The SECRET to Enjoying Kyoto 🇯🇵 Things to Do, Eat, and See!

Kyoto. It's not a new city. It's been around for over 1,200 years. But walk through the streets of Gion today and you'd think the whole world just found out about how great this place is at the same time. We came here looking for something. But what do you do when the place you imagine doesn't exist anymore? Or maybe it still does. Maybe we're just looking in the wrong places. So what do you guys say we start this video off with some food because we are starving. It's lunchtime. And we're in one of the most famous markets in the world for food. We have visited two other markets so far on our trip in Japan but that is nothing. That's baby business compared to what we're about to see here in this market. This is the famous Nishiki market. More than 400 years old. More than a hundred vendors over there. And we are very hungry. That is the most important thing. No more than three steps in and it's hard to know where to start. But this place looks like it'll do the job. First dish and we weren't ready because it was one of the first ones but it looks amazing. So it's gonna be a tempura shrimp. Good? Yeah. The breading on this it's so thick and so crispy. This is a really good spot. I was a little worried at first because you see this stuff is like sitting out here but once you order they actually throw it into the oil to make it even crispier and heat it up. So really really good time. We'll put the name of the spot down below. This market spans five blocks and is packed with the best street food in the city but what makes it special is the families that have been running these stalls for generations. There are so many things we want to try and our impulses tell us to grab everything we can. But eating and walking is a common mistake tourists make in It's very rude in this culture. So instead we pop in and out of the stalls that catch our eyes. Like this one. I had to go for the fatty tuna. Looks like bacon almost. With the marbling. Okay okay. Oh my god this is gonna be a good one. It's a hefty piece. They do a really good rice here. That's good. And the fish is phenomenal. So fresh. How many more times can we say it? And it's been quite a few days since I've had some fresh fish. Keep saying that to yourself Jules. If you're planning a trip to Japan we made it easy for you and put together a free google map of every spot we visited in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. So you can have all our recommendations in one easy spot. Just report back which one was your favorite. We didn't plan this How can we resist? We were gonna do another wagyu skewer but we knew you guys in the comments would be like you guys need to eat something other than wagyu skewers on this trip. The best of two worlds. Yeah so this is different. This is innovation. This is fusion. That's right. Yay! We found a winner. Weirdly enough it works. So good. I mean I think wagyu works with everything honey. That's right. If there's anything we've learned in Japan it's that markets like this rarely let us down. The food is always phenomenal. Always worth it. So if Kyoto has changed we're not feeling it yet. Eventually we peel ourselves away toward the Kamo river just in time for sunset. Down by the river there's this really nice little walking path. I don't know how long it goes for. I think we're gonna jump on it. Right? That's right. And being here at sunset is so nice. It's one of those moments where it just hits you like you're in Kyoto right now. We have a guy playing guitar doing a rendition of Dancing Queen which I didn't expect to hear. Little bikes going by. Ducks swimming by. And it's beautiful. But I'm excited for our next spot we're going because I think that is like quintessential Kyoto. Like the thing that you have in your mind when you imagine yourself in Kyoto. So what do you say we head over there? And so we ascend into the Gion district. Home to Yasaka Noto. A 46 meter tall pagoda. It's been standing here since 1440. Well this version has. The original version from 948 AD burned down a few times before that because well it is made out of wood and all. Below it is Gion. Kyoto's famous geisha district. Full of narrow alleys and traditional wooden machiya houses. It's beautiful. It's historic. And clearly we're all here to see it. We had this vision for this part of the video that involves slow motion walking through empty alleys but yeah that's not happening. Because that version of Gion, it doesn't exist anymore. At least during normal business hours. But it's not bad. Or not as bad as social media made us think it could be. It's still cool to walk through so we take it for what it is. With the lanterns glowing and tourists dressed up as geishas it's a different kind of Kyoto than maybe it was a few decades ago. But tomorrow, tomorrow we have a plan. And that plan is to beat the crowds and do what very few tourists are willing to do on