Shugakuin Imperial Villa — Attraction in Kyoto

Shugakuin Imperial Villa is not a commercial tourist facility. It is a facility managed by the Imperial Household Agency, open to the public to share its historical and cultural value. Currently, it is open to the public through guided tours, where staff from the Imperial Household Agency provide explanations, and these tours are free of charge.

Naturally, there are rules for visiting. If you do not follow the rules and act selfishly, it is only natural that you will be warned or cautioned. Therefore, there is an age restriction, allowing only adults over 18 who can understand these common-sense rules to visit. The purpose of the visit is to tour the gardens within the villa, and it is meaningless to expect the same "hospitality" as a commercial tourist facility. Do not mistake it for Disneyland or Universal Studios Japan.

There is a misconception that there is a quota for foreigners, making it difficult for Japanese people to make reservations. Recently, with Kyoto's summer temperatures exceeding 35°C and heatstroke alerts being issued, Japanese people are simply avoiding walking the approximately 3km tour route under the scorching sun. If you happened to visit when there were many foreign visitors, thinking that foreigners are being given special treatment over Japanese reservations is just paranoia or a misunderstanding.

Next, some people maliciously interpret the presence of an Imperial Guard at the end of the tour group as treating visitors like criminals under surveillance, but this is just paranoia. The Imperial Guard accompanies the group to be prepared in case someone falls and gets injured, feels unwell, or an unexpected accident occurs during the tour. Thinking that you are being treated like a criminal under surveillance is just ridiculous paranoia.

Did you read the terms & conditions of the advance reservation? There are always conditions for making an advance reservation, and you can only make a reservation if you agree to these conditions. Despite the condition that "the date and time of the advance reservation cannot be changed," some people complain that they cannot change their reservation. Complaining about not being able to change the reservation after agreeing to the condition that it cannot be changed is contradictory.

You should not complain just because you are not being pampered like in a commercial facility. Acting selfishly without following the rules and then holding a grudge or taking it out on others when warned is not the behavior of a sensible person. The purpose here is to visit... and by visiting, you have already achieved...

Shugakuin Imperial Villa (修学院離宮, Shugakuin Rikyū) was built in the 17th century by Emperor Gomizuno and is now managed by the Imperial Household Agency. It consists of the Upper, Middle and Lower Villa areas, each featuring gardens and buildings of the traditional imperial style.

Shugakuin's name comes from a former temple built on the same site in the tenth century. The Imperial Villa was constructed between 1655 and 1659, with a palace for Gomizuno's daughter added ten years later. More recently in 1964, the surrounding farmlands were bought by the Imperial Household Agency. Local farmers continue to work the fields.

Shugakuin is only accessible to the public through guided tours. Tours last about one hour and twenty minutes and take visitors through all three villas, pointing out the significant garden features and structures. The tour is held in Japanese; however audio guides in several foreign languages are available.

As with all Imperial properties, it is not possible to enter any of the buildings. However, for those interested in Japanese design and architecture, several buildings are left open along the tour route so that visitors can see inside. Important features such as elevated tatami mats and painted panels are pointed out by...

The tour is fully in Japanese and non Japanese speakers are given an audio guide to keep up. While the place is amazing, the English audio guides volume is very very low, and the audio guide numbers are quite hidden and hard to see. On top of that the Japanese guide stops in places with no numbers too, adding more info that are not in the English guide and making it hard to know if the stop has a number hidden or just no number. The Japanese guide also has a microphone with quite high volume, which makes the anyway hard to hear low volume English even harder to hear. Due to this we were forced to listen to the guide in between moving to avoid having the actual guide's voice overpower the audio one, which made it very hard to follow the context.

The next day we've been to the Sento Imperial pause, managed the same agency and in the same style, but there the audio guide had a good volume and the Japanese guide gave us a paper with a rough translation of all the numbered and non numbered stops, plus a lot of fun facts about local culture. That was a easy batter way to handle this type of guide and I recommend they apply the same here.

Nope that booking in advance is mandatory, but once you book you will need to go through a lottery to confirm...