Southern Higashiyama: the terrace and the slopes
Kiyomizu-dera's great terrace, the preserved Sannenzaka steps, and a pagoda over the lanes. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Kiyomizu-dera main hall
The *-ji* (Buddhist temple) on its great stage, hundreds of cypress pillars holding a terrace out over the hillside without a single nail. Come at opening, before the slope below fills; the *Higashiyama* hills run out to one side and the city to the other.

2. Otowa waterfall
Below the terrace, three channels of spring water the temple is named for. The queue is for the long-handled cups; you can simply stand and watch the falls and the people choosing which stream to drink. Skip the cup if the line's long.

3. Sannenzaka
The stone-stepped slope down from the temple, lined with *machiya* (wooden townhouses) turned teahouses and pottery shops. Tradition says a fall here brings three years' bad luck, hence the name; mind the worn steps and take it slowly.

4. Ninenzaka
The gentler slope that follows, two-year hill to the three-year one above. Lower, quieter, the timber fronts a touch grander. Duck into a side lane for the *machiya* without the crowd on them.

5. Hokan-ji (Yasaka pagoda)
The five-storey pagoda that stands clear above the rooftops — the shape every photograph of this quarter ends up framing. You rarely get inside; the thing to do is stand where the lane drops away below it and look up.

6. Kodai-ji
A Zen temple founded by the widow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with raked gravel, a tea house, and a bamboo grove on the way out. Quieter than Kiyomizu by a mile; the evening illuminations in autumn are the reason to time a return.

Southern Higashiyama: the terrace and the slopes