December 17 2025 / Japan / Travel diaries / Travel Writing /

Hiking the Kyoto Trail

A series of posts covering my November hike along the Kyoto Trail – an 80-kilometer hiking route that winds through the mountains surrounding Kyoto City and its periphery, originally written for Letters from Japan newsletter subscribers. The diaries begin the day before I set foot on the trail and follow through to the final stage, the Nishiyama Route, ending at Arashiyama.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

What is the Kyoto Trail?

Good evening from the Tokyo-Kyoto Shinkansen, which departs every ten minutes from Tokyo Station in the evening hours and covers the 365-kilometer distance between the two cities in just over two hours—this still excites me.

This visit to Kyoto has a different purpose than my previous trips, which often take place in early December to enjoy the fall colors or during the sweltering summer (please, don’t ask why), and only once during the cherry blossom season (see: three-day Sakura Trip to Kyoto). Over the next six days, before I fly to Aomori for an exciting reunion with friends from Turkey, I’ll be hiking the 130-km Kyoto Trail, which consists of two main sections.

Kyoto2 — Nishiki Market in Kyoto – photo taken during my first visit to the city in August 2012.

My focus will be the 84-km trail that encircles Kyoto City on three sides and is divided into four parts: the Fushimi-Fukakusa Course (9.5 km), the Higashiyama Course (24.6 km), the Kitayama Course (Eastern and Western, totaling 37.2 km), and the Nishiyama Course (12.3 km). If I have any time left—though I doubt it—I also plan to explore parts of the second main trail, the Keihoku Course (49.6 km), which traverses rural areas and forests in the northern part of the city through the Tamba district.

Fall colors over tori gate in Kyoto — Enko-ji Temple in Kyoto, December 2023.

While I’ve done many day hikes in between, including several on Rebun Island in Hokkaido in the summer and some fall hikes more recently, this will be my first multi-day hike since the Great Ocean Walk in Australia in May 2024. I expect this trail to be logistically—and physically—a lot less demanding, as it never strays far from Kyoto City—enabling me to stay at the same hotel every night and easily commute between my hotel and the daily start/end points by public transportation. This will allow me to hike with a day pack. Based on what I read, the only relatively challenging section of the trail appears to be the 4-hour route connecting the summit of Mount Hiei to Ohara, which I hope to cover on a rain-free day.

The Kyoto Trail primarily passes through mountains but occasionally wanders into more urban and dense areas, including those home to some of the city’s most famous landmarks, such as Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari, Ginkaku-ji, Arashiyama, and Enryaku-ji, among others. I have visited all these sites before, but if time permits, I wouldn’t mind making another quick stop.

I decided to hike the Kyoto Trail only last week after I received an email from HR about some unused vacation days that had somehow gone unnoticed and needed to be used—what an email to receive. With the upcoming winter season limiting hiking opportunities, I wanted to take advantage of these days off for a long hike. Since the wintery conditions were already kicking in on higher-altitude trails, I didn’t have many options.

I considered multiple alternatives, including the Kunisaki Trail in Kyushu and the Ise-ji Route of the Kumano Kodo, which I partially explored a few years ago. In the end, what attracted me to the Kyoto Trail—that I heard about only two years ago from a fellow hiker—was not only the chance to spend almost a week in one of my favorite cities in the world but also the simplicity of the logistics. The trail has many exit points connecting to the main road, allowing me to stay at the same accommodation throughout the hike. Additionally, since the trail is known for its temples and forested sections rather than scenic vistas, bad weather conditions would be much less of a mood killer. That said, according to the forecast, the first day of the hike is expected to be completely rainy (thanks to a typhoon), followed by almost a week of sunshine. In any case, I wouldn’t mind walking alongside a highway for a week these days, so I doubt that the Kyoto Trail will disappoint.

I am also grateful for the wonderful dual-language (English-Japanese) guidebook published by the Kyoto Trail Guide Association and the separate maps covering each section, which all helped tremendously with the planning process.

I will be posting a trail report for each day of the hike, just as I did during my ten-day walk last year exploring the Goto Islands off the coast of Nagasaki. While I intend to post daily or every couple of days, I sometimes struggle to keep up with that schedule (since I tend to go to bed a little bit too early). Daily posts also occasionally take me out of the moment, though not always. In the end, I plan to share six posts outlining the trail, one for each day, which I hope will be helpful if you decide to hike it yourself. Some parts of these trip reports will be exclusive to monthly and annual subscribers. Most of these posts will be Substack-only, as I don’t want to flood your inbox with six more messages this month, but there may be one mid-trial or end-of-trial email drop as well.

Travel diaries are a paid feature of my Substack newsletter, Letters from Japan. If you would like to unlock the travel diaries (both on Substack and this page) and/or subscribe to free monthly posts, this is the link: Letters from Japan

Hiking the Kyoto Trail: Day 1 – Come Rain or Shine

Travel diaries: November 2nd, Day 1 – Fukushimi-Fukakusa Route – 9.5-km

From the very first day, the Kyoto Trail appears to be a very fine route. I didn’t have high expectations—anything that would keep my legs moving for 5-6 days would work for me—but it seems this trail will turn out to be much more than that, introducing me to an even more lovable side of a city I already adored.

