Guide Sketch : Cycling Tour in Kyoto on May 2nd - Early Summer -

- A Perfect sunny day -
On May 2nd, 2019, I, a tour guide, took two European guests on a cycling tour in Higashiyama area, where you visit some shrines and temples and hills behind on the east side.  The first stop of the tour is the Imperial Palace, we reached after our voyage on narrow back roads which are common in Kyoto. My guests were very curious about old unique tiny dewellings and some handcraft shops along pathways. You can find those shops selling traditional dolls, incenses, textiles, holding fans, and more on the both sides of the roads.

- Nashinoki Shrine -
Since I want to show my guests the everyday life in Kyoto, I introduced the spot where they may feel the local people's lifestyle. There is a small shrine called Nashinoki Shrine at the eastern end of the Imperial Palace. There is a well inside the shrine's field, where local people come with water tanks to draw water from the well and use it for cooking. This is one of the wells in Kyoto town supplying water for hundreds of years and continuing drinkable water supply by now.
After we spent a little time for commentary on history of the Shintoism and the Budhism, headed for Ginkaku-Ji Temple (Silver Pavilion).
 

- Silver Pavilion and Philosophers' path -
We walked from the garden of Ginkaku-Ji temple that covered by moth, kept walking to the path belongs to the hills on the east side of Kyoto, where you can overlook the city from the east to the west. Then we rode under the tunnel beautifully covered by green leaves, that is a privilege of this season, the early summer. As we go through the Philosophers' path, cherry petals were fallen in a few weeks ago and those trees turned their colour from pale pink into green already.

- SOBA, Buckwheet noodle -
We visited a nice SOBA restaurant for our lunch. SOBA is buckwheet noodle, a healthy Japanese traditional food with full of nutritions. Dipping SOBA noodles into a small bowl of SOBA soup, which is made by seafood broth. We enjoyed the flavor of the broth and fresh wasabi (additional seasoning usually served with thin sliced long onion and seven flavor chilli peppers)!

- Nanzen-Ji Temple, Down town Kyoto -
After the lunch, we visited one of the most popular spot, Nanzen-Ji Temple. When you visit the temple, you will be astonished by the brilliance of San mon, a big wooden gate. Nanzen-Ji is one of the biggest Zen temple, a head temple of Rinzai sect, where trainee monks practice their trainings. 

Under the pleasant sunlight, we headed back to the central part of the city. My guests start to looking for something artistic for souvenirs. I guided them a shop offering traditional stationaries. There are painting brushes, tools for wooden crafts, and incense stands in the shop, which perfectly much guests' taste. They bought some and that made me happy.

- Nishiki Market -
Our tour finished at another exciting spot of Kyoto. The Nishiki Market is located on narrow back road called the Nishiki street where local people love to go. Since Kyoto is famous for Japanese-style pickles and traditional sweets, you will be surprised by numbers of those different kinds of pickles and sweets offering at the area. You can taste some of them.
Not only the food, but also you can find a variety of shops in the market, offering cooking tools, sake, preserved vegetables, dried fish for broth, antique interior goods, and traditional clothes and shoes, etc...   

That is a briefly introduced the Kyoto cycling tour executed in early May. Hope you find the excitement and the pleasantness of the tour. Bike ride is really the best and ideal way to visit Kyoto. Because traffic jams and crowds are avoidable with cycling even if the high season on the narrow roads. Your guide is waiting for you to support discover Kyoto stress-freely! We gurarantee pleasant ride and precious experience which would be a high-light of your stay in Japan.  We look forward to guide you Kyoto by cycling when you come to Japan.   
 

Click here to see our cycling tour in at Higashiyama area in Kyoto 

Click here to see our cycling tour along Kamogawa river in Kyoto 

Click here to see our daytrip and multi-day tours departing from Kyoto.