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Sights Overview

Most of Kyoto's interesting sights are north of Kyoto Station. Think of this northern sector as three rectangular areas abutting each other.

The middle rectangle fronts the exit of Kyoto station. This is central Kyoto. Here are the hotels, the business district, the Ponto-cho geisha district, and the Kiya-machi entertainment district. Central Kyoto also contains one of the oldest city temples, Toji; the rebuilt Imperial Palace; and Nijo-jo, the onetime Kyoto abode of the Tokugawa shoguns. Eastern Kyoto, Higashiyama, is chockablock with temples and shrines, among them Ginkaku-ji, Heian Jingu, and Kiyomizu-dera. Gion -- a traditional shopping neighborhood by day and a geisha entertainment district by night -- is also here. You could easily fill two days visiting eastern Kyoto. Western Kyoto includes the temples Ryoan-ji and Kinkaku-ji, and Katsura Rikyu, a bit south.

You need three days just to skim over these three areas. However, two other areas have major sights to lure you. West of the western district is Arashiyama, with its temple, Tenryu-ji. And north of central Kyoto are Hiei-zan and the suburb of Ohara, where the poignant story of Kenreimonin takes place at Jakko-in.

Kyoto's sights spread over a wide area, but many of them are clustered together, and you can walk from one to another. Where the sights are not near each other, you can use Kyoto's buses, which run on a grid pattern that's easy to follow. Pick up route maps at the JNTO (Japan National Tourist Organization) office. The following exploring sections keep to the divisions described above so as to allow walking from one sight to another. However, notwithstanding traffic and armed with a bus map, you could cross and recross Kyoto without too much difficulty, stringing together sights of your own choosing.

Unlike other Japanese cities, Kyoto was modeled on the grid pattern of the Chinese city of Xian. Accordingly, addresses in the city are organized differently than in other parts of the country. Residents will assure you that this makes the city easier to navigate; confounded tourists may disagree. Many of the streets are named and east-west streets are numbered -- the san in San-jo-dori, for example, means "three." Nishi-iru means "to the west," higashi-iru, "to the east." Agaru is "to the north" and sagaru "to the south." These directions are normally given in relation to the closest intersection. Thus the restaurant Ogawa's address, Kiya-machi, Oike-agaru, Higashi-iru means, "Kiyamachi street, north of Oike on the east side."

Admission to Kyoto sights adds up. Over the course of three days, charges of ¥400-¥600 at each sight can easily come to $100 per person.