Higashiyama's traditional streets in three hours

The route, stop by stop

1. 1
   Kiyomizu-dera

   Open from six in the morning, while the slopes below are still empty. The main hall's wooden stage stands out over the hillside on a frame of pillars and looks back across the whole city.

   35 min here Walk here →
2. 2
   Sannenzaka

   Stone steps down between wooden shops and teahouses. Local lore says a fall here leaves you three years to live, and gourds are sold on the slope as charms against it.

   10 min here Walk here →
3. 3
   Yasaka Pagoda

   The five-storey pagoda of Hōkan-ji, about 46 metres tall, rebuilt in 1440 under the shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori. The view of it up the slope of Yasaka-dōri is the photograph of old Kyoto.

   10 min here Walk here →
4. 4
   Ninenzaka

   The gentler slope below, two years by the same lore, its old wooden townhouses now shops and cafés.

   10 min here Walk here →
5. 5
   Nene-no-michi

   The stone-paved street below Kōdai-ji, named for Nene, widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who founded the temple in his memory in 1606.

   10 min here Walk here →
6. 6
   Ishibe-kōji

   A narrow stone-paved lane between walls, inns and restaurants, laid out early in the twentieth century. No shops and few people, above all in the morning; its two entrances are easy to miss.

   10 min here Walk here →
7. 7
   Yasaka Shrine

   Through Maruyama Park to the shrine of the Gion district. It never closes, the lanterns of its dance hall are lit at dusk, and in July it holds the Gion Matsuri.

   15 min here Walk here →
8. 8
   Hanamikōji

   Gion's main street of teahouses behind slatted wooden fronts, south from the corner of Shijō-dōri. It is a public road; the narrow lanes off it are private, and photographs are banned in them.

   15 min here Walk here →
9. 9
   Shirakawa

   The willow-lined Shirakawa canal and its little Tatsumi Bridge, with teahouses along the water: the Gion of the postcards, and quietest in the morning.

   15 min here Walk here →