Sightseeing in Kyoto! Red leaves, 東寺、東福寺、清水寺 ++

This weekend I´ve really had the chance to see a lot of Kyoto.

The sightseeing started already on Friday afternoon when Silke, Ericka and I decided to take a trip down to Kyoto Station to check out the Kyoto Tower.

The tower can be seen in most parts of Kyoto, but for us it was the first time to check it out.

Silke and Ericka in front of Kyoto tower

The Kyoto Tower was build in 1964, and its hight is 131 m. Since the buildings in Kyoto aren´t that high, it is possible to see the tower in most of Kyoto, and apparently a lot of citizens complained when the building of the tower was decided (it is not really that nice to look at, so I really understand that they disliked the decision.. :p)

View from Kyoto tower

Seeing the view of the city was really nice, but it was not as impressive as I had hoped. I guess most of the other towers in Japan probably are more interesting to check out, so if I were to check out only one of them Kyoto Tower would not be my first choice.

Me, Ericka and Silke.

Today (Sunday) I´ve spent the whole day sightseeing, and we started out by going to Toji (東寺) (South of Kyoto Station) along with Eki´s host mother and a couple of other exchange students from some other schools and/or study programs.

Arriving at Toji we soon discovered that apparently they were having some flea markets going on there today; it was pretty crowded and a lot of stands selling traditional Japanese stuff and food. It was quite interesting to walk around there though; the food was good and the area was really pretty. Unfortunately it isn´t allowed to take pictures inside the temples though..

One of the temple buildings, side by side with the flea market.

The Toji-tower

After our visit to Toji we went by bike to another temple area called Tofukuji (東福寺). It seemed a lot of people had decided to spend their Saturday here though, it was so crowded that it was hard to move at certain areas. Still, I think I somehow managed to get some good pictures there.

The color of leaves were really pretty..

「あれ、みて！」

Nice red leaves, and a swarm of people..

And some more red leaves. It is Kouyou(紅葉)-season , after all.. :)

After our trip to Tofukuji the others went back home, and me and Eki decided to continue the sightseeing on our own.

While waiting for the evening to come, we went a short trip to Gion (祇園) too. Our final goal was the light-up event at Kiyomizudera (清水寺) in the evening, so that meant we had a lot of time to kill.

Eki washing her hands inside the Gion temple-area.

If one wants to go shopping after a visit to the temple it´s certainly not far.

When it started to get late we left Gion and went further south to Kiyomizudera. Again, a lot of people, and mostly Japanese tourist for some reason. It was really pretty though, specially because of the red leaves. In the summertime it seems they have light up events too, so that people can see the Sakura flowers lit up as well. I guess the foreign tourist prefer coming during that season instead, since Sakura is more "typical" Japanese then the red autumn leaves.

Kiyomizudera by night

Kyoto seen from Kiomizudera. You can even see Kyoto tower here.

Another picture of Kiyomizudera

Temple lanterns

The sakura forest behind Kiyomizudera

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.