Peter Gonzalez

08/29/2026

5 things we didn’t know about Kyoto… until we came here. 🇯🇵
Kyoto was one of those places we thought we already knew.
Bamboo forests. Temples. Shrines. Incredible food.
But once we actually started exploring, we realized the places we’d seen a thousand times in photographs had stories we’d never heard.
So here are a few things about Kyoto that surprised us.
Swipe through → Which one did you already know?

japantrip

Those famous orange gates aren’t just decoration. ⛩️
The thousands of torii gates at Fushimi Inari have been donated by individuals and businesses, traditionally as an expression of gratitude or in hopes of good fortune and prosperity.
And once you know that, walking through them feels completely different.
What looks like one enormous piece of architecture is really thousands of individual stories stacked one after another.
Sometimes knowing the story changes the photograph.



Imagine leaving your mark here for generations.
Many of the torii gates at Fushimi Inari were donated by people and businesses, with the donor’s name and date inscribed on the gate.
Which means this incredible tunnel isn’t simply something that was designed and built all at once.
It grew.
Gate by gate. Donation by donation. Generation after generation.
That was one of those details we never knew until we were standing inside it.
Would knowing this make you see Fushimi Inari differently?



Plot twist: the monkeys roam free. 🐒
Above Arashiyama, more than 100 Japanese macaques live on the mountainside.
And this is the part we loved:
you’re the visitor in their space.
They aren’t wandering around an enclosure while everyone watches from outside. They live on the mountain, roaming freely around you.
It makes for a very different kind of wildlife experience, especially when one decides the path you’re standing on belongs to him. 😂
Put this one on your Arashiyama list.


Kyoto wasn’t always Japan’s “old capital.” It was THE ca