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Joe Steinbring

Kyoto

A path curving between towering stalks of bamboo, with a few visitors walking in the shade.
The bamboo grove in Arashiyama, on the western edge of Kyoto.2024 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring
Static offline map showing Kyoto in Japan with a location pin.

I have been to Kyoto twice. On September 15, 2024, I took a one-day bus tour of the city: Fushimi Inari Taisha and its tunnels of torii in the morning, then Kiyomizu-dera, looking out over the city from the temple’s wooden stage, the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in the afternoon, and the bamboo grove in Arashiyama at the end of the day. The next day, I caught the overnight ferry from Osaka to Busan. I came back on July 18, 2026, with my nephew, and this time we went up to the Iwatayama Monkey Park above Arashiyama, where people feed the monkeys from inside a hut, through the wire, then had grilled eel on rice for lunch and rode the Randen tram.

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  • A gold-covered pavilion beside a pond, with a pine on a rocky islet in front and hills behind.

    The Golden Pavilion, rebuilt in 1955 after a monk burned it down.

    2024 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A wooden temple veranda on tall pillars, crowded with people, above trees and a distant city.

    Kiyomizu-dera’s stage, looking out over the city from the eastern hills.

    2024 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A Japanese macaque reaches through a wire grille toward the camera, forested hills behind it.

    At the monkey park above Arashiyama, it is the people who stay behind the wire.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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