Kyoto Japan in 2 Days - Best things to Do and See

Welcome to Kyoto, Japan. One of my favorite destinations in the entire country, as I've been traveling it for about two months. Kyoto is synonymous with peace and relaxation. You can't help but stop at one of the many hundreds of temples or gardens that line the city and are within a short walking distance. Today we're going to look at a few different things. We're going to learn to shoot bow and arrow with a level 5 grandmaster. We're going to have many, many, many, and many delicious treats. We'll have sake from one of the oldest bars inside the city center. We'll tour some of the less seen temples just next to some of the main sites. We'll see an old medieval castle that has stood the test of time. Witness a 19th century aqueduct that brings water across the city. See some fun temple traditions and visit one of the darkest sites in all of Kyoto. But we'll end our trip with a highlight of the best places to find some great souvenirs that are very authentic, including a UNESCO protected fan shop, the best place to find used authentic wooden masks, a place to find great chopsticks for a good deal, and a place that has been making knives since the samurai era. This morning it was a little rainy as we were leaving Gion, the old district of Kyoto. We were making our way to this little workshop, which also serves as an archery ring. It happens to be the private business of a level 5 grandmaster archer. The master, who speaks primarily in Japanese, has a translator for you who speaks English. He goes through for about 5 to 10 minutes and explains all the intricacies that go into firing an ancient Japanese longbow. Unlike Western Europe where firing a longbow is the simple practice of pulling the string back and firing the arrow and hoping that you hit the target, Japanese archery is much more involved. It's part meditation, part combat. The instructor is incredibly patient, even with people like me who are very bad at following instructions, especially when there's about 20 steps that you need to remember. Fortunately though, over the course of an hour in which we got to shoot about five or six times, my archery skills got substantially better. I went from missing the target entirely to getting within about a few inches of the bullseye. In my two months in Japan, this has since been my favorite activity. It takes about an hour and you get to shoot the arrows about five to six times. I highly recommend it and I'll have a link in the description down below for where you can book it via Viator. After refining our skills like an authentic Japanese warrior, it was time to relax a little bit. Where else better to do that than here in Gion, the old district? We found for ourselves a little place that served up some warm and cold sake, as well as some delicious treats. The sake is really good, but the star of this restaurant has got to be this. This looks like raw duck, but it's actually been smoked for a whole day. The smoky flavor comes through in every single bite and it's served up with this delicious little mustard. 10 out of 10 would recommend. Come for the sake, but stay for the duck. But after that, I needed something sweet, so I grabbed my first little snack, this giant cone of matcha ice cream, as well as these little things which I thought were going to be sweet, but turns out they're basically just soy sauce that have been caramelized. To rectify this misadventure, I found probably the most fancy donut place I've ever seen. Welcome to the powder room. This place makes gourmet donuts and this is an art form. This is very elaborate and it takes nearly two or three minutes to make after the donut's been already cooked. And you'll notice that we have several different layers that go into some of these donuts. Let's sit back and watch an artisan at their craft. But this isn't the only sweet thing you can find in Kyoto. Throughout the city and throughout Japan, you'll see stalls just like this. You'll have little vending machines where you can press the thing that you want by just simply inserting your money. I opted for the chocolate version. I'm not entirely sure what these things are called, but they are absolutely delicious. They come in a cheese variety, a chocolate variety, and a vanilla variety. Another thing you can't forget to try are Japanese sweet potatoes. I thought these were just like American sweet potatoes. They are not. It's nearly midnight here in Kyoto, Japan, and I have a couple meetings coming up, so I needed a good coffee place to hit up. I'm in Gion, which is the old town. Now, most old towns across Europe, most your coffee places are closing around, you know, eight o'clock at night. However, I found one here in Kyoto that's open until 1 30, and you got to check this place out. It's called Tamaka and it's got this nice, dingy, old 80s vibe going on. There's smoke in the atmosphere. It feels like an old club. You got to hit it up. The next morning, we traveled just outside of Kyoto to Inari, one of the more popular Instagram destinations for all of Kyoto, but when you get there, you quickly realize that it's overcrowded. This is a little trick for getting away from the crowds and finding little shrines embedded within this very large Shinto shrine. If you notice this little trail as you're walking up the mountain, be sure to take it. It's quiet and there's very few tourists around. You'll be able to wander through this bamboo forest and eventually find a path that looks like this. I encourage you to walk down this path because you'll be taken to one of the best shrines I have seen across all of Japan. It's quiet and placed right inside this little bamboo forest. Wander around through here and take in the serenity. I promise you, you will not regret it, and then venture back into the crowds of Inari and continue getting your Instagram photos. After this, we venture back into the busy streets of Kyoto, and we head straight for the Kyoto Castle. This is a medieval castle, and I highly recommend that you come here late in the morning or early in the afternoon so that you can schedule one of the few tours that go on here every day. There's about two or three depending on the day and depending on the season. The tour comes not only with a guide, but a way to access private locations within the castle that you can visit with just a regular ticket. The tour will last for about an hour to an hour and a half depending on how much your guide likes to talk, but afterwards you'll be able to explore the castle grounds. I highly recommend that you do so. Not only are you able to stroll through these many little side streets, you're also able to take in some