Kyoto

The overview

Kyoto rewards early risers and slow walkers. Behind the famous gates sit two thousand smaller temples, a river that organises the whole city, and neighbourhood kitchens that have not changed their menu in fifty years.

Japan's capital for more than a thousand years, Kyoto kept its temples, its craft workshops and its street grid while the rest of the country rebuilt. The result is a city you read in layers: a Zen garden at eight in the morning, a covered market at noon, a riverside dinner in Pontochō at dusk. The centre is compact enough to cross by bicycle in half an hour, but the hills on three sides hold enough trails, shrines and tea houses to fill a fortnight. Come outside the two peak weeks of cherry blossom and autumn colour and you will find the same city with a quarter of the queue.

Highlights

• Fushimi Inari's gate tunnels, walked upward at dawn
• The moss and raked gravel gardens of the northern hills
• Nishiki Market and the standing lunch counters around it
• Pontochō and Kiyamachi after dark, along the Kamo river
• The Philosopher's Path in the second week of colour

Best seasons