The Jidai Matsuri Festival was the reason why we went back to Kyoto in our last days in Japan. We had already been in the city for 3 nights the previous week, and with the number of things we wanted to see in Japan it didn’t make much sense to go back there.

But the Jidai Matsuri Festival is an important event in Kyoto that only occurs once a year on October 22.

Jidai Matsuri Festival and Kyoto for one more night

Yet again, the JR Passes saved the day. With them, it was pretty easy to change our plans at the last minute, once again, to come from the northern city of Mito to Kyoto and then the day after travel to Tokyo for our last night in Japan.

The whole trip was worthwhile. The Jidai Matsuri Festival was really beautiful.

It was not easy though to find a good spot from which we could enjoy the festival. It started at 12:30, and by noon most of the streets were full of people squeezing to find a good spot to watch the parade.

The night before, when we took the packed train to Kyoto, we could tell that the city was going to be full of visitors.

We walked a bit through the streets where the parade was passing by, until we found a good spot in the middle of the crowd. We had a clear view, with space to stand and get a panoramic view of the street as well as room for Noah to play with his cars. He wasn’t very interested in the festival until the horses came.

That’s the reason why we didn’t stay for the whole afternoon enjoying the Imperial Palace and the parade. But we can’t complain, as we spent 2 good hours watching the Jidai Matsuri Festival (almost the whole parade). So, in the end our mission was accomplished.

After that, we collected our luggage from the Guest House Oumi (that we fully recommend if you are coming to Kyoto, by the way) and said goodbye to the charismatic owner, Tommy.  That’s where we’d spent the night, and from there we headed to the station.

Now, as I write this article we are already on the way to Tokyo, where we will spend our last night before going to Thailand. I’m sure that Thailand will be great, but I’m already missing Japan.

Next stop, Tokyo!