Kiyomizudera Temple, The Most Beautiful Temple in Kyoto

There are so many beautiful temples in Kyoto, but number one on my bucketlist was Kiyomizudera Temple. "You should go to Kiyomizudera and eat free mochi along Higashiyama District", my colleague told me.

Beside the temple, I read about the busy lane, which is called Higashiyama District. The lane is packed with souvenirs shops, mochi sellers, and matcha ice cream sellers ((Wooow matcha ice cream, I am comiiing!)).  

I have also seen many pictures of Kiyomizudera temple before going to Japan, and fell in love with it. We put our visit to the temple on our last day in Kyoto, and with it's beauty, I am sure this temple should be in your Kyoto's itinerary as well.

The Kiyomizudera Temple is amazingly beautiful!

How To Go To Kiyomizudera Temple

"Actually we could walk about 20 minutes to the temple", mr.husband told us when we left our lovely apartment in Kyoto. "Is there any bus from here?", I asked another alternative:p 

Going to Kiyomizudera Temple from Kyoto Station is easy. Hop on to bus number 100 or 206, and alight at Kiyomizu-michi bus stop. Don't worry if you don't know where to stop, there will be announcement in the bus both in Japanese in English regarding the next bus stop.

Our apartment is only 4 bus stop away from Kiyomizu-michi bus stop. So all the buses going to Kiyomizudera Temple were full of tourists who probably getting on the bus from Kyoto Station. 

We waited for a while at the bus stop, but after 3 buses full of passengers passed the bus stop, we decided to walk.

Waiting for bus 206 at Shichijo, the nearest bus stop from our apartment

You can do it, Kiddos!

Finally we saw a bus which has "Kiyomizudera" sign on it (but it wasn't neither bus 100 nor 206). We got in and stopped at Kiyomizu-michi bus stop. Then we started walking to the temple. It was really challenging to walk because there were so many tourist buses! Well, what can I say? We visited Kiyomizudera temple during the year end holiday. 

We just followed the sign and the crowd going to the temple

This street was shared for buses and also pedestrians

After a break at Family Mart (where I found a cup of matcha Starbucks in Family Mart's refrigerator, so happy!) we kept on walking to the temple. To avoid the crowd, we choose the other street going to the temple, and save Hagishimaya District for later. We could see the Three-storied Pagoda from a distance, and I told our Kiddos, "Yeay, we're almost there!"

Walking up to the temple

Enjoying The Free Area of Kiyomizudera Temple


Finally we reached the entrance to the temple, our Kiddos were tired. So we stopped a while at the entrance and Kiddos drink their milk. This area is free for visitors, you don't need to pay any entrance fee.

The last stairs before getting to the temple

You will need to take some breaks if traveling with your kids to Kiyomizudera Temple

After Kiddos' energy were back, we started to explore and taking pictures of the entrance area of Kiyomizudera temple.

Looking up to the red pagoda

The Three-storied Pagoda  

And a family picture in front of the Pagoda :)

My fave spot was one corner where we could sit and enjoy the view to Kyoto city.  

It was so beautiful to see Kyoto from this viewpoint

And I love the trees! 

Using his binocular to see Kyoto Tower

Entrance Ticket to Kiyomizudera Temple

Afterwards, we moved to the paid area, and had to buy the entrance ticket to Kiyomizudera temple. It cost JPY400 per person, very cheap considering how beautiful this temple is.

Buying the entrance fee before going inside

Welcome to Kiyomizu-dera!


Now let's see the inside area of the temple. After a toilet break inside the paid area of the temple, the first thing we saw was this heavy iron object. So I gave it a try and yeay I did it!

I was so happy:D

There were so many people inside the temple, that made us taking turn just to take pictures. While I was enjoying the beautiful city of Kyoto, mr.husband took pictures of people doing their prayer at the temple.

Can you spot the Kyoto Tower?

I asked mr.husband to walk to the other side of the temple and take a picture of me with Kiddos#2. Too bad our attempt failed, our pocket camera didn't succeed to take my picture with the whole temple:D

We also had to take turn with other visitors to take this picture.
The temple was really crowded!

We need a better camera next time, yeah what an excuse:p

We continued walking to the waterfall area, and mr.husband took some beautiful pictures of the temple. I am telling you once more, you have to visit this temple if you go to Japan.

The tree-storey pagoda and the Kiyomizudera temple

Imagine if we visit this temple during autumn, how lovely all the tress will be

Kiyomizudera temple, taken from the waterfall area

The Otowa Waterfall

Kiyomizu literarally means "Pure Water". The name derives from the fall's pure waters.

We went down to the Otowa Waterfall which is located at the base of Kiyomizudera's main hall. Despite the long queue, we joined it as our Kiddos#1 wanted to try.

There were three water streams as you may see in the below picture. Each is believed to give specific benefit: longevity, succes at school and fortunate love life. I didn't try it though, because I made a video of our Kiddos#1:D

We had to wait about 15 minutes for our turn

The three main streams of the waterfall

I asked Kiddos#1, how did the water taste? And he answered that it taste just like any other water.

Kiddos#1 trying to fill the cup with the water from the waterfall

Note: There were many restaurants around the Otowa waterfall area serving Udon. Actually we were hungry, but were not sure whether the food was halal.

If you have only one day in Kyoto and wondering which temple to visit, I would recommend the Kiyomizu-dera.

I will write a separate post regarding Higashiyama District, so stay tune for another story of our #JPFamTrip.



written on January 17, 2016 by @tesyasblog


Next Post:
Higashiyama District

Previous Post:
Breakfast at Tsukiji Market