How to Visit Kyoto

If you want to visit traditional Japan, Kyoto is the place to go. Because it wasn't bombed in World War II, the city is home to a wonderful array of castles, temples, gardens and more. You'll also find traditional foods, inns, performing arts--even a geisha district. Kyoto has modern components, but if you know where to go, you can step back in time.

Instructions

1. Start your visit at the famous Kiyomizu Temple in eastern Kyoto. Its main hall is built on a cliff and it has a fantastic view of the city from the terrace. Go to Jishu Shrine behind the main hall. I's dedicated to the god of love. Near the shrine are two rocks set 30 feet apart and according to legend, you'll be lucky in love if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed.

2. Head to Sanjusangendo Hall, also in the eastern part of the city. This 400-foot-long temple contains a large wooden statue of Kannon, the Buddhist personification of compassion. There are 1,000 life-size statues of the same figure. Kannon is supposed to have 1,000 arms, but these statues only have 40 apiece. The explanation is that each arm can save the people of 25 worlds.

3. Visit Nijo Castle in central Kyoto. The castle, built by the first Tokugawa shogun, contains the beautiful Ninomaru Palace. It housed offices, reception rooms and the shogun's living area. The palace had quite a security system to deter the shogun's enemies--special rooms for bodyguards and "nightingale floors" that creaked when anyone walked on them.

4. In northern Kyoto, don't miss Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The gold-leaf-covered building was the home of a retired shogun and it became a Zen temple upon his death. A deranged monk burned down the temple in 1950 and it was rebuilt five years later. In 1987, it got a new gold-leaf covering even thicker than the original.

5. Walk from Kinkakuji to Ryoanji Temple to see its famous rock garden. Sit on the veranda and contemplate the garden's sheer simplicity with 15 boulders surrounded by a field of raked gravel. Take a stroll on the grounds of the temple to see the moss gardens and the pond and stop in at the lovely restaurant, Ryoanji Yudofuya.

Tips & Warnings

• Eat a vegetarian meal at a Buddhist temple, for instance, Nanzen-ji in the eastern hills of Kyoto.

• Stay at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn for a really authentic experience.

• View traditional performing arts at Gion Corner in the geisha district of Kyoto.