Byodoin, Uji

Beautiful palace and a lot less touristy than many of the other sites in Kyoto! It’s also a great place to see the fall colors. You can go in the Phoenix hall for 300yen (though we had to wait 90 minutes to get in, but you can walk around the palace grounds until your time to enter comes) but it is a single room with a ~15 minute long presentation purely in Japan. While an impressive place to see, I’m not sure it’d be worth it for those who don’t speak Japanese.

It is a very nice place to learn history of one of the oldest temple in Japan. They have museum which explains about Buddhism history and old Chinese related history. While enjoying Spring or Autumn, both seasons are the best for visiting. To enter the Phoenix Hall with Japanese only guidance, you have to pay 300 yen more at the inside. Since coronavirus, the queue line is almost 1 hour because very famous.