The main sites to visit in Kyoto’s eastern districts include the Shugakuin Imperial Villa, Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) and Eikando Zenrin-ji. The Philosopher’s Walk, is an easy path to stroll down, linking Ginkaku-ji to Eikando Zenren-ji and another temple Nanzen-ji. This makes spending one day in this area a nicely contained itinerary.

If I had to rank the top sites to visit in this area, they would be Shugakuin, Eikando temple, and Ginkaku-ji. So if you’re short on time, make a beeline to these three places. Honen-in shrine is atmospheric but small and Nanzen-ji has a great gateway and interesting aqueduct but admittedly I may have been a bit templed out by the time I got here. The Philosopher’s Walk is probably the most beautiful during cherry blossom season or in the autumn, but is otherwise a stroll along a small canal or big drain (depending on how you look at things).

I actually did my visits separately as on my first visit to Kyoto, I didn’t get permission to visit Shugakuin (see my earlier blog). But with a bit more advanced planning, I could have easily managed this. Shugakuin is one of the former imperial residences now managed by the Imperial Household Agency. Visits are free but you have to sign up in advance for a one hour guided tour. Since you have to get permission by going in person to their offices – there’s one at Kyoto Imperial Palace – it may be better to ask your hotel concierge if they can to do this for you (but limited to four guests in most cases) or an agent. There may be a fee involved. Alternatively there are limited slots available online – they are posted three months in advance in the Imperial Household Agency website. Just to note, you have to be 18 or older.

If I could redo my visit, this would be my itinerary:

• Morning: My morning visit to Shugakuin was ideal – I had a 10am tour slot – so after a relaxed coffee and croissant, we took a cab there. Normally they ask you to get there 15 minutes earlier to go through the passport check, to get the audio guide (as the tour is only in Japanese) and to watch an introductory video. From my hotel (I stayed at the Okura Kyoto Hotel), it was around a 25 minute ride. I could have taken a bus but this would have taken at least close to 50 minutes and since since we were running late, we didn’t want to take the risk.

  

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  Lunch: After the tour ended we went for lunch at Mamezen, a vegan ramen restaurant. It’s a slight diversion – we actually decided to do the 45 minute walk there (along the Takanogawa river) – but a great place to try a Kyoto specialty, soy based ramen. For more on Mamezen see my earlier blog (Mamezen article). If you do want to try Mamezen but don’t want to walk there, it’s easy to grab a cab outside Shugakuin. Lunch at Mamezen should be quite quick, we were done in around 30 minutes.

  

• Afternoon: I would start the afternoon at Ginkaku-ji. If you’ve been having lunch at Mamezen, the good news is that there’s a bus from the main street (Kitaoji-dori) that goes close to Ginkaku-ji. It should only around a 15 minute ride on bus 204 heading east to the stop closest to Ginkaku-ji and from the stop, it should not take more than ten minutes walk. I would allocate around one hour at Ginkaku-ji. Like Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion), Ginkaku-ji is more about the garden as you can’t actually enter the temple.
• On leaving Ginkaku-ji there’s a canal at one of the main junctions, with a path along side it on the left. This is the Philosopher’s Walk. There’s really not that much to see along this path but it’s still a pleasant walk – little traffic, some cute homes, and once in a while, some well fed cats.

  

• There are some signs pointing to turn offs where Honen-in shrine is and further down, where Eikando temple is. Since I had time to spare, I took a walk into Honen-in, which is a small shrine set in the trees. It’s an atmospheric shrine and I was lucky to see a wedding party come in to pay respects.
• Eikando temple ended up being one of our favourites. I could have spent more time here. While it doesn’t look that spectacular from the front, there are a actually a few structures in the compound that goes deeper back. Here you can look into the various rooms in the temples, which adds another dimension to the visit. There’s a wooden staircase leading up to one of the pagodas that is unique.

  

• Beyond Eikando, the next temple is Nanzen-ji. This is a big compound with a large gateway that you can visit for a fee along with the main temple and 12 smaller sub-temples. Because I was quite tired by the time I got here, I just made a bee’s line to have a look at the aqueduct.

  

• All in, with the temple visits taking around one hour each and the walk down the Philospher’s Walk (around 30 minutes), it should end up being a fairly heavy afternoon of walking of at least 3.5 hours, if you exclude a diversion into Honen-in. Probably a good time to take a rest and go for a good dinner.