Yase Hieizanguchi

八瀬比叡山口駅

Yase Hieizanguchi Station on the Eiden Line is where visitors to Enryakuji Temple can transfer to the Eizen Cable Car to ride to the top of Mt. Hiei in Kyoto.

The short walk between Yase Hieizanguchi Station and the Cable Car station goes past some small lakes and follows the Takano River. There are some pleasant walks along the river bank in both directions and people come here for riverside BBQs and to see the autumn leaves. Buses to Ohara also stop at Yase Hieizanguchi  Station.

The Eiden Line runs between Demachiyanagi Station and the village of Kurama in the hills north of the city.
Yase Hieizanguchi map

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Yudofuya Restaurant

Kyoto's Ryoanji Temple's large garden contains the vegetarian restaurant Yudofuya serving yudofu - boiled soy bean curd topped with a mix of seven herbs.

Other things on the menu include beer, sake, rice and juice. The full yudofu set costs 3,300 yen or just yudofu with vegetables is 1,500 yen.

The tatami-style seating looks out over a lovely garden complete with pond and lovely pine and maple trees. An English menu is available.

Yudofuya
13 Goryonoshita-machi
Ryoanji
Ukyo-ku
Kyoto
Tel: 075 462 4742

Ryoanji Temple Burmese Pagoda

Kyoto's Ryoanji Temple has other large gardens as well as its world famous dry stone Zen garden.

As visitors walk from the Zen garden they will see a white Burmese style pagoda on their way to the exit. This pagoda was raised in 1970 by Joei Matsukura, the 58th Chief Priest of Ryoanji who served in a mechanized division in Burma during World War II.

The white pagoda serves as a memorial and cenotaph for soldiers who died in the Burma campaign (1942-1945) and was built with donations from their comrades in arms who managed to return safely to Japan.

There are similar pagodas throughout Japan including one on the summit of Mt. Bizen in Tokushima, Shikoku.

Access - Getting to Ryoanji

Bus #59 from Keihan Sanjo station or Ryoan-ji Station on the Keifuku Kitano Line from Kitano Hakubaicho station.

13 Ryoanji Goryonoshita-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto
Tel: 075 463 2216

Details

Mar 1st - Nov 30th : 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Dec 1st - End of Feb : 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Fee

Adults, High School students: 500 yen

Junior High School students and under: 300 yen

Kyoto Cycle Tour Project Kinkakuji

The branch of Kyoto Cycle Tour Project near Kinkakuji Temple is useful if you want to tour western Kyoto: Kinkakuji, Ryoanji and Ninnaji but only if you want to do that tour in the morning at the shop closes at 1.30pm. Otherwise you have to drop off your bike at one of KCTP's other outlets (see below) before 7pm and pay an extra 800 yen for the pleasure.

The bike I hired was the standard class 1,000 yen a day bone-shaker and was far to small for a 6ft foreigner. Only 2 out of the 3 gears worked and the extra 800 yen drop off charge made the whole deal rather expensive.

Kyoto Cycle Tour Project has other outlets near Kyoto Station near the APA Hotel Ekimae and the Rihga Royal Hotel  at Nishiki-kita (at the Hotel Co-op Inn) and Fushimi (at Urban Hotel). An alternative rental shop near Kyoto Station is Miyakoshiki Fuune, where visitors can rent battery-assisted bicycles.

Hibachi

火鉢

As generators of heat in Japan's cold winter months, hibachi are now little more than curiosities. These antique charcoal braziers are usually ceramic and lined with metal. Hibachi were (and occasionally still are) used to boil a kettle and also as an outsize ashtray as smokers would light their bamboo kiseru pipes on the charcoal and then empty them into the ash by tapping the bowls on the metal rim.

Hibachi can still be bought in antique shops and flea markets such as those at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine and Toji Temple in Kyoto. Hibachi can make for garden ornaments either as fish ponds or plant vases. They are also attractive as interior decorations.

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