Author of the Hiro Hattori (Shinobi) mysteries
During the Golden Week holidays, I took a three-day trip to Kyoto, during which I booked a meal at Tousuiro, reputed to be one of the best restaurants in Kyoto. The experience proved to be every bit as spectacular as promised.
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It’s my week to blog at Murder is Everywhere, so I’m sharing some photos from my recent Golden Week trip to Kyoto. What’s Golden Week? Click the link and you’ll know!
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Kyoto is famous for autumn foliage, but I’d only been there once in autumn (on another research trip, in 2016)–and the timing was wrong to see the colors at their peak. I thought I was too late this time, too, but as luck would have it, I was wrong.
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Autumn foliage at Eikan-do (永観堂)–formerly known as Zenrinji-ji, a Pure Land Buddhist temple in Kyoto. The temple was founded in 853, and remains both an active site of Buddhist worship and practice and one of Japan’s most famous sites for viewing autumn leaves.
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that I don’t go to sushi restaurants, and can’t eat most types of sushi, there are a few types that I can eat–including one that saved me a lot of embarrassment on a solo hike in 2016.
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Arashiyama Monkey Park, where monkeys roam free and humans are in the cage…
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While visiting Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera on July 6 (2021), I made a side trip to visit Seikanji–a mountain temple with beautiful views that most visitors don’t even realize is there.
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On July 6, 2021, I celebrated my 50th birthday with a trip to Kyoto’s Kiyomizudera–one of my favorite temples in the ancient capital (partially because it combines two of my other favorite things: mountains and waterfalls).
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n April 2019, while finishing the 100 mountain climbs that became the basis for CLIMB, I visited Kyoto with my friend (and fellow author) Laura VanArendonk Baugh. By chance, our day in the ancient capital coincided with the final nights of the annual sakura (cherry blossom) illumination at Tō-ji, the UNESCO World Heritage temple that also happens to be one of Kyoto’s oldest sacred sites.
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Tō-ji sits a few blocks south of Kyoto Station, near the former entrance to the ancient capital. In addition to its remarkable history and architecture, this 8th century temple is home to a lovely garden, with graveled walking trails that lead across the grounds and around an expansive pond.
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