I’ve been living in Kyoto for the last 2 years (on and off) and slowly I started realizing that some water taps around the city provide underground free water and some of the people were queuing with big bottles and tanks to fill up with this water.
I personally don’t like tap water with a strong chlorine smell/taste so I starting to drink this water daily.
In the beginning, I started to drink from them while going on a hike or biking around the city and later on I started to research about it and drink from them every day.
Apparently in the past Kyoto was a famous water refilling spot for travelers.
There are different water basins (?) in underground Kyoto where this water is pumped from and seems like some people are volunteering to keep this alive by getting some 100¥ donation money to maintain these spots.
Apparently, some coffee/tea/matcha enthusiasts also prise this water to be very good for their favorite infusions.
Since I couldn’t find so much information about it in English I decided to make a post about it and a Map with these waters spots I found/try.
Many of them have a sign saying that “this water is not tested” and I also take no responsibility for the drinking capabilities of this water.
I personally drank from most of them (the Daimonji spot is my daily drinking water and the one next to Imperial gardens used to be also my daily drinking spot)
Here Is my map of the spots i found: