascent, a good two hours each way, in summer heat and humidity and with the path lit only by the pilgrims' own lamps and a few tea stalls. This is not a cultural visit: it is a night mountain march. Water, your own light and mountain footwear are essential, and the last bus back from Kiyotaki governs the whole logistics. Confirm the bus times and the state of the trail, which has been affected by typhoons.

• Shimabara and the Sumiya house, the only ageya left 1.5 h booking

  Shimabara, the licensed pleasure quarter established here in 1640, stopped working as a hanamachi in the 1970s and is now a residential area with three things still standing: the Omon, the main gate; Wachigaiya, still closed to the public and only viewable from outside; and Sumiya, the only ageya surviving in Japan, a National Important Cultural Property, today the Sumiya Motenashi Culture Museum. It opens seasonally, from mid-March to mid-July and from mid-September to mid-December. The ground floor can be visited without a booking and photographs are allowed; the upper floor, with the decorated rooms, is seen only on a guided tour with a prior booking and costs extra, and no photography is allowed there. The upper floor must be booked ahead. The quarter was the domain of the tayu, distinct from the geiko, and was also the setting for Shinsengumi meetings. I could not confirm exact prices or the specific 2026 opening dates.

• Shogo-in, the head of shugendo in Kyoto 1 h

  A monzeki temple that is the seat of the Honzan branch of shugendo, the mountain asceticism of the yamabushi, and therefore the urban starting point of the pilgrimages to Omine and Kumano. It can be visited free all year round (9:30 to 16:30), though only the hall of the Fudo Myoo that presides over shugen worship. In autumn a paid special opening (800 yen) opens almost the whole temple, including fusuma of the Kano school. It is 10 minutes on foot from the Kyoto art museum and Okazaki, so it fits into an afternoon in northern Higashiyama without a detour.

• Shogunzuka Seiryuden and the viewpoint over Kyoto 1.5 h

  It is the annexe temple of Shoren-in on the mountain behind, with separate admission and separate access: it is not reached on foot from the main temple in an easy walk. It displays a replica of the Ao-Fudo, the blue Fudo Myoo that is never shown at the parent temple. It has a wooden platform over the valley that is one of the best viewpoints in the city and is usually empty. The exact price and opening hours are worth confirming, because the source consulted only states that they are separate from Shoren-in.

• Shoren-in Monzeki and its camphor trees 1 h

  600 yen, 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, no closing days. It is the antidote to the crowding of Higashiyama: you can sit on the tatami of the Kachoden facing the pond garden without being jostled. The giant camphor trees at the entrance are a natural monument and are seen free from the street. The spring and autumn night illuminations run from 18:00 to 22:00 with admission until 21:30 and cost 1,000 yen.

• Sleeping at the Wajun Kaikan at Chion-in 14 h booking

  Lodging run by Chion-in temple in the heart of Higashiyama; it is not an austere temple but a modern building with 25 Japanese-style rooms of 25 to 36 m² with their own bathroom and wifi, and some twin rooms. Rates from around 17,800 yen per person per night, for groups of 2 to 9. Guests can attend the temple's dawn service and do shakyo (sutra copying) at any hour for 1,000 yen. There are also monthly shakyo sessions on the 13th and the 23rd from 9:00 for 2,500 yen, with a talk by a monk and a vegetarian meal included. Warning: the Santei pavilion, where the 2,000 yen shakyo ran from 9:30 to 15:00, is suspended for building work; the suspension was announced until 24 July 2026, so check whether it has resumed.

• Stages of the Saigoku pilgrimage 4 h

  Six of the 33 stops on Japan's oldest Kannon pilgrimage are in Kyoto (Kiyomizu-dera, Rokkaku-do, Daigo-ji and three others), with their stamp book.

• Sugimoto House, a merchant machiya open by season 1 h

  House of the Sugimoto family, kimono merchants trading under the name Naraya, listed as an Important Cultural Property and one of the best preserved large machiya in the centre. It does not open daily: it holds themed public openings of a few weeks, generally on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, each with its own display (in 2026 there were openings from 3 to 19 April with the family's mame-ningyo dolls, from 1 to 24 May for Tango no Sekku and from 5 to 21 June). Check the calendar on their website before going, because outside those periods there is no way in. I could not verify the price or the photography rules.

• Takao kawadoko over the Kiyotaki river 3 h booking Takao · 55 min only 1 Apr - 30 Nov

  The third kawadoko area of Kyoto and the least frequented: daytime season from 1 April to 30 November and evening service from 9 May to 30 September, a much longer calendar than Kibune or the Kamo. About four establishments (Momijiya, Takao Kanko Hotel, Nishikizu-tei, Toganoya), with options from around 1,500 yen in the tea houses and full kaiseki at the top end. In June genji fireflies appear over the Kiyotaki during the evening service, and some places programme maiko and kyomai on summer weekends. Booking a week ahead is enough. Long bus ride from Kyoto station (50-60 min), which explains why it is empty.

• The black ramen of Shinpuku Saikan 1 h

  One of the two classic ramen houses of Kyoto, right by the station in Higashishiokoji: a soy broth so dark it looks like ink, though much milder in taste than that suggests. The other, Daiichi Asahi, is literally next door and the two queues cross on the pavement. Open 9:00 to 20:00 (yes, it serves ramen at nine in the morning) and closed Wednesdays. 51 seats over two floors, between counter and tables. Cash only: no cards and no electronic payment. Under 1,000 yen a bowl, and the yakimeshi, made with the same black broth, is almost always ordered as a set. Expect about 10 minutes' wait at peak times.