vacations. So for a little while we had Gion all to ourselves that morning. And sometimes that's the only way to get a popular place to yourself. You set the alarm for an ungodly hour, drag yourself out of bed and get there before everyone else. Other times you don't need to beat the crowds. You just need to go somewhere they're not. Good morning beautiful people. As you can see it's cold, it's early and there's no one over here. Literally. We love finding what we're now calling destination dupes. And today we were on the hunt for an alternative to the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. It's one of Kyoto's most famous sites but it's also one of the busiest. But what if you just want the feeling of walking through a peaceful bamboo grove without hundreds of people around you? Turns out Kyoto is surrounded by bamboo forests. You just need to know where to look. Uh United States and Mexico. Yes. Okay perfect. I think that seeing a bamboo forest is a huge thing on a lot of people's bucket list in Kyoto. I agree. And there's a famous famous one but we decided to come to this one and it's only for ourselves. I can't believe it there is no one else here. This right here is the Kyoto City Rakusai Bamboo Park and boy are we glad we took the risk to take a 37 minute subway and bus here. The sound is amazing. Right now there's a little bit of wind and the top of the bamboo forest it's just here like like some weird noises. Beautiful though. I am so glad we found this spot. We've been here for like 30 minutes taking our sweet time with all of our photos and no one's passed us by. This is crazy. I think this is what a lot of people are hoping their experience in the bamboo forest would be like and I just can't believe there's no one else here. I love this place for three different reasons. The first one is completely free. Two, it has a museum where they teach you a little bit of the history of the bamboo. Third, they have more than 120 species of bamboo including dwarf bamboo which I've never seen before. And as Juliana already said there's no one over here. It's not completely packed like the other one. This is peace. This is how peace should feel. We like what we've seen of Kyoto so far but there's still a good I don't know nine spots left to explore and now it's time to finally see one of That's a lot to pick from so after what felt like randomly drawing names from a hat we landed at Kinkaku-ji also known as the golden temple. We entered for 500 yen each and we're taking through these beautiful gardens before spotting the temple in the distance. No wonder it's referred as the golden temple. Those two top floors are covered in real gold leaf. I've seen pictures of this temple before but whenever you're here it's gorgeous, beautiful. I don't think the camera can capture how beautiful it is and it's also in the middle of a pond so the reflection is beautiful. Martina and I had a list of like how many like 10-15 temples that we wanted to visit when we're here in Kyoto so it was very very hard to decide which one we wanted to go to but I'm glad we went to this one. It is so different looking and the gold just like looks so intense especially when the sun keeps peeking out. So it's about lunch time and we're craving some ramen so we found a spot maybe 11 minutes by walk and we think it's going to be good. So we purposely didn't pick any food spots in Kyoto when we were researching because we kind of wanted to test out our method that we discovered when we were doing our Tokyo food video you guys saw a few where you pretty much use table log and a combination of that with google reviews to figure out where the locals go. And if you saw our previous video you know that we have like a very successful experiences with those. Yeah so we're testing it out here we'll see if it's any good but I will say having our OlaFly e-sim you guys has been a game changer because we've had to add money on the fly without having wi-fi available for our transportation cars and it's helped us to be able to find spots like this by reading through reviews. We'll leave a link to the e-sim that we use because we have a five percent discount for you guys and the connection's been great we've heard some companies are a little touch and go but we haven't had any problems with our data and it's one of the more affordable options. The name of this particular ramen spot is Shikura and oh my goodness the ramen here turned out to be incredible and this entire bowl was under seven dollars and we couldn't even finish. Though do note they do ask what level of soy sauce you want in the broth and we'd recommend choosing the light version since the regular one is a little salty for our taste. Now I know why everybody loves Kyoto it's so different from Osaka and Tokyo. Yeah it's quiet and in the search for some calm and peaceful moments we decided that we definitely want to experience a tea ceremony while we're here especially