Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.
Gion (祇園) is Kyoto's most famous geisha district, located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain. Gion attracts tourists with its high concentration of traditional wooden machiya merchant houses. Due to the fact that property taxes were formerly based upon street frontage, the houses were built with narrow facades only five to six meters wide, but extend up to twenty meters in from the street.
Another scenic part of Gion is the Shirakawa Area which runs along the Shirakawa Canal parallel to Shijo Avenue. The canal is lined by willow trees, high class restaurants and ochaya, many of which have rooms overlooking the canal. As it is a little off the beaten path, the Shirakawa Area is typically somewhat quieter than Hanami-koji Street. Many tourists visit Gion hoping to catch a glimpse of a geiko or maiko on their way to or from an engagement at an ochaya in the evenings or while running errands during the day. However, if you spot a geiko or maiko, act respectfully. Complaints about tourists behaving like ruthless paparazzi are on the increase in recent years.
Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社, Yasaka Jinja), also known as Gion Shrine, is one of the most famous shrines in Kyoto. Founded over 1350 years ago, the shrine is located between the popular Gion District and Higashiyama District, and is often visited by tourists walking between the two districts. The shrine's main hall combines the honden (inner sanctuary) and haiden (offering hall) into a single building. In front of it stands a dance stage with hundreds of lanterns that get lit in the evenings. Each lantern bears the name of a local business in return for a donation. Yasaka Shrine is well known for its summer festival, the Gion Matsuri, which is celebrated every July. Arguably the most famous festival in the whole country, the Gion Matsuri dates back over a thousand years and involves a procession with massive floats and hundreds of participants. The shrine also becomes busy during the cherry blossom season around early April, as the adjacent Maruyama Park is one of the most famous cherry blossom spots in Kyoto.
The inner torii of the Tatsumi Daimyojin shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto. It is located near Shira-kawa, an area famous for ochaya (tea houses) and geisha activity. The story behind the shrine seems vague to me, but it appears that it was built to appease an foul-tempered tanuki who was bothering the geiko crossing the Kamo-gawa.
Over 1250 years have passed since the foundation of Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Halfway up Mt. Otowa, one of the peaks in Kyoto’s Higashiyama mountain range, stands the temple, to which large numbers of visitors come to pay their respects to Kannon, a deity of great mercy and compassion. For this reason, our temple is known as a “Kannon Reijo.” “Reijo” is a Japanese word meaning a “holy place” with which the Kannon’s compassion is abundant.
Kenninji Temple (建仁寺) locates very close to the bustle of Hanamikoji and Shijo streets, the grounds of Kenninji Temple are expansive and pleasant to walk, and the two karesansui (dry landscape gardens) here offer the visitor an oasis of tranquility. It is thought to be the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto.
Our guide took us to several shrines and to the market. His Japanese accent was so strong it was sometimes difficult to understand him, but he tried so hard to have us understand him. He was very knowledgeable and I was impressed with all that he showed us in one day!
Our guide was Kazuo and he was very helpful in advising on what we should see on our full day tour of Kyoto. He was knowledgeable about all the sites and kept an eye on us as we negotiated trains and buses! Very enjoyable day.
Wonderful Gion evening tour! We had a great night with our friends taking great pictures during the tour and getting to know the history of Gion district, the difference between Maiko and Geiko. Very informative tour! specially we had an awesome tour guide name: Mari san! Thank you so much!
Our tour guide was Kazo and he was very knowledgeable about the gion area. He came prepared and had pictures to show us of the geiko and maiko in case we didn't see any (but lucky we did see one!). You get to see lots for only an hour including Yasaka shrine, gion entire area, gion corner, Yasaka temple etc. Highly recommend.
We had a lovely walk with guide Mr. Kazuo. He is a very experienced guide and shares a lot of information about Gion area and the sights. We really enjoyed our evening tour and will be back!
My tour guide never showed up at the meeting point described on the TripAdvisor page. I emailed her a day before to confirm but she didn’t reply to me. After waiting for 25min, making 3 phone calls and sending another text message, she first told us that she would be there in 5min, then she claimed that we were not on her list and she already started the tour with others. We ended up waiting in the freezing winter night for over half an hour. I have done many walking tours in many cities and this has never happened to me.