• The climb to Kami-Daigo, the upper part of the mountain 4 h Fushimi (Daigo) · 35 min

  The half of Daigo-ji that almost nobody does: a climb on a mountain path from the lower precinct up to the halls of Kami-Daigo, where the temple began in the 9th century. It is paid separately, 700 yen adults and 400 yen students, or 500 yen and 300 yen for anyone already holding the combined ticket; primary children free. Access to the upper part runs 9:00 to 16:00 from March to December and 9:00 to 15:00 in January and February, and the check is at the entrance to the path, not at the top, so arriving late means not going up. Wear mountain footwear and allow two to three hours there and back on top of the visit to the lower precinct.

• The Hibike! Euphonium trail through Uji 4 h Uji · 25 min

  Uji is the real setting of the Kyoto Animation series and is now the most walked anime pilgrimage in the prefecture. The core spots are concentrated along the river: the bench facing the Ikawa pumping station on the Ajirogi promenade, which appears again and again in the series, the Uji bridge, the Asagiri bridge, Ujigami shrine and the Daikichiyama viewpoint. Half a day covers about 10 spots on foot; a full day stretches to 20 including the walk to the school, and there is a long 38-point route that reaches the competition halls in the city of Kyoto. The Keihan company runs a joint campaign with the series in autumn, with decorated trains. A note on conduct: a good number of the spots are private homes, shops open for business and a religious precinct in use, and the school that inspired the one in the anime is a working school with classes in session; do not go in and do not photograph pupils.

• The incense of Kyoto: Shoyeido and Kungyokudo 1 h

  Shoyeido has been in the same premises at Karasuma Nijo, near the Imperial Palace, for more than 300 years, in a sukiya-style building to which it has added the Kunjyukan hall, connected by a corridor; it opens 9:00 to 18:00 and closes only on 1 January, and you walk in freely to smell and buy. It also has a guided factory visit, but I could not verify whether it is free or how it is booked: check with the house. Kungyokudo, next to Nishi Hongan-ji, is the oldest incense house in Japan. A warning about the nioi-bukuro (scent sachet) workshops advertised at 2,750 yen: the operator requires a minimum of 20 people, so they are no use to individual travellers; for that, the Kyoto Handicraft Center or a workshop with single places is a better bet.

• The Kyoto Station building as a destination 1.5 h

  Hara Hiroshi's building, which in 1997 set off one of the biggest planning rows in Kyoto, is an attraction in itself and all its viewpoints are free. The Grand Staircase has 171 steps and climbs 35 metres, open 6:00 to 23:00, and a light installation is projected across the treads. The Skyway is a glazed walkway 185 metres long at a height of 45 metres on the 10th floor, open 10:00 to 22:00. The rooftop terrace, Happy Terrace, is at 59.8 metres and opens 6:00 to 23:00. The north-south passage and the plaza are open 24 hours. A good plan at night or on a rainy day, and a good place to kill a long wait for a train.

• The mamemochi of Demachi Futaba 0.5 h

  A confectioner of more than a century on the corner of the Demachi shotengai, famous for its namadai mamemochi, mochi with whole red beans and salt. It opens at 8:30 and at that hour there is no queue; it closes at around 17:30 and the last hour is quiet too. The rest of the day the line goes round the corner. You can order by telephone, but only in advance: same-day orders are not accepted. The mochi has no preservatives and has to be eaten the same day. If you would rather avoid the queue, it is also sold at The CUBE in Kyoto station and in the basements of Takashimaya and Daimaru on Shijo, where it sells out in the afternoon.

• The Netsuke Museum in the last samurai house in Kyoto 1 h

  Some 400 netsuke, antique and contemporary —ivory, wood, amber, ceramic, antler— in what is presented as the only samurai residence left standing in Kyoto, listed as a Tangible Cultural Property, next to Mibu-dera. The netsuke was the counterweight that fastened to the obi the objects hung from the kimono, and it ended up as miniature sculpture. Open 10:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, closed Mondays and holiday periods, and it costs 1,000 yen for adults and 500 yen for students. Part of the display changes every month and the whole collection is renewed every three months.

• The Oni Odori of Rozan-ji 2 h only Setsubun day (2 or 3 February)

  Fixed date: 3 February. The Tsuina-shiki Oni Houraku starts at 15:00: three demons, red, blue and black, representing greed, anger and ignorance, burst dancing into the ceremony and are driven out. At 16:00 the horai beans and the lucky mochi are thrown, and at 16:30 the old amulets are burned. The blessing by the laying on of the demons' hands is given from 14:00 to 16:45 and again when the dance ends. Tripods are banned for safety and the Genji garden closes from 1 to 4 February. The special beans go on sale from 24 January in limited quantities. The courtyard is small and a capacity limit is applied.

• Toei Kyoto Studio Park 3.5 h

  A period film set still in use: you walk through Edo streets built for shooting, with ninja shows and samurai costume hire.

• Toka Ebisu, the five days of the god of commerce 1.5 h only 8-12 Jan

  Fixed dates: 8 to 12 January at Kyoto Ebisu Jinja, between Gion-Shijo and Kiyomizu-Gojo. The 8th is Shofuku-sai, closing at 23:00; the 9th is Yoi-Ebisu and the 10th Hatsu-Ebisu, open all night; the 11th is Nokori-Fuku, closing at midnight, and it is the day when geiko and maiko from Miyagawacho and Gion Higashi hand out the lucky bamboo branches, from 14:00 to 16:00 and from 20:00 to 22:00; the 12th is Teppuku-sai, closing at 22:00 with continuous kagura. The precinct is small and in those time slots you go in queuing. It is considered one of the three great Ebisu shrines of Japan.

