Wine journalist Yasha Lysenko spent a month traveling across Japan and shares with Locals Insider a first-time route through the country: from meditative Kyoto and the temples that shaped it, through the memory and rebirth of Hiroshima and its sake region — to layered, ever-surprising Tokyo, with a day in Nikko along the way.
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Book your transfer →Destinations to Visit in Japan: Start with a Spiritual Kyoto
Even before my first encounter with Japan, I was expecting a different experience of time and space. A slower rhythm, one in which emptiness doesn’t need to be filled, silence becomes a value in itself, and there’s more room for contemplation. That’s how it turned out. This feeling arises everywhere — in the arrangement of space, in gestures, in conversations, in the most ordinary scenes. And it manifests especially clearly in Kyoto. Here Japan — at least the Japan I had imagined — happens at every step. This city should be the starting and central point of your acquaintance with the country.
“Here Japan — at least the Japan I had imagined — happens at every step.”
I found myself here in May, at the best moment, as my Japanese interlocutors repeatedly pointed out during my trip. The cherry blossom tourist wave has subsided, the rainy season hasn’t started yet, everything around is green, and the temperature is moderate.
From Temple to Temple: Kyoto’s Essential Activity
In Kyoto, we skip the list of must-see attractions and move without hurry, gradually building our own route.
The key activity is wandering from one Shinto shrine to another, from one Buddhist temple to the next. There are about two thousand of them here — more than anywhere else in Japan. This is the legacy of more than a thousand years when Kyoto was the imperial capital and the country’s main cultural, religious, and artistic center. Almost untouched by the destruction of World War II, the city preserved a rare historical continuity.
In 1945, it was on the shortlist of possible atomic bombing targets. It was removed from the list by US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, who had been to Kyoto and remained under the powerful impression of its beauty.
That beauty manifests in the precise geometry and almost weightless architecture of the Buddhist temples — wooden, permeated with soft light passing through paper partitions. Here you can settle onto tatami and gaze for a long time at a garden sometimes reduced to a few stones, an old lantern, and a strip of moss. In the Japanese tradition, space is not meant to be filled to the end — not with objects, not with feelings, not with words.
Hence the attention to pauses, halftones, half-shadows. To emptiness as an independent form of presence.
“In the Japanese tradition, space is not meant to be filled to the end — not with objects, not with feelings, not with words. To emptiness as an independent form of presence.”
The Lesser-Known Temples: Tofuku-ji, Eikan-do, Shoren-in and Saiho-ji
There are temples and shrines listed in any guidebook (Kinkaku-ji “Golden Pavilion,” Ginkaku-ji “Silver Pavilion,” Fushimi Inari-taisha, Kiyomizu-dera “Pure Water Temple”) — better to visit them early in the morning, otherwise there’s no escape from the crowds. But I strongly recommend visiting places that are talked about less often: Tofuku-ji, Eikan-do Zenrin-ji, Shoren-in, and Saiho-ji.
The last one is a Zen Buddhist temple famous for its garden with over 100 species of moss. Until 2023, you could only book a visit by regular mail: those interested would send a postcard to the temple and wait for a reply with a date. Today online registration is open, but you should still arrange it well in advance.
The activities at all these temples are as follows: reading, copying sutras, tea ceremony, watching the gardeners collect fallen leaves one by one and re-draw the waves on white gravel.
The Perfect Evening: Funaoka Onsen
As for the evening, the ideal scenario is this. Head to a historic sento — a Japanese public bathhouse with separate bathing areas for men and women. Funaoka Onsen opened in 1923; inside, carved wooden panels from the Taisho and early Showa eras have been preserved, depicting scenes of Japan’s colonial expansion, samurai, and mythological subjects.
It was here in 1933 that the country’s first electric bath appeared. In addition to that, there are indoor baths, an open-air rotenburo with an artificial grotto, cold baths, and a jacuzzi.
You’ll surely draw the attention of locals, who aren’t used to seeing foreigners here. To avoid breaking etiquette, wash thoroughly before bathing, and dry yourself completely before returning to the changing room. For the Japanese, the bathhouse is not entertainment but a daily ritual of restoration.
After the Bath — Late-Night Ramen and a Jazz Bar
After the sento, head out for late ramen. A hot, salty broth after the bath is a fairly customary way for locals to end an evening. Not far away is Noodle Shop Rennosuke — a tiny restaurant hidden among identical residential buildings in the Murasakino district.
Here they prepare a clear broth on dashi and light soy sauce, with homemade noodles from Kyoto wheat and thinly sliced baked pork from a local producer. Everything is served in Kiyomizu-yaki ceramics, in a minimalist interior, and to the sound of jazz.
If you don’t want to end the evening yet, head to The Common One Bar Kyoto. It’s tucked away in a Gion alley, in an old Kyoto house: dim light, a wooden counter, jazz, and cocktails that are born from a conversation with the bartender. Here I had a flawless Japanese Old Fashioned and a curious cocktail based on sake and matcha.