because we might end up learning something to be able to take that practice home with us. I agree so let's check it out. There's no shortage of places to experience a tea ceremony in Kyoto walk down almost any street and you'll find a dozen options but we wanted a place that actually cared one that wasn't just rushing groups in and out like an assembly line of tourists fumbling through a cultural checklist. So we did our research and booked this spot through Viator. The moment we arrived we were greeted by Akira and he might just be the happiest most enthusiastic person we've met on the trip. And how long have you lived here in Kyoto? Me? Yeah. Yeah me is about 20 years. Yeah? Yes. You like it? Yes yes of course. I moved a very very many times. Yeah. My family moved about 11 times. Oh my god. Yeah. Wow. That's a lot. But those are my family is belong to the Kyoto so we came we came back. Oh okay nice. I see that. And if there were any time to try kimono on this was it. Upstairs we got to pick our own from a lineup of stunning fabrics and then the ladies working there wrapped us up layer by layer. Wow. This one looks great. That looks good. I like that one. Yeah. Also my favorite color. Yes. I feel like I'm getting buried. Back downstairs it was photo time and Akira is doing double shifts not only as our translator but our photographer. So they have those different design front and back. I think this one. Okay and then open your left hand like this. Okay and please look at me and make a smile smile smile smile smile. Three two one okay. He has a lot of charisma. I want to be his friend. He gets very excited every time that he talks about this. Finally the tea ceremony begins. A tiny elderly woman named Komai emerges from behind a paper screen and lets us know she'll be the host for today's ceremony. So today we are going to enjoy those traditional winter style tea ceremony. Yeah also those tea ceremonies have many many styles. Yeah so if you go into the other those tea rooms I think you can see different styles. So every time you come it might be something different. Yeah different. Yes of course. What makes it different? So most big difference is those are using those utensils and the style. So today is the winter style so we open those tatami mats. So in the summer we close those tatami. But those are more now every those tea master's motion is every time the same. As Komai begins the room falls silent. There's this tension but not in a bad way but in a way that makes you hyper aware of every movement. The way she lifts the ladle. The way she folds the cloth. It's all so deliberate. So precise. I'm afraid to even breathe. Japanese tea ceremonies date back to zen buddhist monks who much like us just needed more and more caffeine to stay awake. At first they imported brown tea leaves from China but it wasn't strong enough to keep them alert through the long hours of meditation so they kept refining. Green tea closer but still not enough. Then came matcha where the entire tea leaf is ground into powder and whisked into hot water giving monks the caffeine they needed to stay awake during meditation. By the 15th century samurais adopted the tea ceremony for their own purposes. It became a ritual before battle to sharpen focus, show discipline, and in some cases negotiate peace. But tea rooms were not a place for fighting so the doors to enter the room were deliberately built small to force warriors to leave their swords outside. Once inside all they could carry was a fan which was a symbol of diplomacy and respect. We were here for one and a half hours and there is so much more we can say. But for now we focus on komaji. Akira tells us that it's customary whenever you finish your tea to make a slurping noise to show the tea was fully appreciated. And I really like this tea. It wasn't bitter or chalky like some of the matchas we'd have back home. We each get the chance to try it and then Akira asks if anyone wants to try to lead the ceremony next. And well I think we all know who shoved their hand up immediately. Of course my wife. This was freaking awesome. It's one thing to watch the ceremony and another to try the choreography of it yourself. I think I got it down after a couple minutes. I do this at home in the morning but not the correct way. That was so beautiful. I mean ignore the fact that we were dressing up like wow but also all the respect that a tea ceremony involves. Even the sound of the water it means something. It's amazing. Now every single morning that Juliana makes her tea I'm gonna see it in a different way. Let me tell you that. Last year I started trying to incorporate more rituals in my life like taking a long slow bath, doing matcha because I think it's so important to have those types of things in your life where you slow down. There's just so many messages that you can take away from something like a tea ceremony. And it was just beautiful watching how she was almost like