In Kyoto, there's something called the golden shrine or something (I went on as an exchange student so my host family did most of the planning, so names n places are kind of... yeah not so informative. But I know its in kyoto, and its really awesome!)
It's pretty incredible.
I went there on a rainy day and it still blew my mind.
We were the first people inside the shrine (aside from the security guards) and, while they said no pictures, we got there so early and there were so few people, they let me and my host sister take photos.
Also, I found taking a bike tour around kyoto very refreshing. The plantlife there is just so dream-like. Plus, the way we took, there were Kappa signs which was a lot of fun to see
And of course, Kyoto, being so close to Nara,(Right? I might be wrong, it's been a while) I'd reccomend stopping in to pet the deer, see the giant buddah, and crawl through the hole of enlightenment. Plus the shaved ice outside of the giant buddah shrine is SO AMAZING!! -spaz attack, sorry. but it WAS really awesome!