48 Hours in Kyoto: Temples, Matcha, and Rain

I arrived in Kyoto during the rainy season, which every guidebook tells you to avoid. The guidebooks are wrong.

Rain transforms Kyoto. The famous bamboo grove at Arashiyama, usually packed with tourists, was almost deserted. The sound of rain on thousands of bamboo stalks is something I will never forget — a soft, organic rushing, like the forest itself breathing.

Fushimi Inari at dawn in the drizzle: the vermilion torii gates glowed against gray mist. I walked for two hours without seeing another person.

Where to Stay

Try a traditional ryokan for at least one night. The experience of sleeping on a futon and eating a 12-course kaiseki breakfast is worth every yen.