Kyoto

Kyoto was Japan's imperial capital for more than a thousand years (794-1868), and that long continuity has left an imprint that no other Japanese city approaches. Seventeen UNESCO World Heritage sites, more than 1,600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, preserved neighbourhoods of traditional machiya wooden townhouses, and a culinary tradition — kaiseki — that is the Japanese equivalent of French haute cuisine. Kyoto is not an open-air museum: it is a living city of 1.5 million people that is also the world capital of Japanese intangible heritage.

The contrast with Tokyo is striking and complementary. Where Tokyo overflows, Kyoto restrains. Where Tokyo reinvents itself every night, Kyoto remembers. The thousands of vermilion torii gates of Fushimi Inari climbing the mountainside, the golden pavilion of Kinkaku-ji, the bamboo grove of Arashiyama and the Gion quarter — where geisha (called geiko in local dialect) still move at dusk — are images that stay for life. But Kyoto also reveals a hidden face to those who linger: the gravel gardens of Zen temples, a traditional ryokan by the Kamo River, a kodo incense ceremony, a bowl of whipped matcha in a Nishiki tearoom.

Kyoto is two hours fifteen minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen. The two cities are complementary and most naturally visited together.