• Traditional Kaiseki Dinner 2 h booking

  A seasonal Japanese tasting menu of several small, meticulously prepared courses.

• Traditional Tea Ceremony 1 h booking

  A hands-on introduction to matcha and the tea ritual in a traditional teahouse.

• Uji tea workshop at Fukujuen 1.5 h booking Uji · 30 min

  A workshop run by the maker Fukujuen on the banks of the Uji, with several different activities: grinding your own matcha in a stone mill and drinking it with a sweet, roasting hojicha on a ceramic plate and making a scent sachet with it, rolling sencha by hand, and Asahi-yaki pottery on the wheel at the kiln next door. It opens 10:00 to 17:00 (last order at the tea restaurant 16:00) with irregular closing days. Their own website warns that the last admission time for each workshop varies and has to be checked beforehand. Exact prices and how far in advance to book were not verified in this review: confirm them by telephone (050-3152-2930).

• Umekoji Park and Suzaku Garden 2 h

  13.7 hectares a quarter of an hour on foot from Kyoto station, open since 1995 on the former freight yard. The free part includes the lawn, the water plaza where children wade in summer and the Shichijo esplanade. Two enclosures charge admission: the Suzaku garden, a Japanese strolling garden built for the 1,200th anniversary of the capital, and the Inochi no Mori, the first reconstructed biotope in Kyoto. There is also the historic Chinchin Densha tram and an old carriage converted into a cafe. Inside the park are the Kyoto Aquarium and the Railway Museum, already in the catalogue, so it works as a base for a full day with children. Opening hours and prices for the paying enclosures vary from one to another: they need confirming.

• Yasaka Jinja, the shrine open all night 0.5 h

  Free and open 24 hours, with no closing days, which makes it the only place of worship in Kyoto that can be visited late. The real visit lasts between 10 and 20 minutes: the dance stage ringed by hundreds of lanterns paid for by neighbourhood businesses, lit at dusk, is what justifies coming at night. This is the shrine the Gion Matsuri sets out from in July and it adjoins Maruyama park, one of the most crowded hanami spots in the city in early April. It chains well with the walk down from Kiyomizu-dera through the lanes of Higashiyama, 20 to 30 minutes.

• Yasurai Matsuri, the red-haired demons of Imamiya 2 h only the second Sunday of April

  Movable date: the second Sunday in April, at Imamiya Jinja, north of Kyoto next to Daitoku-ji. A rite for driving out epidemics in which troupes with huge red manes dance and beat drums through the neighbourhood; anyone who passes under the flowered parasol is protected for a year. It is one of the oldest and least touristed festivals in the city. I have not been able to verify the times of the 2027 procession: worth confirming with the shrine.

• Yuzen dyeing workshop 2 h booking

  Yuzen is the printing technique that made Kyoto kimono famous; at several workshops you stencil-dye a piece of silk to keep.

• Zazen and Tea Ceremony in English at Shunko-in 2 h booking

  A Zen sub-temple within the Myoshin-ji complex that offers foreign visitors an English-guided experience with zazen meditation, a short talk, a tea ceremony, and a tour of the temple — check available dates on its website.

• Zuiki Matsuri, the vegetable palanquin of Kitano 2 h only 1-5 Oct

  Fixed dates: 1 to 5 October at Kitano Tenmangu. On the 1st the Shinko-sai sets out, reaching the otabisho at Nishinokyo at 16:00, with the dance of the eight maidens; on the 2nd there is a tea offering at 10:00; on the 3rd, offerings at 15:00; on the 4th the Kanko-sai returns, leaving at 13:00 and reaching the shrine at 17:00. What gives the festival its name is the mikoshi built entirely from zuiki stalks, that is taro, plus other vegetables and seeds, assembled by hand each year by the neighbourhood and displayed at the otabisho from the 1st to the 4th. It is free and has almost no tourists. The building of the palanquin can be watched on the preceding days.

• Arashiyama Momiji Matsuri 2 h only the second Sunday of November

  Moveable date: the second Sunday in November, although the 2026 edition was spread over two days, the 7th and the 8th, from 11:30 to 17:00. Themed boats, of court music, of imayo poetry and of dance, parade upstream of the Togetsukyo while arts linked to Arashiyama are performed. It can be watched free from the bank; it is cancelled if it rains, with no postponement. It falls right at the peak of red leaves, so Arashiyama is at the limit of its capacity that weekend and it is best to arrive before 10:00 or watch from the south bank, which is less crowded.

• Craft workshops at the Kyoto Handicraft Center 1.5 h

  The option for anyone who does not want to book months ahead or pay for a private workshop: the Okazaki centre (17 Shogoin Entomi-cho, Sakyo-ku, third floor of the east building, 5 minutes from the Kyocera Museum stop) runs short workshops with the full explanation in English. Painting a dorei clay bell costs 2,420 yen and takes 45 to 60 minutes, from age 4; painting a Kyoto fan costs 3,850 yen and takes about 90 minutes, from age 6. Only 4 places per session, in 14:00 and 16:00 slots. Booking online is recommended and bookings take priority, but walk-ins are accepted if there is room. Cancellations must be given before 19:00 the previous day or the full 100 per cent is charged. Workshop calendars change by season, so check them.