We were fortunate to have Kaeko-san as our guide. Apart from being knowledgeable, she was extremely patient and attentive to our needs. As we had a young child and a pram with us, Kaeko-san was always quick to ensure that our pram would be able to move along smoothly along the paths of Gion. An informative tour that was made even more enjoyable was the presence of a good guide who not only shared with us her knowledge but also ensured that we were well taken care of in the one hour tour.
When I booked the tour, i didn't know it was a personal tour just for our family of 3. That proved to be great value for money. K Suga, our guide was waiting for us with my name board at the meeting point. His English was excellent and the fact that he was born and raised in Gion was great as he knew all about the the place and could answer all the questions that we had. The 1 hour tour was very informative about the history and the quirks of Gion and got good recommendations on the shops to buy the things we were looking for. There is a bit of walking involved, but nothing most people can't handle. We had our 6 year old daughter with us, she never once complained. I highly recommend taking this tour before going out and exploring the place on your own armed with the knowledge of what you are seeking.
A nice guided walk in a pretty neighbourhood with a lot of history. Informative guide and nice small group size which makes it easy to hear and follow. Recommended!
I was inspired by the earlier reviews to take up this tour. We were a group of 2 families with Koji san. Koji san was kind enough to respond on emails about locations ,etc. He is a retired history teacher and also gave us a good insight into Japanese history. Nothing great in the tour that one can right about, I feel he could make the trip more interesting with insights and stories as has been expressed by others in their review with different guides.
The first words our guide said to us was , I am 10 minutes late but your watch will say 15 minutes. we walked for 5 minutes and she directed us to a starbucks, and asked if we would like a coffee. We walked straight to a geisha show that we were expected to pay extra for ( late so we couldn't watch it anyway ) so the 2 hour tour lasted 40 minutes at best. Very poor, not recommended.
Eko is a Kyoto native and it shows! She was kind, informative and gracious! A wonderful tour!! We fell even more in love with Kyoto.
Kaeko gave us an excellent tour through the Gion neighborhood. We got so much more out of the experience and learned many things we would not have on our own. Kaeko was accommodating and knowledgeable. She even ended adjusted the tour so we would finish at the doorstep of the restaurant where we had dinner reservations. Special bonus we were lucky enough to see Maiko and Geiko on the tour.
When you have a great (English speaking) guide such as Suga Kyozo the time just flies. He was full of interesting and fun stories of the Kyoto area (Geisha area, temples etc) and detail on its history. Throughly recommend.
We enjoyed our Tour very much. Etsuko- san was our guide she could explain a lot. We learned a lot of things that are not written in de guide books. We would really recommand to book this Tour.
Very personal insight into life in Gion and Japanese culture. From the Giesha and the temples you see both side of the tracks. Suga is a great conversationalist.
Really had a good time walking aroud Gion district with our guide Etsuko. A lovely woman who knows loads about the area and the geisha traditions. We had the chance to spot a few Geiko on our way and we even stopped at the shrine to make a wish! Gion is absolutely beautiful to see at night with the red lanterns everywhere and the geisha's houses. Definitly recommend it!
Arrived early in the rain, didn’t wait long and our guide arrived “Yasuko”. A wealth of knowledge about the area, the history, knew all the back lanes, explained all the markers over the doors, the differences between the tea house, the boarding house the school and the theatre. During the tour we saw about ten Miako and a couple of Giako as we weaved our way around the narrow streets and temples. An absolutely brilliant way to end out time in Japan, thank you Yasuko for a great time.
We were very pleased and were told a lot of story that was interesting. Everyone in the families thought the day had been teaching.
The tour is very good, we learned about the different types of religion and the various restaurant recommendations, our guide was friendly throughout and we were lucky that the guide was only for me and my friends (4 total) for the price is very worth it.
Una signora molto gentile ci ha spiegato qual'é il percorso di studio per diventare geisha, facendo una tappa nel vicino santuario shintoista e una veloce sosta per un piccolo assaggio di dolci locali. Purtroppo quella sera non abbiamo incrociato geisha o maiko ma é stata comunque una gradevole passeggiata.
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