just trying to move as slow as possible. And it was so quiet in that room and really really such a special experience. But now we're doing a complete 180 and moving to a different type of liquid. One that is also very famous in Japan and we gotta see this next area. There's something we forgot to tell you guys. Tonight is Christmas Eve believe it or not and instead of being surrounded by family we're in Japan because like a lot of you we've got limited PTO and had to make the most of the days off we had. We're kind of sad but sometimes that's the sacrifice you make when you're following your dreams. I think you travelers get that. We arrived at the Fushimi Sake District, a neighborhood I can bet most tourists don't even know about. This place is home to 40 sake breweries making it one of Japan's major sake production hubs. Here we find Fushimi Sake Village. This place is huge mi amor. It is. I don't know which one to pick. I don't think you can go wrong with sake. You know whenever you're not in a touristy area when you stop seeing signs in Japanese and in English and they are only in Japanese. And you enter this place and it's like a food hall kind of so there's all of these little stands where you can eat the food looks amazing and then there's this huge bar here in the middle with a menu that is so intimidating. I mean it's got to be at least 30 pages of sake that you can choose from. And each one is from a different region of Japan that's the interesting thing. This has got to be the craziest weirdest way I've spent Christmas Eve in my entire life. If I spend it with you mi amor, I'm happy. Kampai. Kampai. And the good thing about this one is just a tasting. It's not to get drunk. It's to taste the difference between the different sakes. And oh it smells delicious. Fruity. Under any other circumstances spending Christmas Eve in a bar might feel kind of depressing. But with this 18 flight sample in front of us there's no time to dwell on that. So Martine got the 18 tasting sake because they ran out of the smaller ones. I want to order the one that has nine and also pairing with food but they ordered the last one. So let us know in the comments would you be at the tea ceremony or would you be at the sake tasting? Both. Why not? We have to try everything but this amazing culture has to offer. Sakes brew like a beer but has flavored nuances like a wine. Luckily my flight comes with some hints about what I could be tasting as I try sample. The evening went on as we chatted with the bartender and watched this anime that actually was quite educational about the importance of sake and Shinto religion. It's a symbol of purification, of starting fresh. Which feels fitting because in a few hours we're doing exactly that. Merry Christmas everyone. It's another early wake-up call. Good morning travelers. It's currently 6 30 in the morning. We've been up since 5 because we're heading to what might just be the most popular spot in Kyoto and believe it or not even though we were here early there's a couple other people who are also here. That's right. So yeah as you said it's the most famous place in Kyoto and one of the most famous places in all Japan. So we have to be over here very very early. Well it's pitch dark back there but I think we gotta start hiking. While most people are waking up to Christmas presents we're waking up to the forest of Mount Inari. Inari is the Shinto god of rice and is said to have foxes as messengers which is why you see statues like this. This shrine has actually been standing here before Kyoto was even Japan's capital and over time thousands of people have walked under the red torii gates lining the path to the summit. At this hour it doesn't feel like a famous photo spot. It feels otherworldly. A little eerie if we're being honest but we just keep walking. We could hear of course a lot of birds and even wild pigs but there's we haven't seen monkeys. We know they're dangerous. Yeah they're very aggressive here. If we had slept in this would have been a different experience. The crowds would have arrived, the silence would be gone and we'd all be fighting for a photo. So are we manipulating what Kyoto is or just doing what needs to be done? Either way we have no regrets right now. This place is really popular for a reason. It's so so stunning and there's a few things that you should know if you come here yourself one day. Number one it's free to enter and number two it's open 24 hours so you can really come here at any time of the day. Another thing that you have to know is the further that you go is the better because it's going to be less people. Also funny thing is that alternates between big gates and small ones. Yep I'm glad we did this. Definitely one of the highlights of us for us for Kyoto right? Right. But we still got more to see. We're running out of time. After weaving through thousands of torii gates at Fushimi Inari you'd think we'd be shrined and templed out