• Dressing an ichimatsu doll with a kyo-ningyo master 5 h booking

  Kyoto is the origin of the Japanese court doll and of the hina-ningyo. This workshop with the master Kaho lasts a full day of four to five hours, includes a guide who translates into English, a studio visit, a tea session and a question-and-answer turn, and ends with an ichimatsu doll you dress yourself with kimono, obi, obiage and obijime, which you take home; international shipping is arranged separately. Small groups. The exact location is given when the booking is confirmed. I could not verify the price or the minimum notice: ask through the form.

• Fushimi Momoyama Castle and the tomb of Emperor Meiji 2 h

  A plain warning before going: the keep you see is a 1964 concrete replica, never the real castle, and its interior closed to the public in 2003; only the outer grounds can be entered, reopened in 2007, and it is photographed from outside. The real castle was raised by Toyotomi Hideyoshi between 1592 and 1594 as a retirement palace with 20,000 or 30,000 labourers, destroyed by the Keicho-Fushimi earthquake of 1596, rebuilt, and in 1600 its 2,000 defenders held out for eleven days against the siege by Ishida Mitsunari's 40,000 men before their collective suicide: those bloodstained boards became the famous blood ceilings of five Kyoto temples. It was dismantled in 1623 and on the original site the mausoleum of Emperor Meiji was built in 1912, which can be visited and stands next door. It is worth confirming the grounds' opening hours.

• Gyoki Daie and the giant rosary of Hyakumanben 1.5 h only 23-25 Apr

  From 23 to 25 April at Hyakumanben Chion-ji, next to Kyoto University. The central act is the dainenju-kuri: those present sit in a circle and together turn a rosary of 1,080 beads, about 100 metres long and some 320 kilos, while the nenbutsu is chanted. This is the temple that gives the crossroads its name and the very origin of the rite. Every three years the procession of the 25 bodhisattvas is added. I have not been able to verify whether the general public may join the circle at the Gyoki Daie or whether there is a charge: confirm it. The temple also shortens the rosary for regular sessions outside those dates.

• Hanezu Odori at Zuishin-in 2 h only the last Sunday of March

  Movable date: the last Sunday in March (in 2026 it fell on 29 March; the next edition would be 28 March 2027, worth confirming). Four performances a day, at 11:00, 12:30, 13:30 and 15:00, at the Yamashina temple associated with the poet Ono no Komachi. Girls dressed in hanezu, the old pale pink, act out the legend of the hundred nights of the courtier Fukakusa no Shosho. The single 1,000 yen ticket covers the temple, the late plum garden and the performance. It is far from the centre, on the Tozai subway line.

• Insho Domoto Museum, a building designed by the painter himself 1.5 h

  Domoto Insho, a Kyoto painter of the Taisho and Showa eras, designed the entire building himself, outside and in, and opened it in 1966; the result is a rarity, artist-authored architecture in a city where that barely exists. His motto was that true tradition consists of breaking with tradition. Open 9:30 to 17:00 with last admission half an hour before, closed on Mondays that are not public holidays, from 28 December to 4 January and sometimes between installations. It costs 580 yen for adults, 450 for high school and university students, 290 for over-65s and free up to junior high age. It is in Kita-ku next to Ritsumeikan, and combines with Kinkaku-ji and the peace museum.

• Iwatayama Monkey Park 1.5 h

  A troop of around 120 Japanese macaques living free on Mount Iwata, above Arashiyama. It is not a zoo: the animals come and go from the forest and there are no cages; the one shut in is the visitor, inside a hut where food is passed out through the mesh. Admission 800 yen from high school age and 400 yen from age 4 to junior high, 9:00 to 16:00, with irregular closures. The walk up is 1.45 km with 160 m of ascent, no wheelchair access and no accessible toilet. The troop has been under continuous scientific study since 1948, with some 115 researchers and 60 years of individual records of kinship and date of birth, which makes it one of the best documented primate populations in the world. The uncomfortable part, also documented: concentrated feeding multiplies aggression between individuals (one study measured 12 to 17 times more aggressive interactions in the feeding area than in the forest), shrinks the home range and has helped reduce the available forest to about 70 hectares, less than a seventh of the original. Food is given five times a day at two-hour intervals and only the feed bought on site may be used. Do not touch the animals, do not look them in the eye and do not take food outside the hut.

• Kondo Yuzo Museum on the slope of the teacups 0.75 h

  A small free museum devoted to Kondo Yuzo (1902-1985), Living National Treasure of sometsuke, cobalt blue underglaze porcelain, set up on the same plot on Chawanzaka where he was born and worked. Open 11:00 to 18:00, closed Wednesdays; admission is free. It stands halfway up the Gojozaka-Chawanzaka slope, the old potters' street climbing towards Kiyomizu-dera, so it fits into the same walk as the Sannenzaka area without paying anything. They also authenticate works by Kondo, always in person.

• Kyoto Aquarium 2 h

  In the same park as the railway museum, with Japanese giant salamanders from the Kamo river, seals and penguins. NOTICE: the dolphin shows have been suspended since August 2022 and still are; what runs instead are play and feeding programmes, and part of the stadium is closed to the public.

