Fodor's Expert Review Kyoto Station

This massive steel-and-glass train station, hailed by some as an architectural masterpiece and derided by many Kyotoites for failing to convey their beloved city's genteel spirit, is more than just the city's central point of arrival and departure: the station, designed by Tokyoite Hiroshi Hara and completed in 1997, houses dozens of shops and restaurants and offers great views of the city from the 12th floor. If you have the time, ride the escalators from the concourse floor up to the open roof, a journey Hara says he choreographed to replicate ascending from a valley floor. Excellent ramen shops cluster on the 10th level.