In June 2013 I went to Japan for a few days as a vacation before returning to Taiwan. I went to Tokyo for one day first, then to Kyoto by night bus, stayed six days there, and then back to Tokyo for two days before leaving. See the full photo set for more pictures.
Kyoto
Arrival and lodgings
I got to and from Kyoto from Tokyo (see below) by night bus, which was not great for sleeping but ok.
In Kyoto I stayed for three nights at A-yado Gion hostel (in Gion), and two nights at Small World guest house in Kita-ku. The later was more charming; it is a converted machiya (traditional wooden house) with only space for a few people, and roof access. When I was there it also happened to feature friendly Taiwanese girls and friendly drunk disappearing Korean guys. The Gion hostel had more westerners, also often drunk, including a group of American military cadets.
Kyoto feels quite relaxed after Tokyo and Taipei, and was a nice place to stay.
Temples
Most of the attractions in Kyoto are temples, which are all over but especially on the east side of the city. There are so many temples that I usually haven't tried to label them here, but there are some that had particular historical or sight-seeing interest for me. Temples are usually free to visit the outer grounds, but charge to visit inner gardens or other particular features.
First is Chion-in, the headquarters of the Jōdo-shū school founded by Honen.
Next is Kiyomizu-dera, on a hill overlooking the city.
Next is Fushimi Inari, the main temple of Inari. It has thousands of torii gates, mostly lining paths. There are many shrines of various sizes along the paths, and views.
Next (and a bit outside Kyoto) is Enryaku-ji, the Tendai school's former fortress monastery (now just regular monastery and temple) founded by Saichō on Mount Hiei. Hiei-zan also is good for walking around, but since it was starting to rain when I got there there were no views and I didn't walk too far.
Other than that there are many other temples of various kinds.
City
Gion is in the central east of the city, near many of the temples. It still has some feeling of age with a few areas of wooden houses, but it also has a lot of newer buildings. It has a lot of restaurants (and probably bars and things) that look very exclusive and expensive.
The main nightlife area is just across the river from Gion, and past that is a shopping area.
Kita-ku has more quiet residential streets.
I didn't see too much of the rest of the city.
River and animals
There is a path most of the way along the river through Kyoto, which is nice for walking. Here there were some small birds that came to eat my breakfast with me, larger birds fishing in the river, some kind of predatory bird that liked to circle in groups near the river, ducks, pigeons, and what I assume was a muskrat.
Other things
Another new Taiwanese friend told me about Sakamoto Ryōma, so I went to see Teradaya Inn where he was attacked by government forces and successfully fought them off.
I also went to find where my mother's family used to live in Kita-ku Koyamahananoki-cho, not far from the second guest house.
I also went a bit south to Uji (I think this was on the advice of the aforementioned Taiwanese girls), where there is tea and more temples. It is quieter and closer to the forested hills than most of the tourist areas in Kyoto.
Tokyo
The first day in Tokyo I only had part of the day after getting from the airport to the city, so I went to Shinjuku since my book describes it as a "Tokyo in a microcosm". It has a shopping area ranging from somewhat seedy to seemingly a bit upscale, and on the other side of the train station has a businessy area with many large buildings including the Metropolitan Government Building.
After getting back from Kyoto (see above) I had two whole days in Tokyo. I stayed at a capsule hotel in Asakusa. Asakusa is quite nice, with a market and shopping area surrounding Senso-ji temple.
I went to see the Imperial Plaza, but the gardens were closed when I got there.
I went to Akihabara.
I went to Shibuya and Harajuku (I'm not sure where the boundary between the two is).
I went to Roppongi but don't seem to have any pictures. One morning I walked from Asakusa down the river the harbour area. There is a path along the river for some of the distance, but not all. I also walked to Ueno (near Asakusa), where there is a park.
Miscellaneous notes
Crosswalks sometimes have what are probably two lanes separated by kind of stripe, and sometimes also a bicycle lane. All of the lane markings are usually ignored. Crosswalk stop/walk lights sometimes have the countdown time indicated by two vertical progress bars, but never (that I saw) numerically. Bicycles are quite common and there are often bicycle lanes on sidewalks, which also seem to be usually ignored. People seem to hold right when walking slightly more than Vancouver people hold left, but confusingly bicycles seem to hold to my right regardless of which way I am going or they are going; there must be some pattern that I missed here. People follow traffic rules at least as much as in Vancouver, and cars actually stop for pedestrians without the pedestrians having to walk into traffic. Similarly jaywalking is ok at roughly Vancouver levels.
Subways and other commuter trains are pretty good in both Tokyo and Kyoto. However, there are at least two operators in both locations. Transfers are usually possible so that this isn't much of a problem, but sometimes it makes maps and tickets confusing. Stations are sometimes cramped and feel old.
Japan feels fairly similar to Taiwan to me, but often more formal and closed-off. The climate might be better. It's at least as expensive as Canada, and vegetarian food is hard to find.