Heading to My Family Home in Kyoto by BMW

Lately, I had a lot on my plate, but since my eldest daughter’s kindergarten was on summer break, making it hard to focus at home, I decided to take the kids and spend a few days at my parents’ place before Obon.

Until now, I had almost always driven my Golf to my family home, so this was my first time returning in the BMW 320i. My parents, who are genuinely worried about my driving, kept reminding me,

“Don’t speed on the highway, and please drive safely.”

But I managed to arrive safely at my parents’ house.

I let my mother handle all the housework, had my father entertain the kids, and spent the whole day working on my computer (really, my parents’ home is heaven lol). Thanks to that, I finished my tasks much sooner than expected.

So, the next day, I decided to take the kids out for a drive.

Driving Around Kyoto City in the BMW

I thought about where to go, but since it was scorching hot with daily highs over 35°C, I decided to seek some cool air and head up to Mount Hiei. If I was going to Mount Hiei, I really wanted to drive up the Hiei Driveway in the BMW, but…

The kids’ eyes lit up as they said, “We want to ride the ropeway!” so the plan to drive the Hiei Driveway was put on hold lol.

First, we drove to “Demachiyanagi,” then took the Eizan Electric Railway’s Eizan Main Line to “Yase-Hieizanguchi”, and from there, rode the Eizan Cable and Ropeway to the summit.

Although I was born and raised in Kyoto, I had never ridden the Eizan Electric Railway before, so I was secretly looking forward to it.

What worried me a bit was the heavy traffic on the way to Demachiyanagi. I was a little concerned about driving a manual car in Kyoto’s traffic jams, thinking, “This might be quite a hassle,” as the morning arrived.

About Kyoto City Roads

The center of Kyoto city is laid out like a grid with north-south and east-west streets intersecting at right angles. It’s very easy to understand, but the east-west streets in Kyoto are quite narrow and many are one-way, so I usually stick to the main roads when driving around the city.

By the way, each street in the city has a name, and if you remember the old “Kyoto Street Name Song”, you can quickly recall the order and names of the streets. From north to south, it goes:

“Maru (Marutamachi) ・ Take (Takeyamachi) ・ Ebisu (Ebisugawa) ・ Ni (Nijo) ・ Oshi (Oshikoji) ・ Oike (Oike) ～…”

It’s a song made from the first syllables of the street names. My mother, who’s also from Kyoto, taught it to me when I was little, so I can still hum it (though I rarely use it lol).

Also, intersections are named by combining the north-south street name + east-west street name (sometimes reversed), which makes it easy to understand.

For example, the intersection of Karasuma (Karasuma) Street and Shijo Street is called “Shijo Karasuma,” and the intersection of Horikawa Street and Imadegawa Street is “Horikawa Imadegawa.” So when someone says, “Turn right at Horikawa Imadegawa” or “Let’s just go straight to Karasuma Marutamachi,” you can immediately picture the location, which is very convenient.

By the way, in Kyoto, going north is called “Agaru” (up), and going south is called “Sagaru” (down). When I was in university, I told a friend, “If you go up this street, it’s right there,” and they asked, “Wait, what does ‘Agaru’ mean?” That’s when I realized “Agaru” and “Sagaru” aren’t common terms nationwide.

Writing it out like this makes Kyoto sound like a charming city, but the truth is, the roads in central Kyoto are very busy. Other cities like Osaka and Kobe also have heavy traffic, but Kyoto is a tourist city, so the number of city buses and tour buses is staggering.

If you’re in the left lane, you’ll almost always get stuck behind a city bus stopping frequently, and if you’re on the right, you often get blocked by tour buses making right turns.

I guess these are just some of the typical things about driving in Kyoto.

Next page → Heavy traffic in Kyoto city with a manual car… First ropeway ride, etc…