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Kyoto was Japan's imperial capital for over a thousand years. Emperor Kanmu chose it as the new imperial seat in 794, founding Heian-kyo on a Chinese-style grid, and the emperors r
Photo: Hisagi · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
8 entries, each one a real place or plate in Kyoto with the address attached.
Because Kyoto was spared from large-scale destruction during World War II, its prewar heritage largely survives, including 17 locations that form the 'Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto' UNESCO World Heritage listing. Kinkaku-ji's pavilion, its top two floors coated in gold leaf, is the most famous of them; Fushimi Inari's trails climb 233-meter Mount Inari through seemingly endless vermilion torii gates.
The city's food culture runs just as deep: kaiseki, the multi-course dinner rooted in the tea ceremony, and yudofu, tofu gently warmed in kombu dashi, a specialty of the Nanzen-ji area with roots in temple shojin cuisine. Kansai International Airport is about 81 km southwest of the city, Osaka's Itami Airport about 39 km away, and the Tokaido Shinkansen reaches Tokyo in about 2 hours 15 minutes.
Photo: Basile Morin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The Zen temple officially named Rokuon-ji, nicknamed for its pavilion whose top two floors are coated in gold leaf; a World Heritage Site and one of the 17 Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.
Photo: Basile Morin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The head shrine of Inari, formally founded in 711, with trails up Mount Inari spanning about 4 km, roughly a 2-hour walk to the summit and back.
Photo: Martin Falbisoner · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A Buddhist temple in eastern Kyoto that predates the city's 794 founding, one of Japan's leading temples dedicated to Kannon.
Photo: Basile Morin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A walking path through towering bamboo in the Arashiyama district of western Kyoto.
Kyoto's historic district in Higashiyama, long associated with geisha culture, preserved machiya townhouses and traditional teahouses.
The traditional multi-course Japanese dinner, rooted in the tea ceremony; Kyoto's ryotei (traditional restaurants) are among its most celebrated practitioners.
Tofu gently warmed in kombu dashi, a Kyoto specialty with roots in temple shojin cuisine; the Nanzen-ji area is famous for its yudofu restaurants.
Kyoto is one of Japan's great tea cities, and matcha-flavored sweets, soft-serve, parfaits, wagashi, are sold across the city.
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