Kyoto– category –

Three times a year, a dragon descends from Kiyomizudera Temple and walks through the streets of Kyoto. This is Seiryu-e — and almost nobody outside Japan knows it exists. I had arrived a full hour early. It wasn't enough. The stone steps...

What leads the evening news in Japan every spring? Not politics. Not the economy. Cherry blossoms. Morning news, evening news, the front page of the newspaper. When the first buds will open in each city, when they'll hit full bloom, how ...

Every August, for eight days only, Kiyomizudera Temple opens its inner sanctuary to the public — a space closed even to most monks for the rest of the year. This is what Kiyomizuzaka looks like at midnight in August. Kiyomizuzaka is stil...

"Hidden gem is NOT hidden gem." That's what my English teacher told me. And she's right. I don't use the phrase lightly. But Haradanien in cherry blossom season is almost entirely Japanese visitors — no tour groups, no matching caps, no ...

Uji Shrine: The Rabbit Shrine Hidden Behind Byodoin A quiet shrine where a rabbit once led a prince home — and still guides visitors today. Before you cross the bridge to Byodoin, stop. Look to your right. Through the maple leaves and th...

Tucked into the wooded hillside on the east bank of the Uji River, Ujigami Shrine doesn't announce itself. There is no crowd, no souvenir stall, no line. Just a vermilion torii, a gravel path, and the feeling that time has quietly stoppe...

I stepped off the train at Keihan Uji Station and heard — nothing. Not the compressed silence of a countryside town, but something more intentional. Uji simply refuses to be rushed. The only sound cutting through was the iron railway bri...

Even for Japanese people, the Philosopher's Path is an unusual name. Search the entire country and you won't find an "Ideology Road" or a "Zen Boulevard" anywhere. The philosopher behind the name — Nishida Kitaro, a Kyoto University prof...

Matcha, matcha, matcha. The hands of everyone walking along Kiyomizu-zaka carry matcha soft serve. There are lines outside every shop. Matcha on every sign. Vanilla, chocolate, matcha — that is the standard hierarchy of soft serve flavor...

The 6:03 to Yodo Station I knew I couldn't afford to wait. On the way back from Fushimi Inari, an unusual announcement came over the Keihan line. Not the standard recorded voice — a conductor, in that particular singsong cadence that Jap...