3 Days in Kyoto
Forest bathing off the beaten path in Fushimi Inari
Even in Kyoto, hearing the cuckoo, I long for Kyoto.Bashō wrote this haiku in the 17th Century, but you can imagine how it might resonate today.
Kyoto is Japan’s ninth largest city, but one of the most visited in the country for its concentration of temples teasing tourists with a time travel adventure to a romantic era of Japan full of geisha, samurai, and whatever else the gawking western imagination can conjure up.
It’s easy to picture a local squeezing their way through crowds that are clambering to visit a temple they saw on TikTok. Fed up, the local might think to themselves, “In Kyoto, hearing the tourist, I long for Kyoto.”
But Kyoto’s still out there… If you know when and where to look.
And if I, the cuckoo tourist can figure it out, so can you.
In other news, my new e-book featuring my 20 favorite off-the-beaten-path destinations in Germany is now live! You can read more about it here and place your order. I hear it makes a great (if not a little lazy) last-minute present for the holidays!
