Be on the slope below Kiyomizu by seven, and at Fushimi Inari after dark.
The east side is walkable end to end, and the last stop is lit after dark.
07:00 the lanes below Kiyomizu-dera, empty · 08:00 the temple itself, as it opens · 09:30 down Sannenzaka to Kodaiji · 11:00 Gion and the Shirakawa canal · 13:00 lunch · 15:00 Fushimi Inari — up through the gates · 18:00 the gates lit, and almost nobody on the path
A wooden stage built out over the hillside, held up by pillars and joined without nails. The lanes below it are the reason to come early.
Thirteen metres above the slope, on 168 pillars.
Stone-paved lanes of wooden shops. At seven they are yours.
A garden, a bamboo path, and far fewer people than the temple above.
The lanes are open at any hour and the shops open at ten. The same photograph at seven and at eleven is a different place.
Wooden fronts, lattice windows, and a canal lined with willows. Hanamikoji is the street people photograph; Shirakawa, two minutes away, is the one to walk.
Thousands of vermilion gates up a wooded mountain, and the shrine never closes. Most visitors come at noon and turn back after ten minutes of gates.
Each one donated. The oldest are the ones with faded paint.
Forty minutes up, and the whole city below you.
Lit, open, and almost empty. The gates are the point, and here you get them alone.
Forty minutes up to Yotsutsuji is the view. The full circuit is two hours and the crowd thins after the first ten minutes.
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