Kyoto Higashiyama and Gion Audio Walking Tour

For more than a thousand years Kyoto was the capital of Japan, and the eastern edge of the old city, where the streets climb into the wooded Higashiyama hills, holds more of its old soul than almost anywhere else. This walk starts high on the hillside at Kiyomizu-dera, drops down the stone-paved lanes of Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, visits two very different temples and the city's best-loved shrine, then winds into Gion, the old geisha district, to finish beside the willows of the Shirakawa canal. It covers about three and a half kilometers, mostly downhill, and it is one of the most beautiful self-guided walking tours in Japan, a walk through wooden townhouses, temple gates and lantern-lit lanes that still feel lived in.

Before you set off

The walking alone takes about an hour, but plan for three or four hours if you want to go inside the temples, which you should. The route is mostly downhill, starting with a climb up to Kiyomizu-dera, and the stone lanes and steps can be slippery in the rain, so wear comfortable shoes that are easy to slip off, since some temple halls ask you to remove them. Kiyomizu-dera and the lanes below it become very crowded by mid-morning, so start as early as you can. Kyoto summers are hot and humid, and winters are cold, so dress for the season and carry water. Kiyomizu-dera, Kodai-ji and Kennin-ji charge for entry and set their own hours, so check before you go. Gion has its own etiquette, and it matters. Geiko and maiko, the geisha of Kyoto and their apprentices, are working women on their way to appointments, not attractions: never block their path, follow them or photograph them without their consent. Some side lanes in Gion are private roads, and signs ask visitors to stay out. Please respect them.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

You are standing at the top of the hill at Kiyomizu-dera, the Pure Water Temple, one of the most famous sights in Japan. Look up at the bright vermilion gate and the three-story pagoda beside it, glowing against the green of the hillside. Kiyomizu-dera was founded in the late eighth century, before Kyoto even became the capital, around a spring of clear water that still runs on the slope below. The main hall you see today was rebuilt in the 1630s, and its great wooden stage juts out over the steep valley on a lattice of huge wooden pillars, put together with joints rather than nails. Walk out onto the stage and look over the treetops toward the city. Japanese has an expression, to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu, meaning to take a bold plunge, and records from the Edo period tell of people who really did jump, believing that if they survived their wish would be granted. Most of them did survive. Below the main hall, three thin streams of water fall from the Otowa waterfall, and visitors drink from them with long-handled cups for health, love or success. The temple is a World Heritage Site. When you are ready, walk back down the main approach street and turn right onto the stone steps of Sannenzaka, about eight minutes.

Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka

You are now on Sannenzaka, the Three Year Slope, a stairway lane of stone steps lined with old wooden houses. Together with Ninenzaka, the Two Year Slope just beyond it, it forms one of the most beautifully preserved streets in Kyoto. Look at the houses: low wooden fronts with fine lattice windows, dark tiled roofs and sliding doors, many of them a hundred years old or more. They hold tea shops, pottery stores, pickle sellers, sweet makers and craft shops, and in the early morning, before the crowds, the lane is quiet enough to hear your own steps. Be careful on those steps. A local legend says that if you trip and fall on Sannenzaka, you will die within three years. Happily, the shops here have a remedy: little gourds, sold as charms to ward off bad luck. Walk slowly, look up at the rooflines, and look for the five-story Yasaka Pagoda rising above the houses nearby, one of the great views of old Kyoto. Respect the residents, too: these lanes are a neighborhood, not a film set. From the bottom of Ninenzaka, continue north along the quiet stone-paved lanes, and climb the wide stone steps on your right up to Kodai-ji, about eight minutes.

Kodai-ji Temple

At the top of the steps, the bustle falls away and you reach Kodai-ji, one of the most graceful temples in the city. It was founded in 1606 by Nene, the widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the warlord who unified Japan at the end of the sixteenth century, as a place to pray for his soul. Nene spent her final years nearby, and the stone-paved lane you just walked along is named Nene's Path in her honor. Inside, look for the gardens, with their raked gravel, ponds, pines and maples, and the covered wooden walkway that climbs the slope like the back of a dragon. The small mausoleum where Hideyoshi and Nene are honored is famous for its gold and black lacquer work, so fine that a whole style of Japanese lacquer is named after this temple. Above the main buildings, two small rustic teahouses sit on the hillside, and a path leads through a grove of tall bamboo, swaying and creaking in the wind. In spring and autumn, the temple lights its gardens in the evenings, and the effect on the maples and the bamboo is magical. Leave by the steps, walk west downhill to the main avenue, Higashioji-dori, cross it, and keep straight on west along a quieter street to the walls of Kennin-ji, about twelve minutes.