Hidden Gems and Local Secrets in Kyoto
A visual guide from the Kyoto travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
Twenty-five minutes north of Demachiyanagi on the two-carriage Eizan line, the train climbs into cedar forest and the temperature drops several degrees. From Kurama a path crosses the ridge to Kibune in about an hour, ending at a stream where restaurants lay dining platforms directly over the water each summer. That kind of day is entirely normal in Kyoto and almost never on a first-time itinerary, which tends to run Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama and stop. Kurama, Ohara and Fushimi are all inside an hour of Demachiyanagi or Sanjo.
Out of the centre
Fushimi, fifteen minutes south on the Keihan line, is the sake district: a willow-lined canal, the Gekkeikan Okura museum inside an old brewery, tasting counters along Nagaracho, and flat-bottomed jikkokubune boats running the waterway in the warmer months. Ohara, an hour north by bus, is farmland and terraced hillside gardens. The Eizan train up to Kurama runs through a maple tunnel between Ichihara and Ninose, where the carriage lights are dimmed for the stretch in late November. Closer in, Funaoka Onsen near Kuramaguchi is a working 1923 bathhouse with carved wooden transoms above the changing room, still charging ordinary neighbourhood rates.
Small city habits
Kyoto's coffee culture is old and specific: Rokuyosha's basement near Sanjo, Inoda's original Sakaimachi shop, and Weekenders Coffee tucked behind a car park off Tominokoji. Demachi Futaba near the Kamo delta sells bean mochi to a queue that forms before opening and moves quickly. Shosei-en, the walled garden east of Higashi Honganji, costs very little and is usually near-empty. Ichijoji, on the Eizan line, has both the Keibunsha bookshop and the city's densest run of ramen counters. None of these need booking; most reward turning up early.