The Japanese city of Kyoto

Kyoto, an ancient city of Japan and its capital for more than 1,000 years, is one of the most beautiful cities of Japan. Its name is well known abroad due to the protocol of the same name. Visitors to this city are mostly fascinated and exhausted. Seeing all that Kyoto has to offer means traveling around this huge city.

Downtown, visitors will be impressed by the ultra-modern architectural style. However, even if you can walk for hours within this futuristic inner city, you can also find temples and traditional parks in Kyoto. These ring the inner city and are oasis of peace surrounding a vibrant city center.

Kyoto is embedded within the Honshu mountains and they can be seen almost from every building within the city. Perhaps due to this fact, Kyoto was not heavily damaged during the Second World War and it conserves well its palaces, shrines, temples and other historical buildings.

Since it was the capital of Japan from 794 until the XIX century, many buildings were built for its samurais, governmental officials, clergy and intellectuals. Although its definitely traditional orientation, many pre-war buildings are being demolished to give place to office towers. Excepting buildings of historical relevance and a couple of more prominent building, almost no building is protected against this fate.

Although it may sound amazing, Kyoto has a grid pattern like any US city. Streets are numbered from West to East, however, streets from North to South have Japanese names. Visitors should always take with them the name of hotel, hostel or accommodation written down, since often Japanese won’t understand tourists asking for directions, even if they are eager to help.

Kyoto has a wide subway net and visitor that want to see everything should consider buying a day ticket.

The number of tourist attraction of Kyoto is astonishing. If you are short on time, plan in advance what you want to visit. If you spend a month in Kyoto you won’t have time to see everything. Specially highly recommended is the Daitokuji Temple, the Kinkaku ji Temple, the Hirano Shrine, the Ryoan ji Temple, the Ninnaji Temple and the Myoshinji Temple. As said above, since it was the capital of Japan for so many centuries, Kyoto is also the center of Japanese temples. It doesn’t mean that it has only temples. As a tourist you’ll also appreciate the Imperial Park, the Museum of Kyoto, the Kamigamo Shrine, and the Kyoto Manga Museum. There is, of course, more, much more.