How I Spent 3-Days in Kyoto & Nara with Friends 🌸

Here you’ll find a four-day spring travel itinerary for Japan, featuring Kyoto and Nara.

This guide accompanies and provides further details from my spring visit to Japan with friends, as shown in the following video. It’s the third of four videos I created from this trip.

➡️ I know how chaotic planning a trip can be! So, I created a simple checklist to help you keep track of everything! You can sign up to get the free “Japan Travel Checklist” here.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no extra cost to you. These are all products and services I highly recommend. Please read full disclosure here.

Table of Contents

3-Day Japan Itinerary: Kyoto & Nara

Day 1: Kyoto

📍 Kyoto Station

📍Saryo FUKUCHA (matcha place)

📍Suntory Yamazaki Distillery

📍Mimikou (Porta Dining)

Day 2: Kyoto

📍Nishiromon Gate

📍Yasaka-Jinja Shrine

📍Maruyama Park

📍Higashiyama

📍Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Ninigi (Dango Snack)

📍Nishiki Market

📍Arabica Kyoto (Fujii Daimaru)

📍The Northern Lights Corner

📍Yakiniku Hiro Yasaka-Tei

Day 3: Kyoto Day Trip to Nara

📍Kyoto Station

📍Nara Park

📍Cafe & Shop & Salon NOEL

📍ANY COFFEE BREW BAR

📍Nakatanidou

Up Next: Tokyo

This itinerary covered the second leg of a two-week spring Japan trip with friends. In the next blog post, you’ll find our 4-day Tokyo itinerary, which accompanies the following video.

More Japan Travel Resources

For those of you who are new here… Hi! I’m Remi. I’m a Japanese-American travel blogger and YouTuber. I was born in Fukuoka, Japan, but was adopted and raised in Los Angeles, CA.

I’m here documenting everything I learn on my journey to better understand Japan and Japanese culture. I go to Japan pretty often and want to share all the travel tips I’ve picked up along the way, too!

Here’s an overview of where you can find additional Japan travel resources & updates from my journey:

Blog: practical travel guides and resources — tools you can return to when you’re planning, bookmarking, or mapping out future trips (read more here)
YouTube: longer, immersive Japan stories — the kind you can settle into, whether you’re planning a trip or simply dreaming from afar. (watch videos here)
Weekly Newsletter: longer, immersive Japan stories — the kind you can settle into, whether you’re planning a trip or simply dreaming from afar. (sign up here)
Patreon: deeper community connection. That’s where I share more personal updates through Sunday Snapshots, my Remi’s Reads book reflections, and additional Japan content that doesn’t make it into my YouTube videos or blog posts. (read more here)

➡️ Read next: What to Book BEFORE You Arrive in Japan

How I Spent 3-Days in Kyoto & Nara with Friends 🌸