Japanese learning blog
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
All articles · Page 79
Gion Guide: Hanamikōji, Yasaka Jinja, Manners and Japanese to Use
Gion is Kyoto's most famous geiko district, a few blocks of wooden teahouses, lantern-lit lanes and the vermilion gate of Yasaka Jinja. It is also where visitors most need to read the signs, because some lanes are private and photography rules are strict.
12 min readGinkaku-ji and the Philosopher's Path Guide: Walk and Japanese to Use
Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion, is a quiet Zen temple of sand and moss at the foot of Kyoto's eastern hills. From its gate the Philosopher's Path follows a canal south for about two kilometres, which makes this the best half-day walk in Kyoto for asking the way and chatting along the route.
12 min readNishiki Market Guide: Kyoto's Kitchen, What to Eat and Japanese to Use
Nishiki Market is a narrow, covered street of food shops in the centre of Kyoto, known as Kyoto's Kitchen. It is the best place in the city to taste pickles, tofu skin and grilled snacks, and every purchase is a small conversation in Japanese.
11 min readNijō Castle Guide: Nightingale Floors, Palaces and Japanese to Use
Nijō Castle was the Kyoto base of the Tokugawa shoguns, and its Ninomaru Palace is one of the finest surviving palace buildings in Japan, with painted rooms and floors that chirp as you walk. It is right next to a subway station and perfect for practising ticket-window and shoe-locker Japanese.
12 min readRyōan-ji Guide: The Rock Garden, the Tsukubai and Japanese to Use
Ryōan-ji is the Zen temple of the famous rock garden: fifteen stones on raked white gravel, framed by an old clay wall. It is a place for sitting still, and its signs and single stone basin hold some of the most quoted Japanese words in Kyoto.
11 min readSanjūsangen-dō Guide: 1,001 Kannon Statues and Japanese to Use
Sanjūsangen-dō is a single wooden hall about 120 metres long that holds 1,001 gilded statues of Kannon, rank upon rank in the half-light. It is near Kyoto Station, open every day, and full of short signs and questions that make good Japanese practice.
11 min readTōfuku-ji Guide: Maple Valley, Zen Gardens and Japanese to Use
Tōfuku-ji is a great Zen temple in the south of Kyoto, famous for a covered wooden bridge over a valley of maples and for bold modern rock gardens. It is one stop from Kyoto Station, easy to pair with Fushimi Inari, and a good place to practise buying temple tickets in Japanese.
13 min readKurama and Kibune Guide: Mountain Hike, River Dining and Japanese to Use
Kurama and Kibune are two villages in the forested hills north of Kyoto, joined by a mountain trail over the temple grounds of Kurama-dera. A half-day loop takes you from a cable car and tengu legends to a water shrine and, in summer, lunch on platforms above a rushing stream.
14 min readŌhara and Sanzen-in Guide: Moss Gardens, Village Temples and Japanese to Use
Ōhara is a farming village in the hills an hour north of central Kyoto, and Sanzen-in is its great temple: halls set in a cedar forest over a carpet of moss. Come for the gardens, stay for the quiet lanes, the pickle shops and the smaller temples further up the valley.
12 min readHeian Jingū Guide: Giant Torii, Palace Replica, Garden and Japanese to Use
Heian Jingū is a shrine built in 1895 as a scaled-down copy of the palace of the old capital, with a huge vermilion torii and a wide white-gravel courtyard. Behind it lies one of the finest Meiji-era gardens in Kyoto, with stepping stones across a pond and weeping cherries in April.
12 min readTō-ji Guide: Five-Storey Pagoda, Kōbō-san Market and Japanese to Use
Tō-ji is the temple whose five-storey pagoda you see from the shinkansen as you arrive in Kyoto. Founded with the capital itself and later given to Kūkai, it holds one of the most powerful rooms of Buddhist statues in Japan, and on the 21st of every month it becomes a huge open-air market.
12 min readNanzen-ji Guide: Great Gate, Brick Aqueduct, Yudōfu and Japanese to Use
Nanzen-ji is one of the most important Zen temples in Japan, set at the foot of the eastern hills with a huge wooden gate you can climb and a Meiji-era brick aqueduct running through its grounds. The lanes around it are famous for yudōfu, simmered tofu, the classic temple-district lunch.
13 min readPractical guides
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