What You Can't Miss in This District
Working from Nishiki Market, the star of the show, out to the riverside lanes you'll want to save for the evening — every stop is close to the next, so you can string them together in half a day to a full one.
🍢 Heart of the District1
They call it "Kyoto's Kitchen" — a narrow arcade under a coloured glass roof, about 400 metres long, with roughly 120 shops packed along both sides: pickles (tsukemono), grilled fish, sweet tamago omelette, even Kyoto kitchen knives. Some things you eat on the spot; others are the raw ingredients chefs across the city come to buy. There's something to try from one end to the other.
Kyoto Food Guide →
🏮 Along the Kamo River2
A long, narrow restaurant alley running parallel to the Kamo River, from Shijo Street up to Sanjo — quiet by day, but once the lanterns come on at dusk it becomes the most atmospheric place to eat and drink in Kyoto. There's everything from upscale kaiseki and yakiniku to tiny izakaya. In summer many places open their "riverside terraces" (kawayuka) out over the water to dine in the cool evening air.
Kyoto Food Guide →The main shopping street of modern Kyoto, crossing Shijo Street at the city's busiest intersection. Around it sit OPA, Marui, Takashimaya and rows of brand stores — this is where Kyoto's young people come to hang out, with drugstores, clothing shops and cafés all within walking distance. If Nishiki Market is the food, this is the shopping.
Kyoto City Guide →Two parallel covered shopping arcades running north from the east end of Nishiki Market — Teramachi leans toward antiques, stationery, green tea and genuine Kyoto souvenirs, while Shinkyogoku alongside it is livelier, full of youth shops, toys and sweets. The big plus is the roof: rain or shine, you can keep shopping in comfort.
Kyoto City Guide →The river through the centre of the city, with banks wide enough to sit down on — a classic Kyoto sight is couples and groups of friends settling along the bank at strangely even intervals (locals jokingly call it "Kamogawa spacing"). Walking the waterside from Shijo up to Sanjo is a cool, pleasant stretch — a free breather between eating and shopping.
Kyoto Attractions →A small shrine tucked at the east end of Nishiki Market, right where it meets the Shinkyogoku arcade — the odd detail everyone stops to photograph is the torii gate whose two ends vanish straight into the walls of the buildings beside it. There's a reclining bronze ox (nade-ushi) to rub for luck in your studies, and a drinkable spring called "Nishiki no Mizu". It's a quiet little pocket in the middle of a packed district.
Kyoto Attractions →