Le sanctuaire Fushimi Inari (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) est un important sanctuaire shinto du sud de Kyoto. Il est célèbre pour ses milliers de torii vermillon, qui enjambent un réseau de sentiers derrière ses bâtiments principaux. Ces sentiers mènent à la forêt du mont Inari, sacré à 233 mètres d'altitude, qui fait partie du domaine du sanctuaire.

Gion (祇園) is Kyoto's most famous geisha district, located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain. Gion attracts tourists with its high concentration of traditional wooden machiya merchant houses. Due to the fact that property taxes were formerly based upon street frontage, the houses were built with narrow facades only five to six meters wide, but extend up to twenty meters in from the street.

Another scenic part of Gion is the Shirakawa Area which runs along the Shirakawa Canal parallel to Shijo Avenue. The canal is lined by willow trees, high class restaurants and ochaya, many of which have rooms overlooking the canal. As it is a little off the beaten path, the Shirakawa Area is typically somewhat quieter than Hanami-koji Street. Many tourists visit Gion hoping to catch a glimpse of a geiko or maiko on their way to or from an engagement at an ochaya in the evenings or while running errands during the day. However, if you spot a geiko or maiko, act respectfully. Complaints about tourists behaving like ruthless paparazzi are on the increase in recent years.

Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社, Yasaka Jinja), also known as Gion Shrine, is one of the most famous shrines in Kyoto. Founded over 1350 years ago, the shrine is located between the popular Gion District and Higashiyama District, and is often visited by tourists walking between the two districts. The shrine's main hall combines the honden (inner sanctuary) and haiden (offering hall) into a single building. In front of it stands a dance stage with hundreds of lanterns that get lit in the evenings. Each lantern bears the name of a local business in return for a donation. Yasaka Shrine is well known for its summer festival, the Gion Matsuri, which is celebrated every July. Arguably the most famous festival in the whole country, the Gion Matsuri dates back over a thousand years and involves a procession with massive floats and hundreds of participants. The shrine also becomes busy during the cherry blossom season around early April, as the adjacent Maruyama Park is one of the most famous cherry blossom spots in Kyoto.

The inner torii of the Tatsumi Daimyojin shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto. It is located near Shira-kawa, an area famous for ochaya (tea houses) and geisha activity. The story behind the shrine seems vague to me, but it appears that it was built to appease an foul-tempered tanuki who was bothering the geiko crossing the Kamo-gawa.

Over 1250 years have passed since the foundation of Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Halfway up Mt. Otowa, one of the peaks in Kyoto’s Higashiyama mountain range, stands the temple, to which large numbers of visitors come to pay their respects to Kannon, a deity of great mercy and compassion. For this reason, our temple is known as a “Kannon Reijo.” “Reijo” is a Japanese word meaning a “holy place” with which the Kannon’s compassion is abundant.

Le temple Kenninji (建仁寺) est situé à proximité immédiate de l'animation des rues Hanamikoji et Shijo. Son vaste domaine est agréable à parcourir, et ses deux karesansui (jardins secs) offrent au visiteur une oasis de tranquillité. Il est considéré comme le plus ancien temple zen de Kyoto.