Less Popular (Crowd) Heaven

If you are looking for somewhere with the best scenery or instagramable photos with the least crowd, then this is the place for you. It is located at the slightly Northern part of Kyoto City and it is on the hill. Thus, you might be able to see it snowing if the timing is right. (best photo if snowing). Too bad snowing ended weeks before I go, but still able to see some frozen snow on the ground/tree/roof, which made it a good view for photos as well. It is slightly further away from the city yet it is reachable by public transport. There were 4 of us, so we chose to take the cab, if you are solo or smaller group, just take the public transport with max 3 transfer only. Overall it should take 1 hr+/- to reach thr by public transport or 40min+/- by car. It is extremely amazing when we reach there earlier, no crowd + cold weather with some snowman and snow'rabbit' on the ground. Good time to take photo without stranger (which we would hope to see it happen at all tourist spots) Restaurant were not open before 11am. There is one souvenir shop where you can have some light cookies and hot drink though. It is a temple on the hill, where you can also pray, buy souvenir/amulet. One thing that is different from the rest is, you may pay 200 yen to get a paper and put it into the water for some fortune telling, the words will appear slowly on the paper after you put it into the water for a few seconds. There is a Qr code provided for translation as well. Such a unique experience. evening time, you may see they lighthen up the lamp and it makes it even more stunning view. I left earlier for other destination so didn't make it to that moment. I suggest you to try it if you have time for that. After finish, you can either take the shuttle bus (which is quite frequent), or slowly walk down from the temple to JR station, it takes maybe 20-30min but you will definitely see something different. Name: kifunejinja shrine 贵船神社 Opening hours: 0600-1800 daily Getting there: find a way to get to Keihan line Demachiyanagi station, walk 2 min transfer to same station Eizan Line, and all the way until Kibuneguchi Station. Walk 20-30min to reach there, or take the shuttle bus to go up there. Fee: free entrance