Dog Friendly City Guide: Kyoto, Japan

At Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, a small dog comes through the gate only in a carrier, and it stays there with its face and paws tucked inside; assistance dogs walk in freely. That is the temple's own rule. In Japan's old imperial capital the most famous rooms belong to people, and the best of the city for a dog lies between them.

That turns out to be a great deal. The Kamo River runs the length of the city with paths on both banks, a hill trail climbs from Okazaki to the top of Daimonji, and a restaurant up the river in Kibune builds a platform over the water with seats set aside for dogs.

Where to Stay

Hotel Toin Kyoto is a hotel built for dogs from the ground floor up. It has two rooms, one to a floor, about eight minutes on foot from Kyoto Station, each with an electric reclining bed and a jet bath with its own washing area, and Kyoto cuisine can be served in the room. Two dogs of up to 12 kilograms stay free. On the ground floor the hotel's pet salon, Kunkun, will mind your dog while you see a temple: the first dog free, a second at 330 yen for each half hour. Read the Roch Dog review of Hotel Toin Kyoto.

OMO5 Kyoto Gion is Hoshino Resorts' house in the geisha district, steps from Yasaka Shrine and Hanami-koji, with 36 rooms and a kitchenette in every one. Its dog rooms take up to two dogs. A dog bed and bowls are waiting, the lounge is open to your dog, and it may stay in the room while you go out to dinner. The dog fee is ￥5,093. Read the Roch Dog review of OMO5 Kyoto Gion.

On the south side of the station, OMO3 Kyoto Toji is a quiet base of 120 rooms two minutes from Kintetsu's Toji Station, beside Toji itself, the temple founded in 796 and famous for its soaring five storey pagoda. It keeps dog rooms, and the hotel runs guest walks with the temple. Read the Roch Dog review of OMO3 Kyoto Toji.

Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto is built around Shakusui-en, a pond garden some 800 years old, and your dog may walk it with you. The pastry team bakes the welcome biscuits, the concierge hands over a map of walks around the hotel, bowls and a crate come on request, and a leashed dog is welcome on the terrace of EMBA KYOTO GRILL. A sitter can be booked for a fee. Read the Roch Dog review of Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto. For all four side by side, see our dog friendly hotels in Kyoto.

Walks and Parks

The Kamo River is Kyoto's front garden. The prefecture keeps nearly 40 hectares of its banks as Kamogawa Park, running north to south through the city, and between Demachi Bridge and Kitayama Bridge the east bank has a tree lined path and a jogging road. Walk it north from Demachiyanagi and you reach the Kyoto Botanical Garden and Kitayama, where lunch is waiting (see below).

The Kyoto Gyoen, the national garden around the Imperial Palace, gives you wide gravel avenues and old pines in the middle of the city. The Ministry of the Environment, which runs it, asks for a short lead at all times and does not allow a dog off it even for a moment.

Okazaki Park stands on the grounds of the 1895 National Industrial Exhibition, with Heian Shrine, ROHM Theatre Kyoto, the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art and the Lake Biwa Canal around its lawns. Follow the canal east to the old incline and you are at the foot of the hills.

From there, the Kyoto Trail's Higashiyama course runs about 24.6 kilometres along the eastern hills, from Fushimi Inari past Kiyomizu-yama and the incline to the Daimonji crossroads, then down the Philosopher's Path and on to Mount Hiei. The city's trail association keeps it signposted, and you can join or leave it almost anywhere. The short climb is Daimonji itself: about three kilometres and an hour on foot, with 150 metres of height.

If your dog needs to run, Kyoto has two good fenced places. Dog Life Support 9689 in Kita ward has an indoor dog run, open until 18:00 with last entry at 17:00 and closed on Tuesdays (on Monday, Wednesday and Friday the run opens only from 17:00, when its dog kindergarten has gone home). In Minami ward, ASOBIBA is a lawn run on the grounds of the Kuze Home care home, with two areas, grassy hills and clay pipe tunnels, open 9:30 to 17:00. Register as a member and book by phone; dogs need a rabies jab and a combination vaccine within the last year.

Eat and Drink

Kyoto Modern Terrace, the restaurant at Kyoto Okazaki Tsutaya Books, has a terrace of 40 seats where dogs are welcome to join you and the full menu is served. Terrace tables cannot be booked, so come early on a fine weekend, ideally after a lap of Okazaki Park.

At the top of the riverside walk, IN THE GREEN is a pizzeria, trattoria and cafe beside the Kitayama gate of the Kyoto Botanical Garden, open from 11:00 to 22:00. On its own Instagram it puts it simply: terrace, dog OK.

For a day out, take the Eizan line north to Kibuneguchi and the bus up to Kibune, where restaurants build kawadoko, platforms over the river. At Kokon Fujiya part of the kawadoko and the terrace is kept for dogs, at a seat charge of 550 yen a dog, and the house serves Tsujiri matcha soft serve and kawadoko dishes from 11:00 to 18:00. The kawadoko seats run from May to September, and the terrace takes dogs too. Its rules for dog owners ask for a lead and a manners belt or nappy, keep dogs out of the river, and warn that the dog seats sit a little high, so hold the lead firmly. Bring your dog's food, as the kitchen makes none.

Arriving From Abroad

Japan's import rules, set by the Animal Quarantine Service, take months, not weeks. From most of the world the dog needs an ISO microchip first, then two rabies vaccinations at least 30 days apart, the first given at 91 days old or more. After the second, a designated laboratory tests the blood and must find at least 0.5 IU/ml, and the dog may not land until 180 days after that blood sample. Arrive early and it waits out the shortfall in an Animal Quarantine Service facility.

You must notify the Service at your port of entry at least 40 days before you land, online through NACCS or by email, fly into a designated airport, and have a vet examine the dog within 10 days of boarding, with government certificates from your own country. A small list of designated regions has a shorter route; our quarantine countries guide sets out both.

Good to Know

Some plans for Hotel Toin Kyoto on Booking.com, Agoda and Trip.com do not include the dog's charge, the hotel warns, so check the plan before you book. At OMO5 and OMO3, dogs go only in the dog rooms, two medium sized dogs at most, and OMO5's limit is 20 pounds.

The Four Seasons takes one dog or cat a room, up to 15 pounds, in its Deluxe, Premier and Premier Heritage Garden rooms, with a cleaning fee of ￥18,975 a room. Outside the room the dog travels in a carrier or cart, and it is kept from the other restaurants, the spa and the banquet hall. It cannot be left alone in the room, which is what the sitter is for.

Kinkaku-ji is not the only temple with a rule of its own, so read each one's page before you set out; the riverbanks, the parks and the hills will take the rest of the day.

Our Osaka and Tokyo guides are a train ride away, and why Japan may be the most dog friendly country on earth is the place to start. And in summer, take the train to Kibune, where your dog can sit on a platform over the river in the cool of the hills.