🏨 Gion and Fushimi Inari Shrine Kyoto Highlights with Government-Licensed Guide Activity

Gion and Fushimi Inari Shrine Kyoto Highlights with Government-Licensed Guide

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From $115.81

18 reviews (4.33)

Price varies by group size

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Pricing Info: Per Person

Duration: 6 hours

Departs: Kyoto, Kyoto

Ticket Type: Mobile or paper ticket accepted

Free cancellation

Up to 24 hours in advance.

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Overview

For the time and budget-conscious traveler, experience the Gion district with our government-licensed and experienced multilingual tour guides.

You'll start your day by meeting your guide at the Tatsumi Daimyojin Shrine, the center of Gion. While exploring Gion, your guide will show you the history and culture of geisha―from their kimonos and hairstyles to rules and daily rituals.

You'll walk down the cobbled streets of three Geisha areas in total―Gion, Pontocho, and Miyagawacho―while you listen to stories of Kyoto's ancient past. If you're lucky, you may even spot a geisha on the street!

This short but value-packed trip is a fantastic way of experiencing a side of Kyoto that most tourists do not get to see.

This private tour is a walking day tour with a guide. A private vehicle is not included.

What's Included

Licensed Local Guide

What's Not Included

Entrance fees (for yourself)

Lunch (for yourself)

Other personal expenses

Transportation fee (for yourself)

Traveler Information

INFANT: Age: 0 - 5
CHILD: Age: 6 - 11
ADULT: Age: 12 - 99

Additional Info

Contactless payments for gratuities and add-ons
Gear/equipment sanitised between use
Hand sanitiser available to travellers and staff
Paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms
Regular temperature checks for staff
Service animals allowed
Specialized infant seats are available
Temperature checks for travellers upon arrival
Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised

Contactless payments for gratuities and add-ons
Gear/equipment sanitised between use
Hand sanitiser available to travellers and staff
Paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms
Regular temperature checks for staff
Service animals allowed
Specialized infant seats are available
Temperature checks for travellers upon arrival
Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.

What To Expect

Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.

60 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Gion

Gion (祇園) is Kyoto's most famous geisha district, located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain.

Gion attracts tourists with its high concentration of traditional wooden machiya merchant houses. Due to the fact that property taxes were formerly based upon street frontage, the houses were built with narrow facades only five to six meters wide, but extend up to twenty meters in from the street.

• Admission Ticket Free

Gion Shirakawa

Another scenic part of Gion is the Shirakawa Area which runs along the Shirakawa Canal parallel to Shijo Avenue. The canal is lined by willow trees, high class restaurants and ochaya, many of which have rooms overlooking the canal. As it is a little off the beaten path, the Shirakawa Area is typically somewhat quieter than Hanami-koji Street.

Many tourists visit Gion hoping to catch a glimpse of a geiko or maiko on their way to or from an engagement at an ochaya in the evenings or while running errands during the day. However, if you spot a geiko or maiko, act respectfully. Complaints about tourists behaving like ruthless paparazzi are on the increase in recent years.

• Admission Ticket Free

Yasaka Shrine

Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社, Yasaka Jinja), also known as Gion Shrine, is one of the most famous shrines in Kyoto. Founded over 1350 years ago, the shrine is located between the popular Gion District and Higashiyama District, and is often visited by tourists walking between the two districts.

The shrine's main hall combines the honden (inner sanctuary) and haiden (offering hall) into a single building. In front of it stands a dance stage with hundreds of lanterns that get lit in the evenings. Each lantern bears the name of a local business in return for a donation.

Yasaka Shrine is well known for its summer festival, the Gion Matsuri, which is celebrated every July. Arguably the most famous festival in the whole country, the Gion Matsuri dates back over a thousand years and involves a procession with massive floats and hundreds of participants. The shrine also becomes busy during the cherry blossom season around early April, as the adjacent Maruyama Park is one of the most famous cherry blossom spots in Kyoto.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Tatsumi Daimyojin Shrine

The inner torii of the Tatsumi Daimyojin shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto. It is located near Shira-kawa, an area famous for ochaya (tea houses) and geisha activity. The story behind the shrine seems vague to me, but it appears that it was built to appease an foul-tempered tanuki who was bothering the geiko crossing the Kamo-gawa.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Over 1250 years have passed since the foundation of Kiyomizu-dera Temple. Halfway up Mt. Otowa,
one of the peaks in Kyoto’s Higashiyama mountain range, stands the temple, to which large numbers of visitors
come to pay their respects to Kannon, a deity of great mercy and compassion. For this reason, our temple is
known as a “Kannon Reijo.” “Reijo” is a Japanese word meaning a “holy place”
with which the Kannon’s compassion is abundant.

60 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

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Gion and Fushimi Inari Shrine Kyoto Highlights with Government-Licensed Guide Activity - Kyoto Travel Guide

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