One Day Group Tour of Kyoto Highlights

Upon receiving a warm welcome from your guide, our Kyoto day trip begins with a charter bus ride to Nijo Castle, built for Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616 AD), the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. As we stroll through the castle, the layers of walls alongside the pine and cypress trees beautifully complement each other. Entering the Ninomaru Palace, the golden walls adorned with exquisite paintings from the Japanese Kano school depict pine and cypress trees, cranes, tigers, bamboo forests, pine eagles, and various animals and plants that symbolize integrity, allowing you to witness supreme power at that time, as if you can hear the heroic voice of Tokugawa Ieyasu issuing orders.

► Visit Ryoan-ji Temple if the castle is closed, admiring its “dry landscape” of the stone garden.

Then, let’s visit the glittering Golden Pavilion, which also served as a residence for another famous shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408 AD). Being an admirer of Buddhism, he constructed the Golden Pavilion in a residential style that blends elements reminiscent of a Buddhist hall with features of aristocratic bedrooms, samurai residences, and Chinese temples. It also houses statues of Sakyamuni, Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Buddha relics. As you gaze at the stunning reflection of the Golden Pavilion in the Mirror Pond in front of it, you’ll be profoundly moved by the serene atmosphere, as if you are in a blissful pure land.

The next stop is the Kyoto Imperial Palace, where Japan’s emperors lived before Emperor Meiji moved the capital to Tokyo in 1869. Upon entering, we will first see a sprawling park filled with giant pine trees of various shapes that spread out to form a lush forest. After walking along the gravel road to the central area, you might expect to find splendid palaces; however, most are elegant yet simple, sharply contrasting with Nijo Castle and the Golden Pavilion we visited earlier, which relates to the embarrassing situation of the Japanese royal family facing economic difficulties and maintaining a lower political status than the shoguns for a long time in history.

► Visit Kitano Tenmangu Shrine if it’s closed, a popular site for students to pray for academic success.

You will enjoy a Western-style set menu lunch with a vegetarian option (please specify when making the reservation).

If you prefer to have meal by yourself, you can contact our travel consultant and choose “No Lunch” instead, and then try delicious quick bites on your own at Kyoto Station’s underground streets of Porta and The CUBE, including ramen, pork cutlet rice, ochazuke (green tea over rice), and okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake).

In the afternoon, we’ll first head to Fushimi Inari Shrine, which has the tallest gate, standing 15 meters high, among all the shrines in Kyoto. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598 AD), a feudal lord and a devoted son to his mother, prayed to the Inari Goddess for his mother’s illness, and she recovered; therefore, he built this gate as a votive offering in 1589. You can still see his handwritten prayers on the gate. Another unmissable spot is the Senbon Torii gates, where thousands of torii gates donated by worshippers in honor of the deities create a vermilion, semi-open-air path leading to the mountaintop.

Next, follow your guide to explore the Sanjusangen-do Temple (Temple of Thirty-Three Bays). As its name suggests, it features 33 bays and is Japan’s longest single ancient building, enshrining 1,001 Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva statues. Even if you don’t understand Buddhism, facing the densely packed and overwhelming Buddha statues arranged in a vast room will instinctively shock anyone. Since photography is not allowed inside the hall, you can fully immerse yourself in observing these similarly modeled statues, each with subtle differences.

We will arrive at Pure Water Temple before sunset. While enjoying a rewarding view of Kyoto from the famous stage, don’t miss the chance to photograph the main hall’s spectacular architecture from the Inner Temple. The sunset bathes the cantilevered temple on the mountain in warm gold, creating a stunning image with the silhouette of Kyoto City in the background. Especially during the red leaves season from mid-to-late November to early December, the entire hillside, blanketed in maple leaves, is soaked in layers of colors, with the magnificent three-story pagoda and main hall seeming to glow amid the red foliage.

Additionally, you can freely explore the surrounding Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka streets, wandering between the traditional wooden townhouses lining the slopes, many selling pottery, Japanese-style items, and matcha desserts. Countless tourists in kimonos come here to take classic photos with the Yasaka Pagoda. Quickly press the shutter to capture the unique charm of this thousand-year-old capital. Please note that there are many slopes and stone paths around Pure Water Temple, so wear comfortable shoes.

Finally, the charter bus will take you back to Kyoto Avanti, where you can easily return to your hotel from Kyoto Station, or ask the guide for directions to other desired destinations.