Kyoto

KYOTOSTARTER

Bamboo and the Moon Bridge

≈ 1,400 steps0.7 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

The three parts of Arashiyama that cost nothing: the bridge over the Katsura, the little shrine with the bark-on torii, and the public lane through the bamboo. A flat two-hour walk, best before nine or after four.

KYOTOSTARTER

Torii Before the Crowds

≈ 1,800 steps0.8 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

Fushimi Inari is open at every hour and costs nothing, so the honest way to do it is early. Walk in under the big gate, through the tunnel of torii, and up the mountain as far as the four-way crossing. About two hours if you take your time on the steps.

KYOTOSTANDARD

Downtown at Dusk

≈ 2,500 steps1.3 mi · about 4 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Kyoto's kitchen, its narrowest eating alley, its oldest road bridge and the canal the teahouses back onto — a flat kilometre and a half east across the middle of the city. Start about four so the market is still open and finish in the dark.

KYOTOSTANDARD

The Stone Slopes of Higashiyama

≈ 2,500 steps1.2 mi · about 4 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Two kilometres uphill from a shrine gate to a temple gate, on paving that has carried pilgrims for a thousand years. Everything on this list is free ground; the halls and gardens behind the gates are the parts that sell tickets.

KYOTOADVANCED

The Canal, the Path and the Aqueduct

≈ 7,500 steps3.4 mi · about 7 hoursAdvanced · 8 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

A full day down the eastern foothills, from the Silver Pavilion's bridge to the great torii at Okazaki, following water the whole way: a canal-side path, a Meiji aqueduct through a Zen precinct, and the rails that once hauled boats over a hill. Every stop is free; the gardens you pass are not.

KYOTOADVANCED

The Mountains That Ring the City

≈ 11,000 steps + 27 mi by car5.2 mi on foot · 1 day or moreAdvanced II · 9 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Two days in the hills on three sides of Kyoto: the Kiyotaki gorge and the thatched pilgrim road west, then the cedar valleys of Kurama, Kibune and Ohara north. Buses and a small railway, or a car. The gorge paths ice over in winter and the bus timetables thin out, so check before you go.

KYOTOADVANCED

The North Road

≈ 9,500 steps4.5 mi · a full dayAdvanced · 7 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

A day across northern Kyoto by city bus, from the gate of the Golden Pavilion to the oldest shrine in the city, taking in a hilltop park, a Zen precinct you can walk straight through, and a lane where they have been grilling rice cakes over charcoal for nine hundred years.