beautiful rock gardens. You can also climb on top of a tower and have a dominating view over Kyoto, and imagine what it would have been like back in the day when this would have been the tallest building around, and it allows for you to really appreciate the defensive measures that this castle has. But the best thing you can do inside this castle is take a moment on your way out to stop by its lovely tea garden and partake in a traditional tea service of either green or matcha tea. Also, side note, I highly recommend the apple pie and ice cream. On the other side of town, you can follow the philosopher's path and eventually end up at the Nanzen-ji temple. The temple grounds are one of the best things to see while you're in Kyoto, but there's a lot of other videos on YouTube that cover them. There's two main things that I recommend seeing here besides the temple and besides the grounds themselves. The first one is going to be this 19th century aqueduct, which was built to take water across the city of Kyoto. The other main thing that you want to see is right behind the aqueduct, and is oftentimes missed by other tourists. In fact, if you look on Google Maps, it's really hard to even figure out what the name of this little path is, but this path takes you to one of the coolest little shrines that I've seen in all of Kyoto. It's up on the mountainside. There's absolutely no one around. There's a cute little red bridge, a nice waterfall, and it's a very quiet area in a really, really busy city. But a small word of caution while you're up here, I recommend going with at least another person because there are signs posted about beware of monkeys that are a bit aggressive. I heard them while I was up there. I wasn't attacked, but do be careful. These steps up to the temple are a bit slippery, and there are monkeys that may or may not attack you. Today, I'm walking through the back streets of Kyoto, Japan, and I'm taking you right now to one of the darkest historical sites in the entire city. It's so dark that it wasn't included in textbooks until the 1970s, and it's so dark that it's off most of the tourist guide maps here in Japan. Nestled in this quiet neighborhood is this large mound, which was erected in the late 16th century. At this time, Japan was invading the Korean peninsula, and its warriors there on the Korean peninsula brought back the noses and ears as trophies of those whom they killed. Those noses and ears belonged both to soldiers and civilians alike. When they returned home, the ears and noses of these individuals were put inside this mound, where they still sit to this day. I recommend taking some time to not only visit this site, but also one of the best shops in all of Kyoto. It is a fan shop that, according to one review, is a UNESCO protected site, and I highly recommend going in and exploring these different fans. They are very fairly priced, and a lot of them, if not all of them, are made by local artisans, so most of these are going to be handmade and hand-painted. Back in the main part of Kyoto is Hashi, one of the best tourist sites that you can go to for buying chopsticks. This feels like Ollivanders in Harry Potter to me. The walls are lined with hundreds if not thousands of different chopsticks that you can purchase. All of these, at least most of them, can be engraved. They come from different regions of Japan, and if you speak with the people who run the shop, they will happily tell you where the wood is sourced from, and where they were created in Japan. I purchased some for myself that were from the Tokyo region, and some that were made just outside of Kyoto as gifts. They are very reasonably priced, ranging from about 5 to 10 US dollars, but can get pretty expensive, up to 100 US dollars. If you're looking for kimonos or other antiques, I recommend this shop right here. It's got vintage kimonos, but more importantly, for those who are interested in vintage, authentic Japanese wooden masks, you can find on the walls many different ones that you can actually purchase. I picked up one for myself. It makes for a great souvenir when we get back home. If you're in the mood for pottery, then there is no better place in all of Kyoto than the many shops that line Gojondori Street. Now, while this might be a very touristy area because of the nearby temple and shrines, I highly recommend that you do stop into these shops. This is ancestrally where all the potteries would have been back in the day in Kyoto, and many of these shops can date their history back many centuries. I highly recommend shopping through these different areas and looking and speaking with the individuals to find pottery that is sourced not only from Japan, but is made in the region of Kyoto, because many of these shops will sell authentic wares. Also, there are going to be some touristy shops, so if it's priced really low and you see a lot of other common souvenirs, that might be a good indication that you should look elsewhere. For those of you who are interested in authentic knives, there is no better shop than this one here. I don't know how to pronounce this name, it is all rendered in Japanese on Google Maps, but I'll have a link in the description down below. This shop dates its history back centuries, and this shop was originally owned by individuals who made swords during the samurai era. However, later in time, the samurai were prevented from legally carrying swords, so the shop owners just shifted and started making knives instead. Today, you can purchase knives from this shop that are made in Japan, and in many cases, made nearby in the regions around Kyoto. You can also get them to customize and engrave them for you. They are going to be a little bit more on the expensive side, but what you get is an authentic experience and a high quality Japanese knife. 10 out of 10 would recommend. After a long day of visiting sites and souvenir shopping, I recommend this sake shop. It's a bar called Gabana. It's got like this really old school vibe going on. If you look on Google Maps, you're going to see really bad reviews. That's for the meat. Don't eat the food here. Definitely come here for the sake. It's an incredible experience where it feels like a lot of locals come. That's going to be all for my Kyoto video. Hopefully you've enjoyed it. Please like and subscribe down below. Everything that you've seen in this video can realistically be done in about two days. And a lot of these sites, remember, are going to be nearby the main tourist destinations. So take a look on your map, and I highly encourage you to spend a little bit of time and venture away from those popular Instagram spots and go and see these other little sites.