Know Before You Go to Kyoto
Kyoto is a beautiful city filled with rich and wonderful history, art, food, and culture—definitely worth putting on your bucket list! Here are some things that you should know before you go:
Language Barrier: You don’t necessarily need to know Japanese to get around but don’t expect people to speak your language. As a native English speaker, I am quite used to people speaking English to me when I travel (and assuming that everyone will), even when I don’t really want or need them to. That is not the case in Kyoto nor necessarily in the rest of Japan. This is not to say that you won’t find anyone who can speak your language (English in my case) because some people will. But in my own travels, neither my hotel, the help counter in the train stations, or the airports spoke my language so the Google Translate App was a lifesaver. Long story short— be prepared for charades, pointing, and wonderful people who will try their best to help even if they might not necessarily understand.
Safety: As a solo female traveler, I have never felt safer than I did walking around Kyoto at any point day or night. While I did not understand street signs nor could I ask for help when turned around, I never felt like I was in any danger walking through an alley, getting off at the wrong train stop, walking through large crowds, or going to public events.
Physical vs Digital: If you are going to be visiting Japan (not just Kyoto) be aware that the physical, tactical way always wins out. While certain places do accept contactless tap payment, app based tickets, or digital reservations, the majority of places that I visited used physical money, paper tickets, and in person sign up sheet reservations. Before you go, make sure you take out cash!
Tickets for Attractions: Are there specific things that you want to see when you are visiting? If so then make sure you know in advance if you need tickets to see those things and where you need to go to get them. Keep in mind that this does not only apply to transit. Are you going temple hopping? Looking to see a specific exhibit in a museum? Maybe you are trying to have a one of a kind experience. Whatever your experience, know where and what you need to do in advance so that you don’t miss out. For certain places, you can buy your tickets online and pick them up in person, for others you might need to queue, or (like the Ghibli museum) pick up your tickets at a konbini or other well known location. If you are in doubt I suggest googling, asking your accommodations, or even calling directly in advanced.
Do Your Research: It’s important to know where you are going and what to expect from a culture perspective. What I mean by that is be aware how your culture might differ from where you are going when you travel. For me some things that I needed to know before I went to Kyoto were things like: It is forbidden to take pictures in certain areas of Kyoto, shoes must be taken off in temples/shrines/certain restaurants/ certain areas in hotels or public places, trash cans are few and far between, eating and drinking while walking is considered rude so scheduling time for sit down meals (which is not the norm for us), a lot of restaurants don’t take reservations so check before you go if there is somewhere you want to eat and be prepared to queue, and lastly try to understand what is considered rude so that you don’t accidentally offend.
Last Thoughts:
I loved Kyoto and Japan as a whole. Everything about my time there could only highlight how beautiful the country, culture, and language were as well as how amazing the people I encountered were. With such a safe, easy, and optimized travel experience, I hope that everyone reading this takes the tips I learned into account to have just as incredible an experience as I did.
