Tour de Kyoto

Of course with a name like Tour de Kyoto our adventure on Saturday was to rent some bikes and bike around Kyoto. When I did my research for the trip I learned that Kyoto is a very bike able and as soon as we arrived I realized that was a truth as there are bicyclists everywhere. We rented our bikes from 100 Bikes and coffee shop. The 3 workers that we dealt with all had excellent English. Probably the best we had experienced in Japan. One had lived in Australia and the other had lived in Detroit when he was young with his parents who held jobs in the automobile sector.

Our initial plan had been to bike to Eastern Kyoto and visit some of the shrines and temples there. The bike rental employees all recommended against this option as they reported that there was so much traffic associated with the tourism it wouldn't be safe or enjoyable. They recommend biking to West Kyoto to the Arashiyama area and visit the shrines there before heading north and visiting some of the more Northern shrines. It seems like every street in Kyoto other than the major streets are bike zones so we meandered through the back alleys before joining up with Katsura river and heading north into Arashiyama and a flood or should I say a tsunami of tourists. I had researched where to go in advance. There is a large Bamboo forest in Arashiyama which I had been trying to avoid as it has a reputation as being very busy with tourists but it was the only route to a highly recommended garden known as the Okochisanso garden. We got off our bikes and pushed them through the bamboo forest which was really neat however it was packed with people at 10 am in the morning. All the Europeans and North Americans were walking on the right and all the Japanese were walking on the left which didn't help with the pedestrian flow. We made it to the garden and it was nice to get off the path and away from the throngs of tourists. It was a pretty Japanese garden but again not the prettiest I had been in. There were other temples and gardens in the area but it was too over crowded for our liking. Gemini suggested heading up north so we biked up to Kinkakuji temple in the north again meandering along backstreets and one major road. This temple was busy but not crazy with tourists. The notable feature was a golden temple on a picturesque pond. Very pretty and photogenic. After we had finished at this temple we decided that we had had enough of the temple/tourist scene so decided to return the bikes after a short sidetrack to a store known as Montbell, the Japanese equivalent of Mountain Equipment Company, an outdoor store. Cheryl had lost her hat a couple days ago and needed a replacement. A very nice outdoor store and I was able to suppress my fetish for outdoor jackets. They had some beautiful ones there. We finally returned the bikes to 100 Bikes having biked approximately 27 km and completed a loop of northern Kyoto. We were exhausted. The only other interesting experience on our travels was stopping at a grocery store where the staff's uniforms looked like something out of the video game Super Mario.

Today we were faced with a difficult decision. We could do the Eastern temples but then have to face even more tourists than Saturday didn't seem very appealing. It was also recommended that to avoid the crowds that one should arrive by 6 am and even then one of the YouTube videos I watched taken at 6 am seemed pretty busy. We consulted our Air BnB host and she recommended the Tofukuji temple in southern Kyoto which was known for it's garden and beautiful temple but was off the traditional tourist route. After a fairly long bus ride and a slight navigation misadventure on my part when Google maps took us to the Tofukuji guest house instead of the temple. The temple was perfect. It had several large beautiful buildings including a large Zen gate. It had two beautiful gardens. The one associated with the Abbott's house was the traditional Zen garden with carefully raked and contoured stone. Finally there was a covered bridge which spanned a small river filled with maple trees. Oh so very beautiful.

Having had such a great experience we decided that we didn't have to do any more temples. It was about 11 and it was raining. Kyoto supposedly has a beautiful botanical garden which only locals visit. With that and the rain, we thought that this would be the perfect place to visit. We however needed a break so on our trip back up north, this time on the subway we got off at a station known for having lots of dining options and found a noodle restaurant and had one of our most enjoyable and cheapest meals so far on the trip. After this break we continued on to the botanical garden and fortunately the rain had not abated. There was hardly anyone there. We walked around in the rain admiring all of the gardens and flowers. We even came across the Kyoto Bonsai Club's annual display and had a personally guided tour from one of the volunteers. It was great. There was also a very large indoor conservatory of plants covering the tropics, desert, subalpine etc. Probably the best conservatory that I have ever been to. The gardens and conservatory are probably in the top 10 maybe even the top 5 that I have been to and no one was there.Read more