Sightseeing Tips

Taxi cabs or buses

• Sightseeing taxi cab: You can hire a sightseeing taxi cab for a day or half day to visit several scenic places comfortably. You can ask for an English speaking driver to guide your tour. The taxi fare is about 4,000 yen per hour; 32,000 yen for full day (8 hours) or 16,000 yen for a half day (4 hours). It is recommended to go in a group of four, so that it costs you one fourth each. There are several taxi-drivers' sites. This is one of them.
• Taxi cab: If you want to visit just one or two places, it costs you less to take a taxi cab each time. You will pay the fare at the taxi meter. It costs about 1,000 to 1,500 yen to visit most of the scenic places from the hotel.
• Kyoto City Bus: For graduate students and those young-at-heart, I recommend to use Kyoto City Buses to go sightseeing in Kyoto. One-Day-Pass costs you only 500 yen to unlimited ride during a day. You can go almost all the famous temples and shrines by bus. Although you need to walk in the summer heat from time to time, from a bus stop to another, the buses are fully air-conditioned and the services are frequent.
• Sightseeing Bus: There are sightseeing buses departing regularly from Kyoto JR Station. They don't have an English web page, but they have a digital pamphlet for foreigners.

Kaz's choice

• Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pagoda): The most famous tourist attraction of Kyoto. It really shines coated with real gold foil. Admission: 400 yen. Open hours: 9:00-17:00.�@(There is a sister pagoda named Ginkaku-ji, or Silver Pagoda, but it is not coated with silver. I would not recommend to visit Silver Pagoda.)
• Kiyomizu-dera (Kiyomizu Temple): The large stage built on the mountain side where you can see the city of Kyoto is famous. The souvenir shops on the street to the temple are also attractive. Admission: 300 yen. Open hours: 6:00-18:00.
• To-ji (Five Story Pagoda): Its five story pagoda is 57 meter high, the tallest wooden tower in Japan.�@Admission: 500 yen. Open hours: 9:00-16:30.
• Ryoan-ji (Peaceful Dragon Temple): Its rock garden is famous. Admission: 500 yen. Open hours: 8:00-17:00.
• Byodo-in (Byodo in Temple): The most famous building in the temple is the Phoenix Hall, of which you can see the image on the 10 yen coin. Admission: 600 yen. Open hours: 9:00-17:00.
• Heian Jingu (Heian Shrine): It is a Shinto shrine. Admission: 600 yen. Open hours: 8:30-17:30.
• Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle): It was used for the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns. You can see how shoguns lived in the samurai era. admission: 600 yen. Open hours: 8:45-16:00. Closed on Tuesday 28th of July.
• Sanju-Sangen-do (Sanjusangen Hall): You will be surprised to see one thousand statues stand in ten rows and 50 columns.�@admission: 600 yen. Open hours: 8:00-17:00.
• Gion (Gion Street): If you are lucky, you can see geisha girls dressed up and walking in the Gion street.
• Nishiki-shijo (Nishiki Market): Small food shops are gathered on the Nishi-shijo Market street.

• Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine: It is often chosen as one of the most favorites scenic spots for foreign visitors. If you are fox lovers, you must visit there.