• Kyoto Art Center, the converted Meirin school 1 h

  Meirin primary school, founded in 1869 as one of the first neighbourhood schools in Japan, closed in 1993 and reopened in 2000 as a contemporary art centre, keeping the early Showa building: classrooms turned into artists' studios, galleries, a library of around 5,500 volumes, the Maeda Coffee Meirin cafe in the old classroom and regular programming in the Oe Nohgakudo noh theatre. It is next to Shijo-Karasuma, right in the centre. The exhibition rooms are free to enter; the performance programme is paid. I did not verify the opening hours or the closing day.

• Kyoto by bakery, with the figures to hand 1 h

  The cliche that Kyoto is the Japanese city that eats the most bread is true but out of date: Kyoto topped the Ministry of Internal Affairs ranking for bread spending and quantity per household throughout the 2013-2020 series (in 2020, 39,078 yen and 58,118 grams per household), but in the 2022-2024 average it has fallen to third place, with 38,295 yen, behind Kobe (40,564). The habit is still there: a very high density of neighbourhood bakeries, plenty of shokupan and plenty of omelette sandwiches, and a bread breakfast in the kissaten instead of rice. It fits well as an early-morning walk around the bakeries of a residential neighbourhood before the temples open.

• Kyoto Historica International Film Festival 3 h booking only early December

  An annual festival devoted exclusively to historical cinema, Japanese and international, the only one of its kind in the country. It is held in early December at the Museum of Kyoto, the brick building in Sanjo; the 17th edition ran from 2 to 7 December 2025, so the 18th will predictably fall in December 2026. It programmes 4K restorations with live benshi, discussions with guests and an international section, and some of the activities are free. It pairs well with Toei Studio Park, because Kyoto is the birthplace of jidaigeki. Worth confirming the dates and whether the international prints carry English subtitles.

• Kyoto International Conference Centre on an open day 2 h booking

  Otani Sachio's building (1966), by a disciple of Tange Kenzo, is the great monument of Japanese Metabolism in Kyoto and where the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997. You cannot walk in whenever you like: only on occasional open days, which in 2026 were 7 and 21 June and 20 July, from 10:00 to 17:00, with each month's dates published at the start of the previous month. On those days you get into part of the ground-floor lobby of the main building, the garden, the restaurant and the NIWA Cafe. The guided tours of the restricted areas are in Japanese only, with no interpreter included, and they sell out (June and July 2026 were sold out). Outside those days only conference delegates get in.

• Kyoto Marathon 3 h booking lottery

  February road race that runs past the great temples, starting and finishing at Nishikyogoku. The race number is allocated by LOTTERY months in advance, not bought: the opposite of Kyoto Sanga football, played at Sanga Stadium in Kameoka, which has its own entry with normal ticket sales.

• Kyoto Municipal Zoo 2.5 h

  Opened in 1903, the second oldest zoo in Japan, in Okazaki park. Entry 750 yen adults and free up to junior high age; annual pass 2,200. Open 9:00 to 17:00 from March to November and until 16:30 from December to February, with last entry half an hour before; closed Mondays and from 28 December to 1 January. Around 100 species. What sets it apart is that it has its own research and learning centre and works with Kyoto University on the cognition of gorillas and Asian elephants, with a group of young elephants brought from Laos. Even so it is a city zoo on a small site, and anyone with misgivings about keeping large mammals in captivity would do well to know that before going in.

• Kyoto Ramen Koji, ten ramen on one floor 1 h

  A ramen corridor on the 10th floor of the station building, south of the Grand Staircase, with 10 places from different regions: Hokkaido miso, Yamagata wonton, Toyama black, Hakata tonkotsu, Kyoto tsukemen, and one vegan and gluten-free (UNO RAMEN), which is unusual in Japanese ramen. Open 11:00 to 22:00, last order at 21:30. Between 880 and 2,400 yen a bowl. Tables cannot be booked and each place has its own queue; it takes cards, IC and QR codes, unlike the historic houses in the city. Wheelchair accessible, with children's chairs and tableware.

• Kyoto Tower 1 h

  The white tower of 1964 opposite the station, which in its day set off a public row over whether Kyoto could allow itself a building like that; today it is officially called Nidec Kyoto Tower after its sponsor. The observation deck is at 100 metres and opens 10:00 to 21:00 with last entry at 20:30. It costs 900 yen for adults, 700 yen high school, 600 yen primary and junior high and 200 yen from age 3 upwards. It is the only point from which the city's grid can be taken in at a glance and the Daimonji mountains picked out. In the basement and on the ground floor is Kyoto Tower Sando, with a market, food stalls and workshops.

• Kyoto University Museum 1.5 h

  A university museum with three permanent sections: natural history, cultural heritage and the history of technology, built on the university's own research collections. Admission 400 yen general and 300 yen university students; free for under-18s and over-70s. 9:30 to 16:30 with last entry at 16:00. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays all year, plus 28 December to 4 January, 18 June for the founding anniversary and one day in August. Photographs without flash are allowed, but no video, no tripod, no selfie stick and no eating inside. There is no car park; the Hyakumanben bus stop is two minutes away, Demachiyanagi a quarter of an hour on foot.

• Lake Biwa Canal Museum 1 h

  A municipal museum next to Nanzen-ji explaining the most ambitious piece of engineering in Meiji-era Kyoto: the canal that saved the city after the capital moved to Tokyo, fed Japan's first commercial hydroelectric plant and the country's first electric tram. Open 9:00 to 17:00 with last admission at 16:30, closed Mondays and from 29 December to 3 January, with extra closures for weather. Address: 17 Kusagawa-cho, Nanzenji, Sakyo-ku; 7 minutes from Keage metro station on the Tozai line. It has no car park. Some sources give it as free while the official website mentions a fee: worth confirming.

