Sadly we had to drop the car back to Osaka on the way to Kyoto. It was so good having the freedom that driving gives you, and then when moving on, just put your bags in the car and drive off. It sure beats walking 1km, then down several flights of stairs because escalators are only going up, catch metro, walk some more, then a high speed train, walk, metro, up stairs because no escalator, walk, then at new apartment. 

We arrived in Kyoto without issue, but had some problems finding our Airbnb. The directions we were given were a little sketchy and the address again was slightly different to what we had but we got there with Google maps. 

Kyoto is an amazing city jam packed with sightseeing. There are dozens of temples and shrines, a castle and even a tower. We had 3 full days here so we spent 2 days seeing the best things and then needed a rest day on New year’s day. 

On day 1 we went to the famous Fushimi Inari Shinto shrine which features over 10,000 red Torri gates. This place was packed. We found out that new year is very important for the Japanese people. They usually have time off and a lot of business shut down, and most people go and visit a shrine or temple during the new year break. After Fushimi Inari we went to Maruyama park and saw the Chion-in temple. On the way back we found a shop demonstrating candy making which Abbie loved. 

On day 2 we visited Kinkakuji or the Golden Pavilion as it is also known. This place was spectacular and it is apparently all real gold leaf. This place was packed as well. We spoke to a Japanese person after this who said they visited Kyoto on their holiday and visited 3 temples. It was no wonder all these places were busy. After the Golden Pavilion we headed to the bamboo forest at Arishyama. We finished the day back at Kyoto station, which is gigantic and very architectural. 

Our last day in Kyoto was a down day. We headed back to Kyoto station for coffee at Starbucks and then went up the Kyoto tower. We could see our house from the tower which the girls loved. We liked Kyoto but by this stage we were a bit over temples and shrines, so we didn’t really scratch the surface here. There is a lot more that we could have seen, but we were quite happy to start heading towards Mt Fuji.