Category
G
Kinkaku-ji at opening, before the car parks fill.
East, west, and one very early morning – three days in Kyoto arranged around the hours when the city is actually quiet.
The opening scene
Ten past six on the stone steps below Kiyomizu-dera and the only person I have seen in twenty minutes is a woman sweeping leaves off the path outside her shop with a bamboo broom. The lanes are wet because somebody has hosed them, the lanterns are still on, and the whole of Sannenzaka – which by midday will be a slow-moving river of people – is empty in both directions. I have been awake since four because of the flight and for once that is a gift. This is the Kyoto on the postcards and it exists for about two hours a day.
The ask
Three nights in Kyoto, usually tacked onto a Tokyo trip, and the brief is always the same: they have a list of eleven temples from the internet and they are nervous about crowds. Good news on both counts. Cut the list to six, group them east and west so you are not crossing the city twice a day, and front-load every morning – three days done that way beats five days done badly, every time.
You’ve reached the quiet door.
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