• Maki-e, painting with gold powder on kyo-shikki lacquer 1.5 h booking

  A hands-on class of an hour and a half in an old lacquer shop in central Kyoto: you learn the maki-e technique, decoration with metallic powder sprinkled onto wet lacquer, applying it to a lacquered tray that you take away finished; for an extra charge you can work on pendants, boxes or frames. It is booked through a platform with an English-language page. I could not verify the exact name of the shop, the price, the minimum age or the notice required: confirm when booking. An alternative in the same field: the Kyoto Handicraft Center also programmes lacquer workshops.

• Making a tatami coaster in a 300-year-old workshop 1.5 h booking

  Genroku Tatami, founded some 300 years ago, makes tatami, fusuma and shoji and opens its workshop to visitors. Two formats: talk plus coaster plus hand stitching, 90 to 120 minutes, 9,000 yen for adults and 6,000 for ages 6 to 18; or talk plus coaster, 60 minutes, 7,000 and 5,000 yen. Start times between 10:00 and 15:00, with others on request. From 1 to 20 people, and small groups may be joined with other participants. Booking is required at least 24 hours ahead via the online form; for the same day or the next day you have to call 075-761-6315. Payment is in cash on the day of the visit. The website is entirely in English and they accept foreign visitors.

• Mibu-dera's Rokusai Nenbutsu at Obon 1.5 h only 9-16 Aug

  From 9 to 16 August Mibu-dera holds the Urabon-e with a lantern offering, a welcoming fire for the spirits and performances of rokusai nenbutsu, the drum and gong dance-percussion that is another protected folk property and has nothing to do with the silent kyogen of the same temple. It is a neighbourhood event, with little tourist presence. I have not been able to verify the exact times of the performances or whether there is a charge: worth confirming with the temple.

• Musha Shinji, ritual archery at Kamigamo 1.5 h only 16 Jan

  Fixed date: 16 January at Kamigamo Jinja. An archery ceremony to drive off evil and pray for a good harvest, far quieter than the big festivals and with free access. I have not been able to verify the exact starting time or whether there is a stand for spectators: confirm with the shrine before going.

• Nagoshi no Harae, the reed ring of late June 1 h only 30 Jun

  Fixed date: 30 June. A woven reed ring, the chinowa, is set up at Kamigamo, Yasaka, Kitano Tenmangu and many neighbourhood shrines; you walk through it in a figure of eight three times to purify the first half of the year. It is free and takes 10 minutes, but it fits well with the local custom of eating minazuki that day, the triangular sweet of mochi with red bean that Kyoto confectioners only make in June. At some shrines the ring is left up for several days beforehand: worth confirming if you cannot go on the 30th.

• National Museum of Modern Art 1.5 h

  Facing the great Heian torii: nihonga painting from the Kyoto school and one of the country's finest collections of contemporary ceramics.

• Park area at Kyoto Racecourse 3 h

  The Yodo racecourse, in Fushimi, reopened after a complete refurbishment and on 4 October 2025 unveiled a park area with Horseland, a children's area for handling horses, terraced lawns and a walkway with monuments marking the centenary of the site. On days without racing it works as a neighbourhood park; on race days it is a JRA racecourse with everything that entails, betting included, and access has its own rules that change with the day. The big fixtures here are the Kikuka-sho in October and the Shuka-sho, but the dates rotate between racecourses: check the JRA calendar for the year. Yodo station on the Keihan line is right at the gate.

• Rakugo in Kyoto, the Shimin Yose 2.5 h booking

  Kyoto has no permanent rakugo theatre as Osaka does: the circuit rests on regular sessions. The longest-running is the Shimin Yose organised by the Kyoto Art Center, in the auditorium of the former Meirin school, now at its 326th edition, with performers from the Kamigata Rakugo Kyokai. The Shunjuza and municipal halls also programme rakugo. A clear warning for visitors: rakugo is oral storytelling in the Kansai dialect and without Japanese you will not follow it; there are occasional sessions in English, but not in this series. I have not been able to verify the price or the date of the next session: confirm it on the Kyoto Art Center or Kamigata Rakugo Kyokai website.

• Seiryo-ji (Saga Shakado) and its living Buddha 1 h

  It is 10 minutes on foot north of Tenryu-ji and of the exit from the bamboo grove, and yet almost nobody who goes to Arashiyama gets this far. It holds a special opening from 1 October to 30 November 2026 for 500 yen, when the Shaka Nyorai brought from China in the 10th century can be seen, the one that on being opened in 1953 turned out to have silk organs inside. It is a natural stop for linking Arashiyama with Adashino and Otagi Nenbutsu-ji by walking up through Saga-Toriimoto. Opening hours outside the special period are worth confirming.

• Shimadzu Foundation Memorial Museum 1 h booking

  The house where Genzo Shimadzu founded, in 1875, the scientific instrument maker that produced Koichi Tanaka, Nobel laureate in Chemistry in 2002. Entry 300 yen general, 200 junior high and high school and free up to primary; groups of 20 get 20 per cent off with a booking. Open 9:30 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30. Serious warning: it closes Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, which means it only opens Monday to Friday apart from Wednesday, ruling out most weekends. They ask for a telephone booking three working days ahead. An hour is enough. It is two minutes from the city hall, exit 2 on the Tozai line.

