Kyoto without the queues: five towns that feel like it did

In spring and autumn, the most famous streets of Kyoto, such as the lanes below Kiyomizu-dera, fill up from late morning, and moving through them can feel as slow as the slowest group on them. Kyoto is still wonderful, but for much of the day in the busy seasons its best-known streets are hard to enjoy.

Early starts help, and the first-timer's loop is built around them. But some of what people come to Kyoto for, old wooden streets, canals, a castle town, a great garden, exists elsewhere in Japan with a fraction of the visitors.

None of them replaces Kyoto's temples. Kyoto was the capital for more than a thousand years, and nowhere else has its density of great temples, gardens and shrines. If Kinkaku-ji, Ryōan-ji and Fushimi Inari are the point of your trip, go to Kyoto and go early.

What these towns can replace is the feeling of the old city: a street of wooden houses where you can hear your own footsteps, a canal with willows, a garden without a queue at the gate. Each one below does one or two of those things well, and each is within a day of Kyoto by train. Journey times vary by connection and by season, so look up the current timetable for your date before you commit.

Kanazawa has three teahouse districts, and Higashi Chaya is the largest: two streets of latticed wooden fronts, some still working as teahouses, that recall Gion without the same crowds in the early evening. Kenroku-en is counted among Japan's three great gardens, and it opens early, so check the current hours on the Ishikawa Prefecture castle and garden site. In winter the garden is dressed with yukitsuri, the rope supports that protect the pines from heavy snow, which makes the colder months a good time to visit.

The city also has a samurai quarter at Nagamachi, Ōmichō market for seafood and a contemporary art museum. The Hokuriku Shinkansen now runs as far as Tsuruga, so the trip from Kyoto means a change there from the Thunderbird to the shinkansen, as JR West's Hokuriku pages describe. The change is well signed in practice, but pick a connection with a comfortable gap. Avoid Golden Week and autumn weekends, when the teahouse streets fill up too. More in the Kanazawa guide and the Kanazawa where-to-stay guide.

Takayama sits in the mountains of Gifu, and its old town, Sanmachi, is a set of parallel streets of dark wooden merchant houses, sake breweries marked by cedar balls over the door, and small shops. It is the closest thing in Japan to what Sannenzaka must have felt like before the crowds. Go early in the morning, when day visitors have not arrived, or stay the night.

Takayama's markets and shops run daily, though hours vary by season, so check the Hida Takayama tourism site. The ride from Nagoya on the Hida limited express follows river gorges for much of the way, and a window seat is worth requesting. The town's spring and autumn festivals bring huge crowds and full hotels. The Hida Takayama tourism site lists the autumn festival, the Hachiman Matsuri, on 9 and 10 October each year, and also describes a spring festival, the Sannō Matsuri, so check the dates for both. Go for them on purpose or avoid them. The Takayama and Shirakawa-go guide covers the nearby village.

Kurashiki's Bikan historical quarter is built along a single canal lined with willows and white-walled storehouses from its days as a rice trading town. It is a larger version of Kyoto's Shirakawa canal, and small boats run along it. The Ōhara Museum of Art is known for its collection of Western art and is one of the reasons people stay beyond the canal walk; check its site for opening days.

Kurashiki is likely to be busiest on weekend afternoons. Stay the night if you can: after the day visitors leave, the canal quarter is much quieter. It pairs well with a day in Okayama and its Kōraku-en garden, another of the three great gardens.

Hagi is a castle town on the Sea of Japan coast of Yamaguchi, far from the main tourist routes. The castle itself is gone, but the samurai and merchant quarters around it keep their earth walls, gates and grid of lanes. It is also home to Hagi ware, a soft, pale pottery sold at kilns and shops around town.

It takes effort to reach: the shinkansen to Shin-Yamaguchi, then a bus over the hills, with a timetable that you need to check in advance. That effort is why it is quiet. Rent a bicycle if you are comfortable cycling; the town is flat and spread out. June is the rainy season here, as in most of Japan, and summer is hot, so spring and autumn are best.

