Pontocho Kyoto

We've been enjoying our time in Kyoto very much! The weather has been on our side most of the time, and we've had the chance to visit many interesting places. Among the highlights: the free guided tour of the old Imperial palace, with beautiful gardens and buildings, and a very enthusiastic and smiley guide; the day trip to Nara, which was Japan's …

We rolled into Kyoto on the Willers bus around 7am...feeling reasonably ok, for a 9 hour trip siting upright. Breakfast (I am terribly ashamed to say) was a quick bite at Maccas and then we dropped our gear off at the Kyoto Hana Hostel/Ryokan.

This place was awesome- really friendly...only 10 minutes walk from the train station and not …

Getting from Osaka to Kyoto is less than an hour by train so we get a lie in. Once arriving in Kyoto, we can immediately notice a difference. It's much smaller, quieter and the buildings are traditional rather than commercial skyscrapers. The Khaosan hostel is great and one of the first places with couches and beanbags we have seen in Asia. We didn …

We called in at Himeji on our way to Kyoto, as it is home to Japan's most impressive castle. We only just got there in time though as the last admissions were at 4pm - I kept forgetting that we were still in off season. It worked out fine though as we ...

... very briefly. Gion is the place where most of the geishas can be found, especially in and around a tiny, narrow old street called Pontocho, and I walked up and down it a couple of times. It was quite eerie wandering around some of the old streets as ...

... , we had a little stroll and randomly ended up in the place I'd wanted to go all day! A little tiny, gorgeous street called Pontocho. It is a tiny little back street that runs for about half a mile, and is famed as being the most beautiful and most ...

... back out to Gion for a night of window shopping and searching for souvenirs. The Gion shopping district is famous for Pontocho alley, where souvenir shops are stacked one after the other between haute couture and pachinko parlors. We must have walked ...

... te zoeken merk je dat de kleine straatjes vol staan met de oude huizen opgetrokken uit hout, de typische Japanse voorgevels,... Pontocho lijkt daarbij het summum van de avond te vormen. Een smal straatje opgebouwd uit restaurants gebouwd naar de oude ...

... around the Gion district and the Shijo area looking for a place to have dinner. I eventually made my way to Pontocho Street, a narrow street lined with restaurants overlooking Kamogawa river. Pontocho is definitely best viewed at night. The narrow, ...

... and I decided that we wanted to wander around a bit, first into Kawaramachi, and then up through the entertainment district named Pontocho-dori. It's a really nice little district, and we saw more Geisha out and about. After Simo's betrayal in getting a ...

... ? Since it was Mother's Day and all, we took my Mom out for dinner at a restaurant along the river. We ate along Pontocho Street. It is a street famous for Geishas. There were a lot of fancy restaurants along the street and we settled on Japanese food. I ...

... Around Gion there are lots of narrow streets with small traditional buildings on them which are shops or inns. From here we went up Pontocho-dori which looks very traditional and perhaps is how I imagined the Kyoto of old would have looked, and as if to ...

... with Mrs Hirota. Dinner tonight is in a tofu restaurant, which I struggle to find in a narrow street near the river in the Pontocho district. The waitresses are a bit snotty but the food is great. All tofu: creamy tofu as a starter, boiled tofu for ...