Kyoto

⚠️ Entry rules and local regulations change without notice. Before booking, check entry requirements and local rules — visas, access, nature reserves, visitor quotas — with the official authorities.

Kyoto was the capital of Japan for more than a thousand years. Its 17 UNESCO sites, 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, its geishas in the Gion district and its Zen gardens make it the traditional soul of Japan. Kinkaku-ji, Fushimi Inari and the Arashiyama bamboo grove are its icons.

A thousand years as capital, and it shows

Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868 — more than a thousand years — and it was spared the bombing of the Second World War, which is why it holds what the rest of the country lost: 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, around 1,600 Buddhist temples, 400 Shinto shrines, the imperial palace and villas, and whole districts of wooden machiya townhouses. It is a city of 1.5 million people, laid out on a Chinese grid in a basin ringed by hills, and the hills are where the best of it is.

The icons are real: Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, on its pond; Fushimi Inari's tunnel of ten thousand vermilion torii climbing the mountain; Kiyomizu-dera on its wooden terrace above the city; the bamboo grove of Arashiyama; the Zen rock garden of Ryoan-ji; and Gion, the geisha district of teahouses along the Shirakawa canal. They are also, by mid-morning, extremely crowded, and the city has introduced measures — closed lanes in Gion, a higher accommodation tax — to cope.

The deeper Kyoto is quieter: the Philosopher's Path and the temples of the eastern hills at dawn, the moss garden of Saiho-ji (by reservation), the imperial villas of Katsura and Shugaku-in (by reservation), the Ohara valley to the north, and the tea, textile and craft traditions that still run in small workshops. Allow three full days at least, and walk early.

Late March to May, and November — at a price

Cherry blossom (late March to mid-April) and autumn colour (mid-November to early December) are the great seasons and the most crowded, with hotels booked out a year ahead. May is green and clear; the rainy season runs through June into July; July and August are sweltering, though the Gion Matsuri procession on 17 July is the city's greatest festival. Winter is cold, dry and the emptiest time, with the temples under occasional snow — the best-kept secret of the Kyoto calendar.

Buses, bikes and early mornings

EU citizens enter Japan visa-free for up to 90 days. Kyoto is 2¼ hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen, 75 minutes from Kansai airport by the Haruka express; the city has two subway lines and a dense, slow bus network — the one-day bus pass has been withdrawn, and the subway-and-bus pass replaced it. A bicycle is often the fastest way across the flat city centre. Luggage: send big cases ahead by takkyubin and travel light.

⚠️ Kyoto has rules of etiquette that are enforced: private lanes in Gion are closed to visitors and photographing geiko and maiko without permission is fined; shoes off in temples; quiet on buses. The accommodation tax has risen sharply for expensive hotels. Eat kaiseki once if the budget allows, and otherwise yudofu (tofu) near Nanzen-ji, obanzai home cooking, the Nishiki market and matcha in every form; the sake of Fushimi is brewed on the spot.

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