Arashiyama sits on the western edge of Kyoto and is one of the city’s most popular districts for visitors. People come for the famous bamboo forest, historically preserved streets, Zen temples, the monkey park, and the iconic Togetsukyo Bridge that crosses the Katsura River. Although there is more than enough to fill two full days, most travellers visit on a single‑day trip since Arashiyama is a little removed from central Kyoto. That makes a focused one‑day itinerary a smar

Explore Daigo-ji Temple on Day 10 of our RTW trip! Discover Kyoto's serene Daigo-ji, enjoy fluffy pancakes, and savor delicious curry!

7 October 2025 Steps: 24,187 Today was our biggest day yet (almost 25,000 steps), and while it was great to see so many amazing sights, we are all absolutely exhausted . Tomorrow we are just going to do a half day of sightseeing to try and recharge a bit, before heading down to Nara and Osaka, and then on to Hong Kong. Hokan-ji Temple (Yasaka Pagoda) We decided to walk straight to the famous Yasaka Pagoda viewpoint from our hotel, as we got a Google alert telling it was 'les

6 October 2025 Steps: 21,590 We had to check out of Ben's Guesthouse by 11am, so we got out quite early to visit one of the most famous temples in Kyoto - the Golden Palace, as it was quite near to our hotel, and we had enough time to fit it in before check out. Kinkaku-ji (Golden Palace) We got to Kinkaku-ji Golden Palace , just after it opened at 9am, but there was already a steady stream of tourists walking up the path to the entrance. The viewpoints were quite busy, bu

5 October 2025 Steps: 19,803 From Ben’s Guesthouse, getting to Arashiyama would have required several bus changes, so it wasn’t much more expensive to take a taxi directly there instead. We were planning on getting a taxi up to our first stop anyway (Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple) since it’s quite a bit north of town and involves a walk uphill from the train station. Read Next: The Best Things to Do in Arashiyama, Kyoto: A Perfect One‑Day Itinerary Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple Otagi Ne

Welcome to our Round‑the‑World Family Sabbatical diary ! We’re a Calgary‑based family travelling for 100 days , documenting each step so other families can get an honest, real‑life look at long‑term travel with kids - the highs, the chaos, and everything in between . This is Day 6 of our journey, where we wrapped up our time in Tokyo with an incredible cooking, calligraphy and origami class called 'Homecoming TAKA', before catching the famous Shinkansen to Kyoto. You can bro