We did Kyoto in 3 days, and about half that time was spent ferrying our luggage between hostels! It was Golden Week and so all the hostels were booked up weeks in advance; we had to move to a different place each night but felt lucky that we'd managed to find beds at all!
On our first day we hired bicycles – a great way to get out and see more of the city, although we ended up cycling a heck of a long way as the sights were fairly spread out. First stop was the Ninzen-ji temple where we had a sushi picnic on the temple steps… technically not allowed but we couldn’t find anywhere better! The temple complex was really picturesque, with lots of spring green trees set against dark wood temples. We walked to a little waterfall up in the hills where monks apparently shower in the winter, brr! Next we hopped on the bikes to see Ginkaka-ju temple where we each paid 500yen to walk in an extremely touristy garden with raked cones of zen sand. It was pretty but not worth the price. We popped our heads in to see Honen-in temple on the way back (just as good and with lots of cool croaking frogs as a bonus!), and then made haste for the Gion district where Rach was dying to catch sight of the elusive geisha (traditional Japanese entertainers), of which there are only 1,000 left in Japan. 
It was a fantastic little old part of Kyoto with cobbled streets and hidden teahouses. We loitered around keeping our eyes peeled for geisha, who try so hard not to be seen in public. We caught a brief sight of one walking briskly into a teahouse, although she was pretty far away and too quick for us to get a photo. So we settled down for a bit of a longer wait in the hope of seeing some up close, and eventually luck came our way as a group of FOUR of them popped out of nowhere and trotted down an alley opposite us. 
We were in hot pursuit and ended up sprinting after them paparazzi style – a couple of other photographers followed suit. It was quite a laugh and we got to see them up close; they had white faces, red lips, perfectly lacquered hair with flowers, beautiful kimonos and sandals with white socks. Happy, we cycled on to Ponto Cho as it was getting dark to see the old cobbled streets adorned with lit lanterns; it made for a great evening stroll.
The following day we jumped on a train to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, Japan’s oldest Inari shrine. It was quite a gem, with a 4km tunnel made of thousands of red torii gates snaking their way up into the mountains. Afterwards we visited the Nikishi food market with lots of interesting stalls selling weird foods, vegetables and sushi. We stopped to eat yummy shrimp and leek fried dumplings on a stick, and had sweet sticky rice balls for desert. Headed back to our hostel (K’s Hostel) to relax, and seeing as it was a western hostel we had proper tea (heaven!) and a real bed! Rach was rather taken with the little nemo (clownfish) in the fishtank there!
That evening we met up with our friend Maru, whom we had met in Ainokura a few days ago and had offered to show us around Kyoto. We were pretty excited about heading out with someone that spoke Japanese! First Maru took us to a street stall where he said we must try the local delicacy, Takoyaki, which looked like little dumplings on sticks. They translated as ‘octopus balls’ (Rach already had one in her mouth at this moment…cue some frightened eyes), but they actually tasted surprisingly good as long as you didn’t look inside them! Then we headed to a great little restaurant down a back alley where Maru seemed to order everything on the menu (luckily he didn’t order the ‘raw chicken’ which sounded a bit suspect!), and we got to drink lots of different types of sake and sho-chu. To our surprise Konopi turned up too to meet us; he had travelled 2 hours on the train to get there! 
We were rather bowled over by Maru’s generosity when he insisted on paying for everything. Afterwards we went to a darts bar, where we ordered more drinks and had great fun playing electronic darts. To everyone’s amazement (including her own) Rach turned out to be a little darts genius, and must have hit the bull every second go! Konopi then insisted on paying for all the drinks, and Maru gave us a bottle of sake he had especially brewed for us. In return for their extreme generosity we encouraged them to visit the UK so we could repay the favour. We got home at 3am - a great evening.
Unsurprisingly we were not in tip top sightseeing mode the following day, and to make matters worse both fell ill with colds…. a bit inevitable seeing as every third person in Japan seemed to be sniffing and sneezing. We rather unwisely decided to head out for some sightseeing anyway and to make the most of our JR pass, so took a train to Nara. It was absolutely heaving with Japanese tourists and we regretted our decision instantly! 
