Kyoto: Higashiyama
The destination for our first full day in Kyoto is the Higashiyama District. I’m going to quote Japan Guide here because I’m lazy and I could not have said it any better:
“The Higashiyama District along the lower slopes of Kyoto’s eastern mountains is one of the city’s best preserved historic districts. It is a great place to experience traditional old Kyoto, especially between Kiyomizudera and Yasaka Shrine, where the narrow lanes, wooden buildings and traditional merchant shops invoke a feeling of the old capital city.”
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- Kiyomizudera
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- Sannenzaka
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- flurry on Ninenzaka
How did you get along without speaking the language? I got stuck at a subway station which didnt have the map in english. Anything you didnt like? Did you find the people to be ridiculously nice? Whether its sincere or not isnt important to me. I just enjoyed travelling in Japan. Looks like you guys did too!
We didn’t find language to be a problem, but it is true English signs are not as widely available as I thought it might be. Being able to read Chinese helps, and we ran into quite a few staff at restaurants that are Chinese, so that helps. People are very nice and we really did enjoy our time there, it would be cool to do a tour in Japan later and really explore more deeply. The one pet peeve I have is that credit cards are not widely accepted…I’m just not used to using cash all the time…
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