---
title: "Sakura Revisited: Cherry Blossoms of Nagoya, Osaka & Kyoto (Part 2)"
site: "The Quiet Vacationer"
site_url: https://quietvacationer.com/
url: https://quietvacationer.com/2026/08/04/sakura-revisited-cherry-blossoms-of-nagoya-osaka-kyoto-part-2/
date_published: 2026-08-04
date_modified: 2026-08-19
author: "The Quiet Vacationer"
categories:
  - "Trip Reports"
tags:
  - "Japan"
---

# Sakura Revisited: Cherry Blossoms of Nagoya, Osaka & Kyoto (Part 2)

This is the second and final part of our 2026 cherry blossom trip to Japan. [Part 1](https://quietvacationer.com/2026/07/24/sakura-revisited-part-1/) covered Nagoya and Osaka, along with the side trips out to Kobe, Arima Onsen and Minoh. This part covers Kyoto.

## Osaka as a base, Kyoto by train

We did not move our things up to Kyoto for this leg. We kept our base in Osaka and took the train up each time instead, which is what we had done the year before as well. Accommodation in Osaka is generally cheaper during sakura season, and the journey is short enough that treating Kyoto as a day trip did not cost us much in time. With a JR Pass, getting there is about as easy as it gets, because you can take either the Shinkansen or a JR express and be in Kyoto in under 20 minutes.

Because we made the trip several times, we ended up on a mix of different trains rather than the same service twice, which turned out to be one of the small pleasures of doing it this way. On one of the regular local trains, we passed the Meiji factory and spotted the enormous chocolate bar mounted on the side of the building. It is exactly as cute as it sounds, and neither of us was expecting it, so we spent the rest of that ride watching out of the window in case there was anything else.

![The Meiji chocolate bar near the factory, seen from the train](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-1.jpg)
*The Meiji chocolate bar near the factory, seen from the train*

Kyoto in cherry blossom season is beautiful and it is relentlessly crowded. Both of those things are true at the same time, and we knew it before we went, so we planned our days around it as best we could.

## Philosopher’s Path

The Philosopher’s Path is a canal-side walkway in northeastern Kyoto lined with hundreds of cherry trees. When the trees are at full bloom, the canal turns into a tunnel of pink. We went in the morning, which helped a little with the crowds, although we would not want to overstate how much it helped.

![Philosopher’s Path cherry blossoms](https://quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-2.jpg)
*Philosopher’s Path cherry blossoms*

![Philosopher’s Path canal](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-3.jpg)
*Philosopher’s Path canal*

The walk runs roughly 2km between Ginkakuji, which is the Silver Pavilion, and Nanzenji, with cafes, small galleries and local shops scattered along the way. It is unhurried by design, and even with the number of people about, we found the atmosphere pleasant enough that we were happy to keep walking rather than cut it short.

## Lunch at Ginfuku

After the Philosopher’s Path, we had lunch at Ginfuku, a Kyoto-style Japanese restaurant. The food was a set-meal format with a clear kaiseki influence, well executed and reasonably priced for the location and the quality. If you are walking between Ginkakuji and Nanzenji anyway, it makes for a natural place to stop.

![Ginfuku interior](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-4.jpg)
*Ginfuku interior*

![Ginfuku lunch set](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-5.jpg)
*Ginfuku lunch set*

## Kodaiji and the Higashiyama district

In the afternoon we walked through Higashiyama, the historic preserved district of Kyoto. Our main stop there was Kodaiji Temple, a Zen temple founded in 1606 with moss gardens, bamboo groves and teahouses across its grounds. The cherry blossoms in the temple garden were still holding on when we visited.

![Kodaiji Temple cherry blossoms](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-6.jpg)
*Kodaiji Temple cherry blossoms*

![Ryozen Kannon temple nearby](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-7.jpg)
*Ryozen Kannon temple nearby*

The walk from Kodaiji up to Yasaka Pagoda and along Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka is one of the most photographed routes in Kyoto, and it was extremely crowded when we did it. We made our way through slowly, which is more or less the only option available to you, and the views of the pagoda were worth the patience it took to get to them.

![Yasaka Pagoda](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-8.jpg)
*Yasaka Pagoda*

![Higashiyama district streets](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-9.jpg)
*Higashiyama district streets*

## Duck noodles in Gion

For dinner we tried duck noodles in Gion. The way it is served echoed the hitsumabushi we had in Nagoya at the start of the trip, because the bowl is eaten in stages. You take it first as it comes, then with condiments added, and then with broth poured over whatever noodles are left. The duck was rich and the broth was clean, and it was interesting to come across the same idea applied to something completely different a few cities later.

![Gion duck noodles](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-10.jpg)
*Gion duck noodles*

## Maruyama Park after dark

Before heading back to Osaka, we walked through Maruyama Park after dark. The weeping cherry tree at the centre of the park is lit up at night during sakura season and is one of the better-known trees in the city. Ours was past its best by the time we got there, although even at the tail end of the bloom we thought it was worth seeing. The park fills up with people eating and drinking under the trees, which is hanami as most people picture it.

![Maruyama Park at night](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-11.jpg)
*Maruyama Park at night*

![Maruyama Park weeping cherry tree](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-12.jpg)
*Maruyama Park weeping cherry tree*

## Chasing down the Kyo-Train Garaku

The Kyo-Train Garaku deserves a section of its own, mostly because of how badly we nearly missed it.