Ōmihachiman is the closest escape: a short ride from Kyoto on the JR line toward Lake Biwa. Its old town grew rich on the Ōmi merchants, traders who sold across Japan, and their houses still line the streets around the Hachiman-bori canal. The canal, with its stone embankments and storehouses, is best seen from one of the flat-bottomed boats that run along it when they operate.

Himure Hachiman-gū, the town's shrine, sits at the foot of a hill with a ropeway to the top and views over the lake. From the station, take a bus or walk to the old town. On weekdays it is likely to feel much calmer than central Kyoto, and it takes half a day.

Three tests decide whether a town belongs on this list. Each has to be reachable from Kyoto in half a day or less on regular trains and buses, with no car. Each has to offer at least one thing that people go to Kyoto for, done well and not as a copy. And each should be calm enough on a weekday morning outside festival dates that you can stand in the main street and hear it.

Several good towns miss on one test. Nara is close and has great temples, but its main sights draw the same crowds as Kyoto's. Kawagoe, near Tokyo, has a fine street of old storehouses but is far from Kyoto. Tsumago and Magome, two post towns on the old Nakasendō road in the Kiso Valley, come close: the walk between them follows a stone path through forest and is one of the better half days in central Japan. They miss only because the bus connections from the train take planning, and they suit anyone with a spare day between Kyoto and Tokyo.

If you keep all your days in Kyoto, time is the best tool. Tour groups tend to arrive mid-morning and day-trippers a little later. Fushimi Inari and the Arashiyama bamboo grove are calmer early, so aim to be there as early as you can manage. The Higashiyama lanes from Kiyomizu-dera to Yasaka Shrine are best at the start or end of the day, when the shops are closed but the lanes are still lit.

Go to the big temples with fixed opening hours, such as Kinkaku-ji, as soon as the gates open or in the last hour before closing, and check each temple's own site for the current hours. Spend the middle of the day in the places that absorb crowds, such as the large Zen temple complexes, or on a train to one of the towns above.

For a first trip, one of these is enough. Kanazawa fits best, because it sits between Tokyo and Kyoto on the rail map; the 10-day loop includes it with two nights. Ōmihachiman and Kurashiki work as day trips from Kyoto or Osaka. Takayama fits on the way between Kyoto and Tokyo via Nagoya. Hagi is for a second trip, or for a route that continues west to Kyushu.

Tickets are usually cheaper as singles than with a pass, unless you combine several of these towns with long rides in one week. The JR Pass guide shows how to check. For the months with the fewest crowds across Japan, see best time to visit Japan.

If it is your first trip to Japan and Kyoto is the main reason you came, do not skip it for any of these towns. Take a swap only for a day, to rebalance a trip that is heavy on temples. If you are short on time, Ōmihachiman is the only one on the list that fits into half a day without a night's stay. If you do not like long train rides, skip Takayama and Hagi, which take real effort to reach. And if you travel with limited mobility, check each town's terrain first: Hagi and Kurashiki are flat, while Takayama and Kanazawa have more stairs and slopes around their sights.

Weekdays make the biggest difference in every one of these towns. Saturday afternoons tend to bring day visitors to Kanazawa, Kurashiki and Takayama, and weekday mornings are calmer. Staying the night makes the second biggest difference, because many visitors arrive mid-morning and leave before the evening.

Avoid Golden Week, from late April to early May, and the August Obon holidays, when domestic travel peaks everywhere. Check festival dates before you book Takayama, and plan for rain in June. Winter is quieter in all five, and Kanazawa and Takayama are at their most atmospheric under snow, though some sights and buses run reduced schedules.

Book rooms early for any Saturday night in spring or autumn, even in these towns; they have far fewer hotels than Kyoto, and a single tour group can fill a small inn. Kanazawa and Takayama also have ryokan with dinner included, which is the way to see their old streets after dark, when the day visitors have gone and the lamps come on.

Rain is a good reason to pick a town with indoor anchors. Kanazawa has museums and the covered fish market. Kurashiki has the art museum and its shops along the canal. Takayama has its merchant houses and sake breweries, which you can enter. Hagi and Ōmihachiman are mostly outdoor towns, so pair them with a flexible date and check the forecast the evening before. In a rainy week, one of these can still replace a Kyoto temple day, provided you have a rain jacket and a flexible plan.