but this is Kyoto and if there's room for one more we're taking it. So we head across town to Kiyomizudera. It's a popular temple but for a reason. The structures you see today date back to 1633 and somehow not a single nail was used to build them. Instead the entire temple is held together with wood and it has withstood centuries of earthquakes and time. Look how beautiful this is. What I love is the view you get up above of Kyoto but what makes it so special right now visiting on Christmas day is that the fall colors are still out so there's these pops of orange that are so so beautiful. I imagine coming any time of the season you're going to get a different experience but this is beautiful. I love this one so much and I'm glad we fit this one in. Once again it's hard to pick which temples to go to. To enter to the real temple is 500 yen each and it's beautiful. I totally recommend it. I love this place. It's bigger than I thought and it has one of the best views of Kyoto. Sometimes I think I'm in an arigato gozaimasu competition with the locals here like we'll just go back and forth and who can say it the most. Just got this little matcha stick at an adorable pottery shop just down the lane and the owner I swear me and him are going back and forth no less than like 10 times. So much respect. Anyway it's around noon we could use a little bit of a pick-me-up and we have to do some more matcha. This time not in a ceremony type but in Gion there's lots of little matcha shops. We wanted to come here to matcha house because the seating area is gorgeous. You can be inside or sit in their little garden and you can do matcha so many different ways. So I went for this gorgeous latte. Spoiler we actually did have this the other day off camera so I already know it's delicious. The whipped cream is so thick and there's tons of brown sugar syrup here. I also was curious about this tiramisu. I mean how do they even put that in there? It's gorgeous. That looks so good honey. So good and Martine even found a matcha beer. That should be interesting to try. Wow so there's like a layer of like a really spongy green matcha cake at the bottom it's like fresh cream and then real matcha powder all over the top. This is so good and not too sweet. Slightly refreshing. Oh my god it's like Saint Patrick's Day. Whoa it tastes like beer first and then at the end whenever you already drink it it stays in your in your mouth the taste of matcha. Oh yum. It's fresh. It is fresh. I like it. I'm glad you got to try that because when we came here the other day they were sold out. That's right yeah. Popular. I don't know if we mentioned we woke up at five in the morning so we need a little bit more of energy. Right now we're starving so we were walking around our hotel and then we found this little place little from the outside but over here you have a big bar and they cook in front of you. Look at this. It looks delicious. So we're gonna try it. They know for their Wagyu and their prices they are very affordable. I'm gonna miss this. This is the life. We're full. We're exhausted and we've seen more of Kyoto than we ever thought possible. We have another last stop. Not just our last stop in Kyoto, our last stop in Japan. My amore, we picked a really good spot. It's more beautiful than I thought. Dengchuan Gardens is our last spot and probably this is one of our favorite stops in the entire trip. It's so beautiful, so peaceful and we totally recommend to come over here. Most people have never heard of this place. It's a small zen garden with perfectly raked pebbles, winding stone paths and a pond straight out of a painting. Oh my gosh, they're so vibrant in this mossy area. Look at this guys. I love this. The mosque. So beautiful. We came to Kyoto with an idea of what it would be. Part of us thought it would feel untouched. The other part worried that social media ruined it. But the truth is, it's what you make it. Because the thing about Kyoto isn't that it's changed, it's that it offers you choices. Wake up early, you'll see the quiet moments. Wander far enough and you'll find places no one else is looking for. And if you want to stand in a sea of people, staring up at something incredible, that's an option too. I am more and procrastinating on this last clip. I low-key want to start crying right now. This is the last clip we're filming in Japan. An insane nine-part series this has been, you guys. In Kyoto, I'm so glad that we were able to find our own little way to see the city. Even though it was every single day, non-stop, since the morning to the night, and I feel tired, I feel so happy that we finally made this trip. Japan, we love you so so much. I can't believe destinations are changing in our next video and we're heading back to Mexico. We're going to keep watching our adventures. So long. Travel well. Make the world your neighborhood. See you guys next time. Bye. Arigatou gozaimasu. That made me emotional. I know.