About This Blog
Why I Started This Blog
Hello everyone! Thank you for stopping by my blog. My name is Yamato, and I’m Japanese, living in Kyoto with my wonderful wife and kids. I was born in the Kansai area of Japan, where I also grew up. During my twenties and thirties, I spent a decade living overseas, traveling the world and working abroad, until I finally found my place back here in Japan. Now, I’m excited to share my hiking experiences and hidden spots around Kyoto with you, hoping that you’ll discover the same joy and wonder I do every day.
A Spark of Inspiration
I want to start this blog by sharing how it all began. In the early 2000s, I was a backpacker wandering through Southeast Asia, India, and Europe, traveling alone in what I can only describe as a youthful “moratorium period.”Back then, there were no smartphones like we have today. Sure, we had internet cafés, email, and maybe Skype, but the best way to get local information was to talk face-to-face with people. We asked fellow backpackers on trains or buses, or we chatted with friendly shopkeepers for tips on where to go. We even wrote helpful notes in old-fashioned guesthouse notebooks to guide each other. It was a time when curiosity naturally led us to real human connections.
Nowadays, everyone—including me—relies on smartphones. When we travel, we open Google Maps, use apps like Uber or Grab to get around, pay with our phones, and rarely talk to local people.
In Kyoto, I often see the tourists glued to their screens, missing out on the personal interactions that make travel so enriching. Of course, we can’t blame them—technology is convenient, and that’s simply how the world works now. But that’s precisely why I want to share the real, lived experiences that aren’t always found on a screen.
Kyoto Through My Eyes
Kyoto has long been one of Japan’s most renowned tourist destinations. A few decades ago, I never would have imagined it becoming so crowded with visitors from around the world. If you stroll through well-known spots like Kiyomizu-dera(清水寺） or Fushimi Inari Taisha（伏見稲荷大社）, the sheer number of people can sometimes feel overwhelming. Even so, I’ve come to love Kyoto’s quieter corners—hidden shrines, lesser-known temples, and small hiking trails that wind through bamboo forests or lead to secret mountain viewpoints.
These places rarely appear in guidebooks, or if they do, they get just a tiny paragraph overshadowed by the more famous attractions. I hope to introduce these hidden gems to you, so you can escape the usual crowds. After all, a great journey isn’t just about visiting top landmarks—it’s about discovering the soul of a place and forming your connection with it.
If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll stick around for future posts. Together, let’s uncover Kyoto’s less-traveled paths, share in the spirit of mindful exploration, and maybe even revive that old-fashioned culture of helping each other. With just a little curiosity and the willingness to look beyond our smartphones, we can still make those real, human connections that make travel so enriching.