Sloping Paths in Kyoto, Jeff's Destination Channel

July 3, 2014 - PRLog -- Spring is  a great time for getting out of the house and taking a walk. The Japanese say "sampo". I think that's closer to the English word "stroll". Today, I'm going to show you a great place to take a walk.

We're here on the east side of Kyoto. This is probably the most popular walking course both for foreign tourists and for Japanese tourists. It's a great place to stroll.

From here the gentle sloping path comes to a flight of stairs. In Japanese, "ninenzaka", 2-year stairs. Now the saying is that if you trip and fall on the stairs you'll have 2 years of bad luck,  so everyone walks carefully.

Now when we get to the top of the stairs – this is Yasaka Street – and we're going to go this way, a little bit higher.

With gift shops on both sides of the street this is a really popular place for people to shop. It's always filled with people – you can find a perfect present for someone here. And it's also a great place just to walk.

Now we've come to a second set of stairs. This is called "sannenzaka", which can be translated as "three year stairs", but actually the "san" is to have a baby, and "nen" means safely. So this is really named for women who come here, walk up the gentle stairs, praying that their babies will be born safely and healthily.

You know, this is a much longer flight of stairs, so you have to take your time and… it's a bit of exercise.

When you get to the top of the stairs you get to this street which is just full of people. This leads up to Kiyomizu Temple, probably the most popular sightseeing spot for both foreign tourists and for Japanese tourists. When you visit Kiyomizu, this is one walking course you don't want to leave out.

http://youtu.be/HtnK98vb2-c