Most of Kyoto's great shrines sit in the thick of things. Kamigamo-jinja sits at the northern edge, where the city thins into hills and the Kamo River is still young — a UNESCO-listed shrine, one of the two oldest in the city, and most mornings you'll have it close to yourself.
It opens unusually, onto a broad gravel lawn rather than a tunnel of gates; cross it at your own pace. Before the second torii stand two cones of white sand raked to a point, said to be the ancestor of every salt pile outside a Japanese restaurant. East, Ota-jinja keeps an iris pond that fills for a fortnight in May and is otherwise empty.
The walk's quiet heart is the shake-machi — the street of Shinto priests' houses along the Mitarai stream, low walls and old gates with water running beside the road. The Nishimura house opens its garden seasonally if you want inside a shake (priest's residence). Then follow the stream down to the Kamo River and walk the grassy north bank south, herons and stepping stones, to the bus at Misonobashi.
