Japan · The old capital
For more than a thousand years Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan, and it remains the keeper of the country’s cultural soul. More than 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines are woven through the city, alongside traditional wooden machiya townhouses and meticulously raked gardens.
Walk the thousands of vermilion torii gates that climb Fushimi Inari’s wooded hillside, contemplate the gold-leafed pavilion of Kinkaku-ji mirrored in its pond, and slip through the lantern-lit lanes of Gion, where you may glimpse a geiko hurrying to an evening engagement.
Kyoto rewards a slower rhythm: a quiet tea ceremony, a kaiseki dinner of seasonal small plates, and an early morning in a temple garden before the crowds arrive.
