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Kyoto

Kansai, Japan · March 2023

Stayed: Park Hyatt Kyoto, four nights
Paid with: World of Hyatt points, 40,000 a night I think
Where: 35.00° N · 135.78° E

Coming first: the JAL flight from Boston and three nights in Tokyo.

Where I stayed · Park Hyatt Kyoto

Somehow points bookings opened up about a month before I was going. Someone in one of my groups shared that, and I was able to book for my dates. It was the height of cherry blossom season, and base rooms at the Park Hyatt Kyoto were between $3,500 and $4,000 when I booked. The highest value points booking I’ve had, and it was worth it. Japanese hospitality in a high end luxury hotel is amazing.

The room

The room: bed, sofa and a round table, a stone wall garden outside

The entry hall looking through to the sitting area

The sofa by the window, a stone lantern in the garden

The bath behind glass, a robe hanging by the door

Coffee on the glass table

A small table on the garden terrace

The hotel

The lobby lounge with cherry branches

Morning view over the rooftops to a pagoda

Part one · The first morning

Temples and blossoms

A small temple hall with prayer streamers

A bronze cow statue in a bib

A quiet lane between walls

Temple roofs and a pagoda spire

A two-story temple tower among pines

A temple garden with a stone lantern

Cherry blossoms against the sky

Cherry blossoms up close

A branch of blossoms

A huge weeping cherry tree

Brendan in sunglasses under the blossoms

Part two · Kiyomizu-dera

Up the lanes to the temple

The afternoon I arrived, and again early on another morning.

Crowds on the steps to the red temple gate

A packed street of shops, people in kimono

The lane early, empty

Wooden shopfronts along the lane

Looking down the lane past a twisted tree

Blossoms in the temple grounds

A red and white temple hall

The city from the hill

Blossoms in front of the wooden stage

The temple on the hillside, a pagoda behind

The hillside covered in blossoms

Rows of old stone figures

A red three-story pagoda

Tiled roofs over the city

The shopping street, crowded again

Part three · Kinkaku-ji

The Golden Pavilion

The Golden Pavilion across the pond

The pavilion closer, over the water

The pond and pines, the pavilion behind

The pavilion above a pine

The top two floors in gold

The pavilion from the side, over the water

A stone pagoda in the garden

The golden roof over the gardens

Part four · Arashiyama

Blossoms by the river

Crowds under the cherry trees by the hills

Blossoming trees against the dark hillside

White blossoms against a deep blue sky

A pink weeping cherry

The monkeys on the hill

Monkeys on the dirt hilltop

Monkeys at the feeding hut window

A monkey sitting by the pond

Monkeys grooming in the sun

Monkeys on the hut roof

The city spread out below the hill

A monkey up a tree

Bamboo and the river

A red torii by the water

Tall bamboo along a path

Inside the bamboo

Light through the bamboo

The river and the mountains

The blossoming hills over the river at evening

Part five · Heian Shrine and the canal

On the way

A massive temple gate

A huge temple hall and its courtyard

A temple garden with a bridge and blossoms

A bell tower

Heian Shrine

Blossoms along the canal

The giant orange torii over the road

The long approach to the shrine gate

Weeping cherries in the shrine garden

Shrine roofs through cherry branches

A vermilion roof in pink blossoms

The pond through hanging blossoms

The garden pond and pines

A hall across the pond

The covered bridge with a pavilion on the pond

Rocks and blossoms in the garden pond

Along the water

A tour boat on the canal under the blossoms

Blossoms across the river

The riverbank path

Next: the JAL flight home from Narita, at the end of the Tokyo page.