We tried to eat lunch in a little noodle bar, but not really knowing what we had ordered we were served cold noodles in soy sauce (no no no!), which were even harder to eat with all the slurping and snorting going on around us. 
We abandoned and picked our way through the throngs of tourists to see the temples and resident deer. We had been warned about the ‘evil bambi’ in Nara, but they seemed pretty docile and sat patiently whilst child after child sat down next to them to pose for a picture. The temples were pretty, but we were a bit ‘templed out’. There were however two massive wooden statues that were impressive and menacing. 
More interesting was the little fair that was taking place, and we watched all manner of strange little fairground games being played by the locals and older ladies wandering around in their pretty kimonos and umbrellas. Gaz was pleased when he managed to pick up a ornamental Samurai sword from one of the shops in Nara, the lady selling it assuring us we would be able to get it home on the plane!
The next day we took an enormous trip up to the mountain top monastery village of Koya-San. Three trains, a cable car and a bus trip later we arrived to find a busy town packed with tourists and temples – not quite the misty mountain clad isolation we had envisaged! 
Things got better soon though – we were staying the night in a temple – it was like a little oasis and some monks showed us to our Japanese room that looked out over a rock garden and trickling bamboo pond. In the afternoon we walked to Okunoin, a magnificent, mysterious cemetery of towering cedar trees and mossy tombstones. It was very atmospheric and at the top was a lantern temple clouded in incense smoke, and a line of people throwing water on black Jizo statues. We headed back for a Japanese bath at the temple, not for the shy though as we each had to share the bath with 10 starkers men or women! The monks then brought us an amazing vegetarian dinner to our room – the miso soup, silky tofu and tempura were pretty amazing! We headed out briefly after dinner to see the graveyard lanterns in the mist and dark trees and got totally spooked out!
We were up super early to participate in ‘monk things’ the following day. First we went to the prayer service in the temple, with lit lanterns, chanting monks, and banging drums. We didn’t understand what was being said but it was nice to be a part of it, even if it was uncomfy kneeling on the floor! We then went to a fire ceremony where the head monk threw wood, salts and oil on a fire to beating drums – pretty exciting! Afterward we were served strange Japanese breakfast in our room (we have begun dreaming of western breakfasts now…), then went walking in the rain with umbrellas to explore some of the temples.
On our first day we hired bicycles – a great way to get out and see more of the city, although we ended up cycling a heck of a long way as the sights were fairly spread out. First stop was the Ninzen-ji temple where we had a sushi picnic on the temple steps… technically not allowed but we couldn’t find anywhere better! The temple complex was really picturesque, with lots of spring green trees set against dark wood temples. We walked to a little waterfall up in the hills where monks apparently shower in the winter, brr! Next we hopped on the bikes to see Ginkaka-ju temple where we each paid 500yen to walk in an extremely touristy garden with raked cones of zen sand. It was pretty but not worth the price. We popped our heads in to see Honen-in temple on the way back (just as good and with lots of cool croaking frogs as a bonus!), and then made haste for the Gion district where Rach was dying to catch sight of the elusive geisha (traditional Japanese entertainers), of which there are only 1,000 left in Japan. 
It was a fantastic little old part of Kyoto with cobbled streets and hidden teahouses. We loitered around keeping our eyes peeled for geisha, who try so hard not to be seen in public. We caught a brief sight of one walking briskly into a teahouse, although she was pretty far away and too quick for us to get a photo. So we settled down for a bit of a longer wait in the hope of seeing some up close, and eventually luck came our way as a group of FOUR of them popped out of nowhere and trotted down an alley opposite us. 
We were in hot pursuit and ended up sprinting after them paparazzi style – a couple of other photographers followed suit. It was quite a laugh and we got to see them up close; they had white faces, red lips, perfectly lacquered hair with flowers, beautiful kimonos and sandals with white socks. Happy, we cycled on to Ponto Cho as it was getting dark to see the old cobbled streets adorned with lit lanterns; it made for a great evening stroll.
The following day we jumped on a train to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, Japan’s oldest Inari shrine. It was quite a gem, with a 4km tunnel made of thousands of red torii gates snaking their way up into the mountains. Afterwards we visited the Nikishi food market with lots of interesting stalls selling weird foods, vegetables and sushi. We stopped to eat yummy shrimp and leek fried dumplings on a stick, and had sweet sticky rice balls for desert. Headed back to our hostel (K’s Hostel) to relax, and seeing as it was a western hostel we had proper tea (heaven!) and a real bed! Rach was rather taken with the little nemo (clownfish) in the fishtank there!