• Shopping in the Teramachi-Shinkyogoku Arcade 1.5 h

  Covered shopping streets in the heart of the city, ranging from traditional stationery shops to souvenir stores.

• The bamboo of Kyoto at Rakusai Park 1.5 h Rakusai · 45 min

  The serious bamboo grove in Kyoto, and free, is in the south-west, not in Arashiyama: Rakusai Bamboo Park brings together a bamboo museum, an ecological garden with a great many species of bamboo and sasa, a children's play area and old stone Buddhist statues. Open 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:00, closed Wednesdays and 29 December to 3 January, and admission is free. There is a car park. From Katsura station (Hankyu) take the Nishi-3 or Nishi-8 bus to Minami Fukunishicho and walk 5 minutes, or come from Katsuragawa (JR). It is the natural stop for understanding the raw material before or after a bamboo basketry workshop.

• The Costume Museum and the Genji scenes in miniature 1 h only closed in June-July and December to early February

  Meticulous reconstructions of Heian court dress, with 1:4 scale dioramas of scenes from the Genji Monogatari and the twelve-layer juni-hitoe mounted on mannequins. It is on the fifth floor of an office building (Izutsu Samegai Building) near Nishi Hongan-ji, not in a historic building. It costs 500 yen for adults, 300 from junior high to university and 200 for primary, and opens 10:00 to 17:00. Strong operational warning: it closes on Sundays and public holidays, from 13 to 17 August, and it also closes for two whole long seasons to change the display, from 1 June to 31 July and from 1 December to 3 February. Confirm before making the trip.

• The other nenbutsu kyogen: Senbon Enma-do, Shinsen-en and Saga 2 h only April-May, late October and early November

  Besides Mibu, Kyoto keeps three other dainenbutsu kyogen traditions. The one at Shinsen-en, next to Nijo castle, is performed on 1 and 2 November from 13:00 to 17:30, is free and, having no dialogue in Japanese, can be followed with no language barrier. Those of Senbon Enma-do and of Seiryo-ji in Saga are performed in spring, but I have not been able to verify the dates of the next edition: confirm with each temple. Unlike Mibu, the Senbon Enma-do version is spoken, which makes it less accessible without Japanese.

• The other Okuribi mountains, beyond Daimonji 4 h

  Of the five bonfires of the Gozan no Okuribi, the Daimonji on Nyoigatake is the only one with normal access. The others are not equivalent and it has to be said plainly: the Toriigata on Mount Mandara, at Toriimoto, has a no-entry sign and the owner does not want visitors, so it is not proposed here. The Hidari-Daimonji on Mount Okita is climbed only from the Kinugasa side, because the route from Kinkaku-ji is closed, and it is about two and a half hours round trip to the 53 stone and concrete fire beds. Myo and Ho, on Mount Nishiyama and Mount Higashiyama at Matsugasaki, and the Funagata on Mount Funayama at Nishigamo have paths used by local hikers, poorly signposted and with no tourist upkeep. These are real mountain tracks, not strolls, and in August the bonfire areas are closed for preparations.

• Tōrin-in, the days of the sala flower 2 h only about two weeks in mid-June

  A Myoshin-ji subtemple that opens only in short runs. The main one is the Gathering to Contemplate the Sala Flower, from 11 to 24 June 2026, 9:30 to 15:00 with entry until 14:30. It costs 1,600 yen with matcha and a sweet, or 6,300 with matcha, a sweet and shojin food served in the temple itself. No booking is needed, either for the tea or for the meal. The flower of the double sala, the tree of the Buddha's final sermon, lasts a single day and falls onto the moss in the morning, which is exactly what people come to see. On 11 June the flower offering service is held.

• Ukai, cormorant fishing on the Uji river 2 h booking Uji · 25 min only 1 Jul - 30 Sep

  From 1 July to 30 September, at nightfall, on the Uji, boarding paid spectator boats. The usho, in traditional dress, handle the cormorants from the bow by the light of a fire basket. It has to be said plainly: this is fishing with birds tethered at the neck by a ring that stops them swallowing the larger catch, and there is an open animal welfare debate around the practice; anyone who would rather not take part has afternoon alternatives in Uji, such as the Byodoin or the tea route. I have not been able to verify the boarding price, the times or the booking system for the current season: confirm with the Uji tourism association, and check as well that the season has not been suspended because the river is in flood, which has happened.

• Yuka in the Shozan garden at Takagamine 2 h booking Takagamine · 35 min only 1 May - 18 Oct

  The fourth yuka of Kyoto, the one almost nobody counts: the Shozan Resort complex in Takagamine sets up platforms in its garden beside the Kamiya river from 1 May to 18 October. Kyoto official tourism lists it alongside the three classic ones. It is not over a mountain stream but inside a private garden, so the appeal is the quiet, not the cool air. Prices and menus were not verified in this review: confirm them before proposing it.

• Jizo Bon, the neighbourhood festival for the children 1 h only late August

  At the end of August, traditionally on the 23rd and 24th and increasingly moved to the nearest weekend for the families' convenience, every neighbourhood in Kyoto dresses its Jizo niche with paper lanterns bearing the children's names, puts up an awning in the street and spends the afternoon on raffles, sweets and a round of juzu-mawashi, the rosary passed from hand to hand. It is not a tourist event and is not advertised anywhere: the residents' association organises it and the visitor, at most, walks past and says hello. It is included here because it explains why awnings and lanterns appear in the alleys of Nishijin or Kamigyo in August, not as an activity to sign up for. Do not photograph the children.