By the time I went to bed at my hotel in Kyoto—my Kyoto home after more than ten stays—last night, I wasn’t sure if I would start the hike today. A heavy rain warning had been issued for Western Japan due to Typhoon Kongrey, and I thought it would be wiser to wait it out, especially since the usually reliable Japan Meteorological Agency promised five consecutive days of sunshine starting tomorrow.

So, after waking up to a rainy morning and not being sure whether I would start the hike, I had a slow morning, getting the hotel breakfast (which I highly recommend), studying the trail maps (there are five of those), and thinking about where I would go if I did not start the trail. But then I started feeling restless (not that it takes much to feel that way for me) and decided to start the hike, planning to cut it short if the rain picked up. I am so glad that I did, since today`s section of the trail, the roughly 10-km route that connects Fushimi-Momoyama Station to one of Japan`s most visited shrines, Fushimi Inari, features sections that really put on a show on a rainy day.

To reach the trailhead, I took the train to Fushimi-Momoyama Station, which is just 10 minutes from Jujo Station, a few minutes away from my hotel. There’s a small but easily visible trail sign right outside the train station, marking the beginning of the trail. Along the Fukushimi-Fukakusa Route, you will come across 38 of those marks —F1 to F38. But since parts of the trail go through urban areas with many alternative route options, relying solely on those trail marks would likely not get you far, and downloading the Kyoto Trail Map on YAMAP (the beloved Japanese hiking app, which is unfortunately only available in Japanese) and/or buying the guidebook and the trail maps would be a safer choice.

Shortly after I started the trail at around 9:40 a.m., I found myself at the doorstep of Gokonomiya Jinja Shrine, which features an inviting walkway surrounded by trees. There was a ceremony taking place at the Shrine, which I suspect might be the Shichi-Go-San, to celebrate the health and growth of young children.

After a brief stop at the Shrine, the route gently climbed up and led me to Fushimi Momoyamojo Castle Ruins Park (I think I missed the very short detour to Emperor Meiji`s Mausoleum along this section). The castle structure you see today in the park is a replica of the original, built in 1594, which was later dismantled in 1623. Many of the castles you see across Japan are exquisitely crafted replicas of the originals, which may have been dismantled due to the policies of the time, burned in fires, or destroyed by earthquakes. Only 12 original castles remain today, but I think even the replicas work fairly well to evoke the aura of historical Japan.

Soon after leaving the castle park, the day’s only short climb began, leading me to Mount Oiwayama Lookout through a bamboo forest. It was a rainy day, so the view felt very short of being captivating, but I rarely care about city views in any case—when I climb up the mountains or hills, I would much prefer not to be reminded of the city down below, even if that city is Kyoto.

Once you get to the Mount Oiwayama Lookout, make sure to follow the narrow route that leads to the forest, not the main road. This section of the route that goes through a dark forest and passes by Oiwa Jinja Shrine was the best part of the day. I was alone on the trail, and the atmosphere felt a little eerie, which made it all the more memorable.

Once I sadly left the forest section behind, the route took me through a residential area before turning to another bamboo section, eventually leading to the beloved Fushimi Inari Shrine, the most important shrine dedicated to Inari, the god of rice, and known for its thousands of torii gates. It is a site even more famous than the floating torii gate of Itsukushima Shrine near Hiroshima.

I have visited Fushimi Inari many times before, but have never approached it from the northern side. The alternative route allowed me to enjoy the surroundings with very few people around until I reached the busier section (the word “busy” is sure not enough to explain the exact situation under the red tori gates of Fushimi Inari on any given day). I think Fushimi Inari is best to be visited on a rainy day—those umbrellas look good under those torii gates—or right before it gets dark later in the day, when the surroundings look and feel deliciously spooky.

It was a short day. I walked for about three hours, including numerous photo and sightseeing stops. I decided not to start the next section of the Higashiyama Course today (which also covers today`s section—the Fushimi-Fukakusa Route, added in 2014) as the rain intensified, and I knew I had plenty of time to complete the trail in the coming days. I am now back at my hotel, drying my clothes, and finishing this post after I re-read the “gates” chapter of Alex Kerr`s wonderful book Another Kyoto, which offers a very digestible guide to the architectural features of the city.

I will have an early night, and tomorrow will be a much longer day of hiking—likely around 9-10 hours, and sunny, even possibly a t-shirt day.

Hiking the Kyoto Trail: Day 2 – A Wonderful Yet Intense Day on the Trail

Travel diaries: November 3rd, Day 2 – Higashiyama Course – 20.5-km

Today was a beautifully long day of hiking—one of those days when each section of the trail felt like my favorite, until I reached the next. Maybe because I expected nothing more than a good long walk—given that Kyoto is known more for its scenic garden strolls than its hiking trails—this trail far exceeded my expectations. It also gave me a giddy feeling, as if I had unlocked the city’s hidden paths, allowing me to sneak behind its landmarks and enjoy them from a new, almost secret perspective.

This morning, I set out just after sunrise, around 6 a.m., and walked to Fushimi-Inari to locate the trailhead sign for the Higashiyama Course—a 24.6-km section that connects Fushimi-Inari to the summit of Mount Hiei in about 11 hours. Official time estimates tend to be a little conservative, so I assumed I could complete the trail in around nine hours, reaching the summit before sunset and in time to catch one of the last cable cars back to civilization. Everything went according to plan—until it did not. Near the very end of the hike, I had to take a detour after spotting the following sign: ‘A female trail runner had been attacked by a bear in this section.’ More about this later, and first, here are today’s trail notes.