That evening we met up with our friend Maru, whom we had met in Ainokura a few days ago and had offered to show us around Kyoto. We were pretty excited about heading out with someone that spoke Japanese! First Maru took us to a street stall where he said we must try the local delicacy, Takoyaki, which looked like little dumplings on sticks. They translated as ‘octopus balls’ (Rach already had one in her mouth at this moment…cue some frightened eyes), but they actually tasted surprisingly good as long as you didn’t look inside them! Then we headed to a great little restaurant down a back alley where Maru seemed to order everything on the menu (luckily he didn’t order the ‘raw chicken’ which sounded a bit suspect!), and we got to drink lots of different types of sake and sho-chu. To our surprise Konopi turned up too to meet us; he had travelled 2 hours on the train to get there! 
We were rather bowled over by Maru’s generosity when he insisted on paying for everything. Afterwards we went to a darts bar, where we ordered more drinks and had great fun playing electronic darts. To everyone’s amazement (including her own) Rach turned out to be a little darts genius, and must have hit the bull every second go! Konopi then insisted on paying for all the drinks, and Maru gave us a bottle of sake he had especially brewed for us. In return for their extreme generosity we encouraged them to visit the UK so we could repay the favour. We got home at 3am - a great evening.
Unsurprisingly we were not in tip top sightseeing mode the following day, and to make matters worse both fell ill with colds…. a bit inevitable seeing as every third person in Japan seemed to be sniffing and sneezing. We rather unwisely decided to head out for some sightseeing anyway and to make the most of our JR pass, so took a train to Nara. It was absolutely heaving with Japanese tourists and we regretted our decision instantly! 
We tried to eat lunch in a little noodle bar, but not really knowing what we had ordered we were served cold noodles in soy sauce (no no no!), which were even harder to eat with all the slurping and snorting going on around us. 
We abandoned and picked our way through the throngs of tourists to see the temples and resident deer. We had been warned about the ‘evil bambi’ in Nara, but they seemed pretty docile and sat patiently whilst child after child sat down next to them to pose for a picture. The temples were pretty, but we were a bit ‘templed out’. There were however two massive wooden statues that were impressive and menacing. 
More interesting was the little fair that was taking place, and we watched all manner of strange little fairground games being played by the locals and older ladies wandering around in their pretty kimonos and umbrellas. Gaz was pleased when he managed to pick up a ornamental Samurai sword from one of the shops in Nara, the lady selling it assuring us we would be able to get it home on the plane! 
The next day we took an enormous trip up to the mountain top monastery village of Koya-San. Three trains, a cable car and a bus trip later we arrived to find a busy town packed with tourists and temples – not quite the misty mountain clad isolation we had envisaged! 
Things got better soon though – we were staying the night in a temple – it was like a little oasis and some monks showed us to our Japanese room that looked out over a rock garden and trickling bamboo pond. In the afternoon we walked to Okunoin, a magnificent, mysterious cemetery of towering cedar trees and mossy tombstones. It was very atmospheric and at the top was a lantern temple clouded in incense smoke, and a line of people throwing water on black Jizo statues. We headed back for a Japanese bath at the temple, not for the shy though as we each had to share the bath with 10 starkers men or women! The monks then brought us an amazing vegetarian dinner to our room – the miso soup, silky tofu and tempura were pretty amazing! We headed out briefly after dinner to see the graveyard lanterns in the mist and dark trees and got totally spooked out! 
We were up super early to participate in ‘monk things’ the following day. First we went to the prayer service in the temple, with lit lanterns, chanting monks, and banging drums. We didn’t understand what was being said but it was nice to be a part of it, even if it was uncomfy kneeling on the floor! We then went to a fire ceremony where the head monk threw wood, salts and oil on a fire to beating drums – pretty exciting! Afterward we were served strange Japanese breakfast in our room (we have begun dreaming of western breakfasts now…), then went walking in the rain with umbrellas to explore some of the temples. 
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