• KRP Fes, open days at the Kyoto Research Park 4 h booking only late July

  The Kyoto Research Park is an R&D business park in Shimogyo, not a museum, and for the rest of the year it has nothing to offer a visitor. The exception is KRP Fes, which in 2026 was held on 24 and 25 July in the park district and online, with a technology meet-up, presentations of research results, a cybersecurity talk and science workshops for children. Times, prices and registration differ for each activity and are announced on the park website; there is no single price and no general tour. It is only worth including if the trip coincides with those dates.

What only happens on specific dates

• Going into the first floor of the To-ji pagoda openings in January-March, April-May and October-December
• Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year 1-3 Jan
• Kyo no Fuyu no Tabi: the temples that open only in winter early January to mid-March
• Okera Mairi, the year-end fire at Yasaka 31 Dec - 1 Jan
• The Daitoku-ji subtemples that open only a few weeks openings in autumn and winter; they change
• Toka Ebisu, the five days of the god of commerce 8-12 Jan
• Musha Shinji, ritual archery at Kamigamo 16 Jan
• Baikasai, open-air tea among the plum trees 25 Feb
• Mibu Kyogen, the silent theatre of Mibu-dera 2-3 February, 29 April to 5 May and the October long weekend
• Setsubun at Yasaka with the four hanamachi 2-3 Feb
• Setsubun at Yoshida Jinja the eve, the day and the day after Setsubun
• The Oni Odori of Rozan-ji Setsubun day (2 or 3 February)
• The Costume Museum and the Genji scenes in miniature closed in June-July and December to early February
• Sagano scenic train through the Hozu gorge 1 Mar - 29 Dec
• Kitano Odori, the dance of Kamishichiken late March to early April
• Special opening of Ginkaku-ji's Hondo and Togudo spring (March-May) and autumn (October-December)
• Hanezu Odori at Zuishin-in the last Sunday of March
• Miyako Odori, the spring dance of the geiko 1-30 Apr
• Kyo Odori, the dance of Miyagawacho the first half of April
• Special opening of Kyoto's non-public cultural properties late April to mid-May and late October to early November
• The Omuro cherries of Ninna-ji, the last in Kyoto late blossom, mid-April
• Ruriko-in in Yase, the reflection on the table openings in April-May, July-August and October-December
• Takao kawadoko over the Kiyotaki river 1 Apr - 30 Nov
• Yasurai Matsuri, the red-haired demons of Imamiya the second Sunday of April
• Gyoki Daie and the giant rosary of Hyakumanben 23-25 Apr
• The other nenbutsu kyogen: Senbon Enma-do, Shinsen-en and Saga April-May, late October and early November
• Kawadoko in Kibune, eating over the water 1 May - 30 Sep
• Noryo-yuka on the Kamo river, the summer terraces 1 May - 15 Oct
• Kamogawa Odori, the dance of Pontocho May, most of the month
• Yabusame Shinji in the Tadasu forest 3 May
• Aoi Matsuri 15 May
• June fireflies in Kyoto late May to mid-June
• Mifune Matsuri, the Heian court on the Oi the third Sunday of May
• Yuka in the Shozan garden at Takagamine 1 May - 18 Oct
• Kyoto Takigi Noh, noh by torchlight the first Friday and Saturday of June
• Nagoshi no Harae, the reed ring of late June 30 Jun
• Tōrin-in, the days of the sala flower about two weeks in mid-June
• Mitarashi Matsuri, wading into the sacred water 10 days around the Day of the Ox (July)
• Motomiya-sai, the ten thousand lanterns of Fushimi the weekend of the Day of the Ox in July
• Gion Matsuri 1-31 Jul
• Hiwatari Matsuri, walking on embers at Tanukidani the fourth Saturday of July
• Sennichi Mairi, the night climb up Atago 31 Jul - 1 Aug
• Ukai, cormorant fishing on the Uji river 1 Jul - 30 Sep
• KRP Fes, open days at the Kyoto Research Park late July
• Gozan no Okuribi, the mountain bonfires 16 Aug
• Sento Kuyo at Adashino Nenbutsu-ji the last Saturday and Sunday of August
• Arashiyama Toro Nagashi on Okuribi night 16 Aug
• Gojozaka pottery fair 7-10 Aug
• Rokudo Mairi, calling the dead with the bell 7-10 Aug
• Mibu-dera's Rokusai Nenbutsu at Obon 9-16 Aug
• Jizo Bon, the neighbourhood festival for the children late August
• Kangetsu no Yube, the autumn moon on Osawa pond the full moon of the 8th lunar month
• Kyoto Experiment, international performing arts festival three weeks between late September and October
• Autumn illuminations, temple by temple late October to early December
• Kurama no Hi Matsuri, the fire festival 22 Oct
• Imagine Noh, noh and kyogen with an introduction in English scattered performances in October-November
• Jidai Matsuri, the parade of the eras 22 Oct
• Zuiki Matsuri, the vegetable palanquin of Kitano 1-5 Oct
• Gion Odori, the autumn dance of Gion Higashi 1-10 Nov
• Arashiyama Momiji Matsuri the second Sunday of November
• Joya no Kane at Chion-in 31 Dec
• National high school ekiden championship, the Miyakooji the Sunday around 20 December
• Kyoto Historica International Film Festival early December

Ready-made routes through Kyoto

Chains well with

More destinations in Kansai