After a full-some day of temple visiting, it’s great to hit a matcha café and sample a refreshing sweet, colourful and textural combination made from agar agar jelly; sweet red bean paste and green tea ice-cream.

In spite of the many western influences on Japan, the Japanese wedding has maintained most of the Japanese traditions. The bride and groom usually wear Japanese wedding kimono. The bride wears a white wedding kimono called “uchikake” with a white headdress. The headdress is big and bulky and is said to hide the bride’s “horns” as a symbol of submission. The groom’s kimono is usually black and has his family’s symbol embroidered on it in white.

The Philosopher’s Walk is a pedestrian path that follows a canal in Kyoto, between Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji. The route is so-named because the influential 20th-century Japanese philosopher and Kyoto University professor Nishida Kitaro, is thought to have used it for daily meditation. It passes a number of temples and shrines such as Hōnen-in, Ōtoyo Shrine, and Eikan-dō Zenrin-ji. It takes about 30 minutes to complete the walk, although many people spend more time visiting the sights along the way.

Kōdaiji is an outstanding temple in Kyoto’s Higashiyama District. It was established in 1606 in memory of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Japan’s greatest historical figures, by his wife Nene. Its main buildings feature richly decorated interiors and are surrounded by beautiful Zen gardens.

Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion) is a Zen temple along Kyoto’s eastern mountains (previously the site of a shogun’s retirement villa), with a beautiful moss garden and a unique dry sand garden.

The Gion District comes alive in the evening with crazy amateur paparazzi rushing around the laneways trying to “spot a geisha” and take a photo at any cost….most visitors, thank goodness, ask for permission, and usually receive a slight incline of the head as an okay.