#kibune

Rainy Day at Kibune, Kyoto by Masayuki Nakamura

Today I’m hiking over a mountain between villages! 

Specifically from Kibune to Kurama.

I actually start off getting breakfast at the hotel since I want to eat more than just a konbini breakfast before this hike. It’s okay but not quite worth the price. Although the cereal & unpictured omelet helped make it more substantial.

It’s just as well i took a little extra time to eat, when I get to the Nara line it’s initially closed. I’m unsure if this is because of something that happened or if it just has a later starting time than other lines. I don’t have a chance to find out however as it opens up shortly after I get there.

It takes a bit of time & a few transfers to get to Kibune. This is made a little frustrating since I’d hoped to get an early start but the train often sits for a while at some of stations I pass through.

The best part of the train ride is easily the scenery in between Ichihara Station and Ninose Station where the train passes through a ‘tunnel’ of autumn leaves!

The worst part is accidentally sitting on top of the heater for a bit - I got so overheated.

Once you get to Kibune station you take the bus the rest of the way to the shrine/trailhead. There’s only 1 bus stop so it’s easy to find. The second you step off at the station it’s clear you’re up in the mountains, far away from the bustle of the main city.

As it was the trip to get to Kibune took a good 30min-hour longer than I’d expected, and by the time I get there I’m really feeling the jet-lag and overheating from the train, so i decide to take it slow initially and spend a bit longer exploring Kifune Shrine than I might otherwise so I can eat lunch on this end of the trail. 

As a note if I were to do this trip again I would have gotten up earlier to try and see Rurikō-in Temple on the way - it’s not exactly on route but is also located further out. Of course had I gone to see it I might have run out of time.

Something else which would have helped with time would be to have stayed on a more central line - I stayed near Kyoto station but somehow it wasn’t directly connected to any of the lines/stations I wanted to go to which ate up transfer time when sightseeing. That or take a day to stay up in either Kibune or Kurama themselves or at least in a section of Kyoto much further to the north.

Kyoto is quite sprawling and while it does have a metro a lot of sites are not super close to stations, so while there’s something to be said for picking 1 central location to stay in there’s also something to be said for hotel hopping (budget allowing.)

Kifune Shrine was great.

Most known for the lanterns that line the stairs up to it, it’s dedicated to the god of water & rain.

I loved the maple leaf ema- although I have no idea if they were seasonal or something always there.

One unique feature of this shrine was the fortune telling (omikuji) - unlike most shines where you draw a paper or pull a stick to get your fortune, here you take a paper and float it on the water, revealing your fortune.

The fortune also comes with a handy QR code for foreign visitors which links to a translation.