re: Japan help requested

OK, in Tokyo now and just wrapped up a month and a half on the road with a bullet train trip to Kyoto. A few thoughts while they are fresh and I can wind down before bed.

Trains in Tokyo are great, and there is a learning curve as well. But I muddled through and the Japanese are endlessly polite and helpful and understanding. The bullet train ride to Kyoto is pretty awesome (just over 2 hours and a great view of Mt. Fuji south of Tokyo).

With only 9 hours to sightsee in Kyoto I finally settled on:

Started at Fushimi Inari Taisha - the subjective #1 shrine in Kyoto per some good sources. And easy to get to via the train connection to Inari station (southeast of the train station). It's famous for the thousands of orange Torii gates that you can walk through on the path to the hilltop. And they are pretty cool. But the place is very crowded and there are tons of selfie idiots and a-hole photographers who expect to have perfect shots of the gates to themselves. I enjoyed all of the decorated shrine foxes more than the gates which became a bit monotonous. Beautiful grounds. Plenty of food and shops at the exit (most shrines).

From there I took a taxi to Higashiyama Jisho-ji which was maybe 8 miles away (northeast of the train station) and not easy to get to by rail. The taxi travel was slow due to congestion and took a half hour but the $25 fare was worth it. It's better known as the Silver Temple. That's just one building and a decent but not great one. But the grounds are what makes the place worth a visit. And the crowds are enough to prevent lingering.

From there it's a short walk to my favorite place of the day - the Philosopher Path. It's about a mile long walk along a stream, through residential areas and small cool shops and restaurants. The cherry blossoms ended a week ago so it wasn't crowded and that was good. A few smaller shrines on the route. Just a beautiful walk with lots of interesting details.

From there it was a short walk to Eikan-do which was my favorite of the 3 major shrines of the day. Seeing the inside of the classic buildings (shoes off, no photography inside) was interesting, but again it was the grounds that I really liked (and the smaller crowds).

By that point it was too late for Nanzen-ji or Chion-in. But the walk from Eikan-do to the train station was interesting at times, a trudge in others. The Yasaka Shrine was nothing all that interesting by then. Then you hit Kawarmachi street to the west which is a massive shopping street and total change of scene. But get a block or two off of it and you have much older streets and what I'm pretty sure was the red light district. And a small shrine that seemed to worship pigs (Razorback fans?).

Kyoto is worth 4 days at least, maybe a week. Very cool place. What I did was absurdly short. I like Tokyo OK (heh, based on one day here) but on a return trip I'd head for Kyoto. For Tokyo though - you can't beat Marunouchi Hotel which is a short walk from the train station and not far from the Imperial Palace (the perimeter is a cool walk). I got a really good price several months ago when travel was still slow and it's at least doubled - but between the train station and the palace is a great place to be in general.