What's the must-see thing in Kyoto?

Kinkaku-ji sits in Kita-ku, about 25 minutes by bus from Kyoto Station on the 205 line. The original pavilion went up in 1397 as a retirement villa for shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. A monk burned it to the ground in 1950 (Mishima wrote a novel about it). The current structure dates to 1955, and those 200,000 sheets of gold leaf were reapplied in 1987. None of that history prepares you for the first 10 seconds after you round the entry path and the building appears across Kyōko-chi pond. On a still morning, the reflection doubles the gold against dark water. The air smells of cedar and wet moss. You might hear the sharp clack of a shishi-odoshi water feature somewhere behind the trees. By 10:30am, the path around the pond gets shoulder-to-shoulder. ¥500 entry, no reservation needed, gates open 9am to 5pm year-round.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is the one that shows up on every Instagram feed, and for good reason. The shrine sits at the base of Mount Inari in southern Kyoto, about 5 minutes from JR Inari Station. Over 10,000 vermillion torii gates line the trail up the mountain, and the full loop takes roughly 2 to 3 hours. Most visitors turn around at the Yotsutsuji intersection, about 45 minutes up, where the city view opens to the south. That said, the upper trail thins out considerably. You'll hear nothing but cicadas in summer and your own footsteps on gravel in winter. The paint on the torii smells faintly of lacquer in the heat. Free entry, open 24 hours. Going at dawn or after 4pm cuts the crowd from impossible to manageable.

Tenryū-ji in Arashiyama was founded in 1345 and holds a Sōgenchi garden that has looked more or less the same for nearly 700 years. The borrowed-scenery design pulls the Arashiyama mountains into the frame, so the garden feels three times its actual size. Walk north from the temple's rear exit and you're in the bamboo grove within 2 minutes. The light inside the grove is pale green, filtered through stalks 15 to 20 metres tall. The bamboo creaks when the wind picks up. Mind you, the grove is about 500 metres long, and by midday the path is so packed you cannot stop walking. Tenryū-ji entry is ¥500 for the garden, ¥800 if you add the main hall. The bamboo grove itself costs nothing.

If you have one day, do Kinkaku-ji at 9am, bus to Arashiyama for Tenryū-ji and the bamboo by 11am, then take the JR line south to Fushimi Inari for a late-afternoon hike when the crowds thin. Kyoto's grid layout seems walkable on the map, but the northern temples sit 8 to 12 kilometres apart. A one-day bus pass costs ¥700 (about $4.40) and covers nearly every route you'll need. Skip Kyoto Tower, the 131-metre observation deck near the station. The ¥900 entry buys you a view of rooftops that looks better from the free rooftop terrace at Kyoto Station itself. One more thing. If you're arriving with jet lag from a westbound flight, Fushimi Inari at 5:30am is a legitimate option. The gates never close.