We had not known the train existed. We were at the station waiting for a regular service on the Hankyu line into Arashiyama, and the Garaku was sitting there in front of us looking nothing like the trains either side of it. I looked it up on my phone while we stood on the platform and worked out what it was, but by then we had already boarded a different train, and we had no idea that people queue for this one well in advance.

What saved us was finding out that you can still get on at a later station along the route. So we got off at the next stop and waited there for the Garaku to come through. It was already full by the time it arrived, and we managed to get some seats at the rear end of it, and we did not particularly mind. The interior is designed around traditional Kyoto aesthetics, with intricate patterns and warm tones running through the whole carriage. It is an unusual thing to find on a city train, and it made for a memorable way to arrive.

![Kyo-Train Garaku exterior](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-13.jpg)
*Kyo-Train Garaku exterior*

![Kyo-Train Garaku interior details](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-14.jpg)
*Kyo-Train Garaku interior details*

![Kyo-Train Garaku interior details](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-15.jpg)
*Kyo-Train Garaku interior details*

We took it again on the way back, and this time we thought we had learned our lesson. We turned up at the platform a full 30 minutes early and it was already full, because the train sits at Kyoto for a while before it departs and people board it there rather than waiting where we were. If you want a seat on the Garaku, that is the part worth knowing. Getting there early is not enough on its own if you are joining partway along the line.

## The bamboo forest

The Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is one of those places that photographs well and still delivers when you are standing in it. The grove of towering bamboo is genuinely impressive, and the sound of the stalks shifting against each other in the wind is the part that no photograph gets across. It was crowded, as everywhere else in Kyoto was, and arriving early is the only thing that really helps.

![Arashiyama bamboo forest railway tracks](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-16.jpg)
*Arashiyama bamboo forest railway tracks*

## Iwatayama Monkey Park

Also at Arashiyama is Iwatayama Monkey Park, which you reach after a 20-minute uphill walk from the base. The park is home to around 120 Japanese macaques that roam freely across the hillside. At the top there is a small hut where you can feed the monkeys through a wire mesh, with the humans on the inside and the monkeys on the outside, which is a useful reversal of the usual zoo arrangement. The views over Arashiyama and the Oi River from up there are excellent, and worth the climb on their own.

![Iwatayama Monkey Park macaques](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/sakura-revisited-p2-17.jpg)
*Iwatayama Monkey Park macaques*

## Wagyu hitsumabushi at Kijurou

Lunch at Kijurou was one of the highlights of the Kyoto leg. The restaurant serves **wagyu** beef in the hitsumabushi style, so you get thin slices of heavily marbled beef over rice and eat it in stages, exactly as you would with the unagi version.

The beef is a great deal richer than the eel, and the fat content means you work through the bowl more slowly than you expect to. We thought it was exceptional. The marbling was visible in every slice and the flavour carried through all three stages of eating rather than fading out by the third. This one is worth booking ahead for.

![Kijurou wagyu hitsumabushi](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/sakura-revisited-p2-18.jpg)
*Kijurou wagyu hitsumabushi*

## Fushimi Inari and Mount Inari

Our final stop in Kyoto was Fushimi Inari-taisha, the Shinto shrine complex on the slopes of Mount Inari. The thousand torii gates lining the mountain path are one of the most recognisable images in Japan, and having now walked through them, we think they earn the reputation.

![Fushimi Inari torii gates](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/sakura-revisited-p2-19.jpg)
*Fushimi Inari torii gates*

The full hike to the summit takes around two hours. We went partway up instead, which still gets you through the dense, atmospheric stretches of the gate path without committing to the whole climb. The lower sections are the most photographed and by some margin the most crowded, and the further up you go, the more the crowd thins out.

## Getting home

We flew home from Nagoya on Asiana Airlines, retracing the routing we had come in on via Incheon. That gave us a second pass through the Korean Air Prestige Lounges and another Asiana economy flight, both of which we have covered separately in the [Asiana Airlines A330-300 from Nagoya to Incheon](https://quietvacationer.com/2026/05/15/review-asiana-airlines-a330-300-economy-class-ngo-icn/) and the [Asiana Airlines A350-900 from Incheon to Singapore](https://quietvacationer.com/2026/05/18/review-asiana-airlines-a350-900-economy-class-icn-sin/).

## Reflections

The blossoms were well into their late stage by the time we left, with petals starting to come off the trees. For a trip built entirely around catching them, that felt like a reasonable place to stop.

Keeping our base in Osaka and coming up to Kyoto by train worked better for us than moving hotels would have, and the variety of trains we ended up on became part of the trip rather than just the means of getting to it. The Garaku is the clearest example of that, and so, in a much smaller way, is the giant Meiji chocolate bar we spotted from a local service on an otherwise ordinary ride.

Two years running, we have gone to Japan for the cherry blossoms and come away with the same conclusion. You cannot plan the timing, only the flexibility to work around it. In 2025 we arrived to a late bloom and spent the trip chasing pockets of early trees. In 2026 the bloom came early and we happened to land in the middle of it. Both trips worked out, which suggests the trees are not really the point. If you go, build in room to move around, and treat whatever you find when you get there as the trip you were always going to have.

If you missed the first half, [Part 1](https://quietvacationer.com/2026/07/24/sakura-revisited-part-1/) covers Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Arima Onsen and Minoh.

---

*Originally published on [The Quiet Vacationer](https://quietvacationer.com/2026/08/04/sakura-revisited-cherry-blossoms-of-nagoya-osaka-kyoto-part-2/)*