Meanwhile, a maple tree darkened behind the window. For Japan, this is a characteristic detail: even in a tiny bar with a few seats, there’s often an inner tsuboniwa garden around which the entire space is built. In Japanese culture, there’s a strong sense that a person shouldn’t be separated from nature — it should remain nearby even in the most intimate interior.
“In Japanese culture, there’s a strong sense that a person shouldn’t be separated from nature — it should remain nearby even in the most intimate interior.”
A Culinary Evening: Kushikatsu Bon and Juu-go
We continue our gastronomic exploration at Kushikatsu Bon Kyoto, located near the Imperial Palace. It’s a restaurant in a traditional Kyoto house where the chef prepares kushikatsu — a local classic: meat, seafood, and vegetables on skewers in an almost weightless batter. A ten-course lunch omakase — wagyu, New Caledonian shrimp, Kyoto asparagus, sea snails in béchamel sauce, and other seasonal products — costs just 2,800 yen. One of those rare cases when exceptional attention to detail is barely reflected in the bill.
Another place not to skip is Juu-go, a tiny six-seat restaurant by Akii Ishibashi, located right by the canal of the Philosopher’s Path — one of the quietest walking areas in eastern Kyoto. There’s one dish on the menu — soba. Ishibashi grows the buckwheat himself and only starts kneading the dough after the guest takes their seat at the counter.
He cuts the noodles deliberately thick so that the grain flavor and texture come through more vividly, and serves them with tsuyu, green onion, and daikon. Book a table in advance, though the meal itself is surprisingly inexpensive.
Hiroshima: A Story of Rebirth
From Kyoto, via Osaka, it’s easy to reach Hiroshima. This is a city that has passed through trials that don’t fit into the mind. A reminder of them stands in the memorial park at the very center. Here are the ruins of the former Industrial Exhibition Hall (the Genbaku Dome) and the Eternal Flame, which is supposed to go out only when there is no nuclear weapon left on Earth.
I thought that the experience of visiting Hiroshima would be somewhat gloomy, existential. But despite its heavy past, today it’s a green city full of life. It makes sense to stay at the recently opened, stylish Hilton Hiroshima. The hotel is done in the spirit of contemporary Japanese minimalism: lots of light wood, natural stone, high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, a spacious spa.
It’s a perfect starting point for exploring the city on foot: through the bustling Nagarekawa and Hondori streets to Hiroshima Castle, and then swapping the urban rhythm for the silence of the Hiroshima Museum of Art.
“I thought that the experience of visiting Hiroshima would be somewhat gloomy, existential. But despite its heavy past, today it’s a green city full of life.”
The Hiroshima Museum of Art: A European Modernism Collection
This is a must-visit — another reminder of how Japan rebuilt the city after the war. Founded by the Bank of Hiroshima in 1978 as an anniversary gift to the city, the museum was conceived as a place that returns joy and peace of mind. The collection was assembled even before the opening, in the late 1960s and 1970s, when many masterpieces of European modernism still didn’t cost astronomical sums. That’s how they managed to assemble an outstanding selection: early Picasso with “Two Women at a Bar,” Vincent van Gogh’s “Daubigny’s Garden,” as well as works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Chagall, and Modigliani.
The Sake Region: From Saijo to Dassai
While you’re in Hiroshima, it’s worth continuing your acquaintance with the region through sake. Just forty minutes from the city is Saijo — one of the three historical centers of Japanese sake brewing, where seven active producers are concentrated along a single street.
And if you continue southwest, in the neighboring Yamaguchi Prefecture you can visit the production facility of Dassai — one of the most recognizable contemporary sakes in Japan. The sakegura is located in a narrow forested valley by a mountain river, across which the Kusugi Bridge is thrown. The old bridge was destroyed by the 2018 flood; four years later, it was restored by the great Kengo Kuma, who clad it in local hinoki cypress. The bridge leads to a small tasting room and boutique — a bright wooden space with views of the river and dense forest.
Reading Tokyo
Less than four hours on the shinkansen from Hiroshima — and you’re in Tokyo. It’s worth taking a seat by the right window: after Shizuoka, if the sky is clear, you can enjoy a view of Mount Fuji.
Upon arriving in Tokyo, don’t try to find its “center” — in the usual European sense, there simply isn’t one. A European city usually gravitates toward a single point: a square, a cathedral, a historic core. Tokyo is arranged differently. Formally, the Imperial Palace could be considered its center, but for Tokyoites themselves, this is more of a historical symbol than the focus of city life. Around it are parks, administrative buildings, and business districts — lively during the day and noticeably emptying in the evening. Staying here or in neighboring Ginza, packed with tourists, is one of the most common mistakes.
