Hiking the Kyoto Trail: Day 3 and 4 - Exploring Beyond the City

Travel diaries: November 4th and 5th, Day 3 &4 - Kitayama Eastern Course - 17.9-km

After the first day, which took me from Fushimi Momoyama Station to Fushimi Inari along the Fushimi-Fukakusa Route (9.5 kilometers), and a long, delightful (and a little scary) second day hiking the Higashiyama Route (24.6 kilometers) that connects Fushimi Inari to Mount Hiei, mainly on mountain trails with short urban segments but without straying too far from the city, Day 3 took me outside Kyoto to explore the Hiei mountainside and the charming rural area of Ohara, known for its stunning and historically significant temples. The plan was to cover as much ground as possible on the Kitayama Eastern Course, a 17.9-kilometer trail.

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I started the hike a little later than usual since I needed to take the cable car up to Mount Hiei, and the earliest one was at 9 a.m. The day before, I had to make a detour near the final section of the climb from the city to Mount Hiei because of nerve-wracking bear warning signs, so I missed the stretch between trail markers 64 and 78 of the Higashiyama Route. Maybe another day, another time.

Many people take the cable car up to Mount Hiei to enjoy city views and visit Enryakuji Temple, an expansive temple complex established in 788 that is the headquarters for the Tendai Sect of Buddhism in Japan. Exploring the temple grounds alone can take up a good part of the day, and a short detour is needed to visit the main grounds if you’re following the Kyoto Trail. For those looking for a quicker connection, there’s also a shuttle bus that connects Hiei Cable Car Station to the main temple grounds. Otherwise, the hiking trail, which overlaps with the Kyoto Trail until the final 15 minutes, takes around one to two hours along a gentle incline. I chose not to take the detour to Enryakuji, planning to save it for another day so as not to disrupt the meditative state the trail, comfortable weather, and morning light allowed me to slip into. Since November 4th was a national holiday in Japan, I shared the trail with about a dozen other people, which felt reassuring after the bear warning scare from the day before.

The scenery along the first portion of the Kitayama Eastern Course, except for the temple sections, wasn’t as impressive as the day before. The hiking route, though separated, often ran alongside the car route, and the forest felt a bit drier compared to the previous day’s scenery, enchanted with waterfalls and mossy rocks. However, I still enjoyed the experience, especially the relatively uninterrupted route, which put me into that meditative state of hiking when you think of nothing other than the movement of your body.