I prebooked this bus tour of Kyoto Temples & Shrines Day Tour from Kyoto for our first full day in Kyoto. Did I break the overtourism rule? Yes. My reasoning was to book this to make sure that at least we visited the four most well known sites (and the sites with the most crowds, because I knew if we were going to DIY these visits we would be so put off by the crowds, we simply wouldn’t have gone.) The upside about booking a bus tour is that you are ferried from one place to another. The downside is that we added to the overcrowding. Marks against us for that.
We had to meet the tour bus at a pre-arranged meeting point by Kyoto Station. I was a little anxious about catching the subway there so we used the GO Taxi app and had a very cheap taxi ride to the meeting point. It removed some of the anxiety. (After we got used to the subway and bus system, we became pros at getting around the city.)
Itinerary included Fushimi Inari Taisha (10,000 Tori gates), Kiomizudera Temple (stunning views of Kyoto), Kinkakuji Temple AKA the Golden Temple, and Arishiyama (the bamboo groves.)
The bus would take us to each of the sites, and we were given a brief talk, and a map and were given strict instructions on the time we would need to be either back at the bus, or at a designated meeting point. The suggestions of what to visit at each site, and the time given was spot on.
This was our first stop. It was mid-morning by the time we got to it, and the crowds were impressive. What I thought was funny was how many “influencer” style posing and interactions tourists were having with their technology. And how everyone was carefully positioning themselves so that their photographs cut out the crowds.
I find myself doing the same thing. Carefully cropping my shots so as to provide the illusion of solitude. Let me show you an example.
Here’s a photo I took of the crowds entering the tori gates. This was at 10 am.
This is a Buddhist Temple (so no Tori gates.) Yes, lots of crowds. But the temple complex is spectacular.
The temple structures are set high among the fall foliage, overlooking Kyoto city.
Kinkakuji Temple AKA the Golden Temple
This is a stunning Zen Buddhist temple. It’s easy to see why its known as the Golden Temple. It is covered in gold leaf.
The bamboo forest is impressive. When we were there the crowds were starting to thin because the weather had turned watery.
After visiting four of these iconic Kyoto sites our tour bus deposited us back to our meeting point outside Kyoto Station.
The tour does get major points for providing us with ample viewing of fall foliage. I can see why these sites do attract such large crowds because they are iconic. But I think travelers do Kyoto a disservice if that’s all they see of Kyoto before moving on.
Coming up? Kevin and I take a cooking class and learn to make delicious ramen, and Japanese dumplings. We explore some Kyoto suburbs, take a table tennis class, watch professional table tennis players, visit the Imperial Gardens (gorgeous) and the Kyoto Botanical Gardens where we found a small Tori gate and a shrine dedicated to music. And, I describe our day trips to Osaka, Uji and Hiroshima, and why we decided not to visit Nara.
