Landmark

Kiyomizu-dera + Higashiyama Walk

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Kyoto

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Worth it if

First-time Kyoto visitors, photographers, history-curious travelers, and anyone who wants the classic Kyoto walk.

Skip it if

People who cannot tolerate crowds and are unwilling to start early.

A temple platform built on a hillside above eastern Kyoto — the famous wooden veranda extending over the valley below — connected by preserved stone streets and stone steps to the Higashiyama walking route: Sannenzaka, Ninenzaka, old lanes with traditional shops and small shrines, leading down from the temple through older Kyoto streetscape.

The route from Kiyomizudera down through the Higashiyama streets is one of the most coherent old-Kyoto walks available. The architecture is preserved at street scale — you move through a landscape that still has the spatial proportions and materials of earlier Kyoto, even if most of the shops now sell tourist goods.

The approach streets, Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka, are beautiful and among the most photographed lanes in Kyoto. In peak season you walk slowly behind someone's camera the entire way up. The temple's main wooden stage, which is the iconic image, has seen phased renovation work in recent years. Check whether scaffolding is present before you make it a centrepiece of your Kyoto day. At 7am on a weekday in low season, before the souvenir stalls open, it genuinely earns every photograph ever taken of it. At 10am in cherry blossom season, it earns its reputation for crowds.

On the ground

Why locals go

Kodai-ji temple, a few minutes east of the main Sannenzaka route, has excellent gardens and significantly fewer visitors than Kiyomizudera despite being comparable in quality. It's one entrance fee away from the main flow.

What visitors miss

Otowa waterfall at the base of Kiyomizudera's main hall, where three streams pour into a basin and visitors queue to drink from a long-handled cup — each stream said to grant wisdom, longevity, or luck in love. The queue moves slowly but the architecture around it is interesting.

Best combined with

Fushimi Inari

Kyoto · 2–3 hours

Gion Early / Late Walk

Kyoto · 1–2 hours

Practical tips

The temple grounds open around 6am. Arriving before 8am gives you the place in near-silence.

Walk south through Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka rather than backtracking the way you came — the streets are different in each direction and the southern route is quieter.

The view from inside the main hall veranda is the one in all the photographs. The view of the main hall from the path below — the full wooden structure visible against the hillside — is less photographed and equally good.