3 Weeks in Japan – Part 1: Kyoto

It was my life goal to visit Japan and I finally did it! I wanted to visit this country so bad but had quite a hard time deciding which places to see besides the obvious destinations like Kyoto and Tokyo.

I am an organisation freak when it comes to travel. I need to know that I am not missing something important: an awesome view, an amazing restaurant… I want to see and taste it all! Since I spent so much time and found so much interesting information on blogs and websites (I love to see bloggers post their travel photos), I thought that I could share my experience with the world and maybe help someone to plan his trip.

The fact that I wanted to see Yakushima (inspiration for princess Mononoke’s forest) made the route planning more complicated since it’s so far south. Here’s our travel itinerary:

Thank Glob for the Japan Rail Pass! Without it this vacation would have been very pricey.

We arrived in Tokyo and took the train to Kyoto right away. Kyoto was by far my favourite place in Japan! You can find very traditional neighbourhoods with temples and beautiful gardens, but you can also find « little Tokyo-style » areas. The best of both worlds. It’s the only place where we found tea houses everywhere. You could stop wherever you wanted to take a cup of matcha with some sweets or MOCHI (♥).

The first day was quite rainy, but that didn’t stop us.

Kiyomizu-dera

Sannenzaka

IT’S TEA TIME!

WE SPENT THE NIGHT IN AN AMAZING RYOKAN IN GION DISTRICT, EATING KAISEKI

You can find Jizo statues hidden in gardens or next to the road. They are Japanese divinities that are supposed to protect children (there is more to them, but I’ll talk about that later). I was obsessed with finding those little guys, they are so sweet and delicate.