Kyoto was for me the city of shrines, autumn leaves and textiles. There were so many textile places, my favourite being the Shibori Museum.

The craftsmanship of shibori in Japan is exquisite, these large wall hangings took 8 years to create. All hand dyed, wrapped and stitched to create the four seasons with the moon. There were also the most beautiful shibori kimono’s, the museum assistants proudly showed us around and gave us demonstrations of the process.

We also visited the Arashiyama bamboo forest, it was so beautiful and peaceful. I have never seen bamboo so thick and tall before and such vivid greens. It was surrounded by beautiful shrines and zen gardens, it felt like another world. Whilst walking we found an amazing bamboo handcraft shop, I wanted to buy everything especially the hand woven baskets (they cost about £2000 each).

The famous Fushimi Inari Shrine which has thousands of gates was another favourite. The trail lead to the wooded forest of the sacred mount Inari, about a 2-3 hour walk showing incredible veiws over the city of kyoto. All the gates were hand carved from wood, hand painted with engravings.

In kyoto we also visited the Nishijin Textile Museum, full of weaving, embroidery and variety of textile techniques. I bought silk embroidery threads, watched a kimono fashion show and loved the intricate silk weaving on the looms. Afterwards we went to the Kinkaku-ji, golden pavilion zen temple that is completely covered in gold leaf.

Japan, Kyoto