Taking the BMW to My Family Home in Kyoto

I had a growing list of things to get done, but with my eldest daughter on summer break from kindergarten, concentrating at home was nearly impossible. So, just before the Obon holiday, I took the kids to stay with my parents for a few days.

Until now, I’d almost always made the trip in my Golf, so this was my first time driving to my parents’ home in the BMW 320i. My parents, who worry deeply about my driving, reminded me again and again:

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

We made it there without a hitch.

My mother took care of all the housework, my father kept the kids entertained, and I got to spend the day at my computer (my parents’ home really is heaven, haha). Thanks to that, I finished everything I needed to do much sooner than expected.

So the next day, I took the kids out for an adventure.

Driving Around Kyoto in a BMW

I thought about where to go, but with daytime highs topping 35°C (95°F) day after day, we decided to head for Mount Hiei in search of cooler air. Since we were going to Mount Hiei, I was hoping to take the BMW up the Hiei-zan Driveway—but…

The kids looked at me with shining eyes and said, “We want to ride the cable car!” So my drive up Hiei-zan Driveway would have to wait, haha.

First, we drove to Demachiyanagi, then took the Eizan Main Line to Yase-Hieizanguchi, before continuing up the mountain by cable car and ropeway.

I was born and raised in Kyoto, but I’d never ridden the Eizan Railway in my life, so I was secretly looking forward to it.

The one thing I was worried about was getting caught in heavy traffic on the way to Demachiyanagi. I wondered if driving a manual through Kyoto traffic might be a bit of a pain, but soon enough, the morning of our outing arrived.

A Few Things to Know About Driving in Kyoto

Central Kyoto is laid out like a grid, with north–south and east–west streets crossing at right angles. It’s easy to navigate, but many of the east–west streets in central Kyoto are quite narrow, and a lot are one-way. When I drive around the city, I usually stick to the main roads.

By the way, each street in the city has its own name. There’s even a traditional Kyoto street-name song that helps you remember their names and order. Starting from the north, it goes:

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

The song strings together the first syllables of the street names. My mother, who was also born and raised in Kyoto, taught it to me when I was little, and I can still sing it today (though I hardly ever need to, haha).

Intersections are easy to identify, too: they’re called by the names of the north–south and east–west streets (in either order) that meet there.

For example, the intersection of Karasuma Street and Shijo Street is called Shijo-Karasuma, while the junction of Horikawa Street and Imadegawa Street is Horikawa-Imadegawa. So if someone says, “Turn right at Horikawa-Imadegawa” or “Let’s keep going to Karasuma-Marutamachi,” you can picture exactly where they mean.

In Kyoto, people also say agaru (“go up”) when heading north and sagaru (“go down”) when heading south. When I told a friend at university, “It’s just up that road,” they asked, “What do you mean, ‘up’?” That was when I first realized agaru and sagaru aren’t expressions used across Japan.

When you put it like that, Kyoto sounds like such a charming city. But the reality is that the roads in central Kyoto are very busy. Osaka and Kobe get plenty of traffic, too, but Kyoto is a major tourist destination, so the number of city buses and tour buses is something else.

If you’re in the left lane, a city bus in front of you is almost guaranteed to stop, holding you up. Even in the right lane, a tour bus turning right can often block your way.

I guess that’s just one of those things about driving in Kyoto.

Next page → Navigating Kyoto’s traffic in a manual, our first ropeway ride, and more…