Michelin Green Guide Around Kyoto — Three-Star Byodo-in Amida and the Miho Museum, plus Arashiyama, Ohara and Amanohashidate (Outskirts Guide)

What the Michelin Green Guide is — 35 starred sights around Kyoto, Shiga and Tango

This is the Michelin Green Guide (Le Guide Vert), which rates destinations rather than restaurants. The Japan edition is published in France: the 4th edition in 2015, the 6th in 2020, and the current one in 2025. Every star below is given with the edition that awarded it. Kiyomizu-dera, Kinkaku-ji and the rest of the city are covered in the separate city guide.

Seen from Kyoto Station, the outlying stars sit west in Arashiyama, south in Uji, northeast in Ohara and on Mt. Hiei, east in Shiga and north in Tango. All are day-trippable, but each is a different direction, so take one direction per day. Only Tango — Amanohashidate and Ine — is more than two hours each way, far enough to consider a night.

Arashiyama and Sagano — the bamboo grove, Tenryu-ji, the Hozugawa boat ride

The 2015 edition makes the Sagano and Arashiyama bamboo grove two-star, with the town of Arashiyama, Tenryu-ji and its garden, Daikaku-ji and its screen paintings, the view from the Okochi Sanso villa and the Hozugawa boat ride at one star.

Tenryu-ji is a World Heritage site whose Sogen-chi garden, laid out by Muso Soseki, borrows the Arashiyama ridgeline behind it. The bamboo path starts at the temple’s north gate and leads to Okochi Sanso, once the villa of the period-film actor Denjiro Okochi. The Hozugawa boat ride covers the 16 km from Kameoka down to Arashiyama in about two hours, poled by boatmen. The grove is packed by midday, so start walking before 8 a.m.

Uji — the three-star Amida Buddha at Byodo-in

In the 2015 edition Byodo-in and its Phoenix Hall are two-star, and the seated Amida Buddha inside is three-star. Byodo-in was built in 1053, and the hall — seemingly afloat on its pond — is the image on the ten-yen coin. The Amida is a National Treasure, the only statue reliably attributed to the sculptor Jocho. Entering the hall costs extra and runs on timed slots, so book your slot the moment you arrive.

The town of Uji, the Hoshokan museum in the grounds and the municipal tea house Taihoan by the river are one-star. At Taihoan you can try the tea ceremony simply, with matcha and a sweet. Uji is 20 to 30 minutes from Kyoto Station on the JR Nara line.

Ohara, Mt. Hiei and Sakamoto — Sanzen-in and Enryaku-ji

The 2015 edition gives one star to Ohara, to Sanzen-in and its garden, and to Hosen-in with its 700-year-old pine. Sanzen-in scatters small jizo figures through a moss garden; at Hosen-in you sit and view the garden framed between the pillars. Ohara is about an hour by bus from Kyoto Station.

On Mt. Hiei, the mountain and Sakamoto, the World Heritage Enryaku-ji, its treasure hall, the Konpon Chudo and the Shaka-do are each one-star. Down in Sakamoto, closely tied to the temple, Hiyoshi Taisha (one star) stands among streets of old stone walls. You can go up by the Eizan cable car and ropeway from the Kyoto side or the Sakamoto cable car from Shiga. The Eizan ropeway closes in winter, so check the dates.

Shiga — the three-star Miho Museum, Hikone Castle and Mii-dera

In the 2015 edition the Miho Museum, in the hills of Shigaraki in Shiga, is three-star, as is its Gandhara Buddha, with the Dionysus mosaic at two stars. The building is by I. M. Pei, architect of the Louvre pyramid, and the approach itself — from the reception building through a tunnel and across a suspension bridge — is part of the experience. It closes for long periods in winter and summer, so always check the opening dates. It is about 50 minutes by bus from Ishiyama Station.

Elsewhere in Shiga, Hikone Castle — one of twelve original keeps, a National Treasure — with its keep and the daimyo garden Genkyu-en, plus Mii-dera in Otsu and the garden of Ishiyama-dera, are one-star.

Tango — Amanohashidate and the boathouses of Ine, with access by direction

The 2015 edition gives two stars to Amanohashidate and to the boathouse landscape of Ine. Amanohashidate, one of Japan’s three famous views, is a pine-covered sandbar about 3.6 km long across Miyazu Bay; the local ritual is to view it upside down between your legs from the hilltop. Ine is a fishing village where some 230 funaya — houses with a boat garage on the ground floor — line the water, best seen whole from the bay cruise.

Amanohashidate is about two hours from Kyoto Station on the Hashidate limited express, and Ine another hour by bus beyond that. Part of the run is on the Kyoto Tango Railway, which the Japan Rail Pass does not cover. The JR lines to Arashiyama, Uji and Hikone are covered.

Michelin Green Guide around Kyoto — FAQ

Star ratings: ★★★ worth a special journey / ★★☆ worth a detour / ★☆☆ interesting. Stars come from the 4th (2015) or 6th (2020) edition of the Michelin Green Guide Japan, as noted for each sight, and are reviewed with every edition. “Starred sights” counts every entry the guide awards stars to — including buildings inside a site, museum pieces, viewpoints and routes — so it is not a count of separate locations.