Johnnie Hillwalker’s Johnnie Kyoto Walking Tour

Prior to arriving into Kyoto, we knew that Kyoto is filled with temples and we’d want to visit at least a couple of them.  I also had two friends from home who were now currently living in the Kyoto area, so aside from meeting up with each of them, we didn’t have any set plans for our 4 days in the city. 

I was searching online for what to do in Kyoto and came across this unique tour which advertised itself as a “Walk in Kyoto, Talk in English” tour.  The guide, Johnnie is a retired tour guide who started his own walking tour business in the 90s and aims to show foreigners a different side of Kyoto that is not in the guidebooks.

It will take up 5 hours of your time and the 3km leisurely walk will bring you to back alleys, small shops and factories making some of Kyoto’s finest souvenirs, and even a shrine or two.  It only operates from Spring to Fall and runs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  No pre-booking necessary as the group will just meet at the designated meeting spot and Johnnie will take your payment (cash only) right on the spot. You can find more information on the tour at Johnnie Hillwalker’s website.  

The first stop on the tour was the Higashi-Honganji Temple (東本願寺), one of the largest Buddhist temples in Kyoto.  However, Johnnie pointed out that this wasn’t a tourist attraction and is mainly a place of worship.

We then continued on and eventually reached Toyokuni Shrine (豊国神社), a Shinto shrine which is the official tomb of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a local general and samurai, who lived in the 16^th century. 

From the Shrine, we made our way to some of the back alleys and workshops in the area, including a pastry shop and a fan shop.  It was really interesting that at each of these mini workshops, the people who were making the goods were mainly elderly.  I remember wondering whether their middle aged children were part of the family business or not.

Once Johnnie figures out how many people there are on the tour for each particular day, he calls ahead to a restaurant to purchase a piece of inari sushi for everyone.  The tour begins at 10:15am and runs for approximately 5 hours, but there is no lunch break and this is the only snack you will receive during this time.  You could also have purchased some pastries when the tour stopped at the pastry shop, but truthfully, there wasn’t that much time and if you’re on a tour with a large group, then chances are, you won’t be able to make a purchase without hindering the rest of the group from moving on. 

After the snack, we were taken through some back alleys that hosted the Geisha headquarters as well as Nintendo.

There were quite a few more stops and this is truly a very unique tour.  The only unfortunate part is that you won’t know how many people are going to be on the tour with you, until you arrive that morning.  On his website, he says that there is no limit on the group size, so you just have to make sure you are following very closely if you are part of a large group.