Words: Lisa Vandivort
Photographs: Matthew Vandivort

I started writing this post during the pandemic and it quickly became a dramatic ode to travel and how I should approach global travel post pandemic in a more sustainable and responsible way. I hesitated and ultimately didn’t hit publish because it kept feeling inappropriate and out of touch with both the spirit of the blog and life at the time, to wax poetically about world travel. But as we approach year 4 AC (After Covid) and we have mostly returned to an at least modified sense of normalcy, travel to most countries has re-opened, and it feels like EVERYONE is traveling again (reflected in prices and crowds), now felt like as good a time as any to hit the publish button.

The photos felt too good not to share - and we were effectively leaving out half of our Japan trip, with arguably some of the most memorable stops. So without further ado, some fantastic photos from Matt and some words from me on our Kyoto itinerary.

We knew we had to make a stop in Kyoto as part of our Japan journey but with so many places piquing our interest, it was tough to determine the final itinerary. However, with the amount of total travel and short length of stay we decided it was best to use Kyoto as our home base for 5 nights with lots of varied options for day trips. Our itinerary had everything from an A to a D plan depending on weather, fatigue, mood during our stay (we are a bit intense), plans which ranged from riding rental bikes along the Shiminami Kaido or a bullet train ride to Hiroshima. We ended up with a more tame option with less bouncing around, in large part because our time in Kyoto was...cold! We got some snow we were not expecting and generally being outside all day was not extremely pleasant, so minimizing time biking all day was probably best. That doesn’t mean we didn’t fit in a lot of adventures - and of course food!

We took the Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto - what a dream - highly recommend getting a Japan Rail pass upon your arrival to Japan, doing a bit of research ahead of time for the longer haul trains you plan to take, and then making your first stop a ticket center to grab your pass and book seats on the long haul trains.

Day activity highlights within Kyoto included the Arashiyama Monkey Park (we got a magical snow flurry during our visit that prompted the monkeys to have a play day); Arashiyama self guided walking tour (standout sites were the Tenryu-ji temple and Okochi Sanso garden - even the bathrooms here were nice!); an early morning visit to the Fushimi Inari shrine (I am allergic to large crowds so for me the dawn wake up and travel was well worth it). Standout meals in Kyoto were izakaya at Kura Kura and our one Kaiseki meal of the trip at the Kyoto train station, which is way more grand than this sounds, the station also has a nice hotel inside!

Our day trips outside of town included Osaka and Nara. We had dreams of visiting Naoshima and the aforementioned cycling on the Shiminami Kaido from Onomichi but with the weather and logistics we opted for some of the easier trips. In Nara, we did a bike tour of the city, visiting the infamous and sacred deer, got a hoot out of feeding them and seeing them bow to us, and visiting some incredible temples along the way.

In Osaka, we meandered to the Osaka castle and then booked an incredible sake and food tour through the markets and nightlife spots that Osaka had to offer. Upon visiting, I think Osaka could be a fun spot to stay for a few nights.

But the star highlight of the trip and most special moment in Kyoto - that definitely belongs in the top 5 of all time travel experiences - was New Years Eve. Prior to our trip we assumed we would spend NYE in Tokyo, surely filled with lots of reveling opportunities. But we soon learned that lodging options were more limited and pricier and the logistics weren’t quite working out how we hoped. So we had an idea to flip Tokyo with Kyoto. It meant less traveling once we landed plus opened up a range of hotels and restaurant reservation availability. It left us wondering what that meant for NYE in Kyoto but figured since we were leaving Jan 1 to head back home it wouldn’t ultimately matter much and we would likely have a low key evening with an early turn in.

After doing additional research, though, it seemed apparent that a big tradition in Japanese Buddhist and Shinto cultures is to make a temple visit on either New Years Eve to ring in the new year and/or a first shrine visit of the year on New Years Day. And as we dug into that research, we learned that planning a route of temples to visit and picking out the one that was just right was key to the experience.

We ended up at the Kurodani temple and it was worth all the hours stressing over our decision. If you are here during new years this is a must. The temple is up on a hill providing great views of the city, they do some beautiful services inside led by the monks at the temple, but get there early to grab your spot in line to ring in the bell for new years yourself. There are only a small handful of shrines that will allow visitors to ring a bell (versus those that do this ceremonially led by the temple’s monks) and this is probably the best bet for securing a spot.

We took turns visiting the grounds while the rest of our group held a spot in line, there were some vendors selling snacks, and finally about an hour or so after midnight it was our turn to wind up the giant log to hit the bell to ring in our personal new year. It was the cherry on top of a magical experience abroad.