KYOTO RAIL MUSEUM
To carry the theme of trains over from yesterday’s bullet train trip, we decided to start the day with a visit to the Kyoto Train Museum.
I had read on Trip Adviser that this train museum is the best in the world and I would have to agree. We stayed for 3 hours and even then it was hard to drag the girls away, especially Hallie.
The museum has so many actual train carriages and driving carriages that you can walk through. They have one of the first ever Shinkansens from the 1960’s that you can sit in the drivers seat and pretend to drive.
There are loads of interactive things for kids to do like building model bridges, manoeuvring life sized controls and controlling miniature trains around a miniature city track. And there are lots of displays and information about the history of trains in Japan. There was even an exhibit about how rain tunnels are built which really resonated with Braino. There is minimal English information but you can scan a QR code to get more in English or we often used the translate app, where you can take a photo and the translation appears in over the photo - very handy!
There was a good cafe inside with tables that overlooked the actual train lines near Kyoto Station. It was quite fun to spot all the Shinkansens travel past.
There was also a kids indoor play area with lots of toy trains and tracks to build with and then outside there was a great playground surrounded by a railway turntable and a dozen old steam trains - just like Tidmouth Sheds, if you know that reference.
Hallie has always had a thing for trains and the other two girls seem happy enough to get into trains as well, so this was a real win. Even if you’re not that interested in trains but can appreciate Japans next level train technology, I say it’s still worth a visit.
KIYOMIZU - DERA
After the Kyoto Rail Museum, we caught the train to Kiyomizu-dera where we then walked for about 20 mins to reach Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. We wound our way up the narrow streets lined with tradition Japanese architecture until we reached the base of the temple grounds.
Kiyomizu-dera is a thousand year old buddhist temple dedicated to Kannon, the deity of compassion and great mercy. (The same deity that Senso-Ji in Tokyo is dedicated too). It sits halfway up Mt Otowa, and is set in beautiful lush greenery, overlooking Kyoto. The main hall is a sight to behold, perched on the side of the mountain, supported by traditionally constructed wooden beams that interlock, no nails have been used.
Even though we are there at 4:30pm in the afternoon, it was still very busy. Lots of school groups as well as the many other tourists. We were aware that the well known temples and shrines in Kyoto can be very busy, and it was really fascinating to witness the amount of people that dress in traditional kimonos and take photos around the temple. It was a rather hot but we’re still glad we visited this popular destination in Kyoto. It’s free to enter the temple grounds but 500 yen each to enter the mail hall, so only I walked through the main hall around the mountain side path.
We walked back to the train stations through the Gion district, which holds a lot of beautiful historic architecture and is traditionally the area where a lot of Geisha work in the teahouses. The area is very popular with tourist but still has a magical air about, in some of the streets it’s very easy to imagine yourself transported back in time.
