Charles' Travel Blog

I woke early in the morning to make my way to get in line to have a free guided tour of the Kyoto Sento Imperial Palace.  This was a palace for emperors who retired.  I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone who is visiting Kyoto.  It is in Japanese but they do have audio…

The Kyoto Imperial Palace is massive in size.  There are two palace sites and the grounds has a teahouse, a number of shrines and the Kyoto State Guesthouse. On my first day, I explored the grounds and admired the Fall foliage The second shrine I visited on the grounds was the Shirakumo Shrine.

This is one of the sites I was looking forward to as it was the seat of power for the last Shogunate in Japan – the Tokugawa Shogunate which ended the same year that Canada was established. It did not disappoint but one thing I did learn is that you need to book the tour…

This is known as the Golden Pavilion and its proper name is Rokuon-ji.  It used to be home to Yoshimitsu who was the 3rd Shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate.  It became a temple according to his will.

After visiting Tenryū-ji Temple, I visited two sub-temples in the area.  There were Hōgon-in Temple and Kōgen-ji Temple.  Hōgon-in was established in 1461.  The interior of the temple is filled with beautiful sliding panels.  I am unable to post pictures as photography was not allowed inside.  Please visit here to see more: https://hogonin.jp/en/ But the…

After my train ride the night before, I woke up in Kyoto wanting to go see the temples in the Arashiyma District. The first spot I visited was the Arashiyma Bamboo Grove.  It is a beautiful walk. I then visited Tenryū-ji Temple.  It is a beautiful grounds in the Fall.  The highlight of Tenryū-ji is…