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City of thousand years

Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794 until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, and carries a reputation as its most beautiful city. During the time, Kyoto was the residence of the Emperor and also the center of Japanese power, culture, tradition, and religion.

Kyoto is endowed with an almost overwhelming legacy of ancient Buddhist temples, majestic palaces and gardens of every size and description, not to mention some of the country's most important works of art, its richest culture and most refined cuisine. For many people the very name Kyoto conjures up the classic image of Japan: streets of traditional wooden houses, the click-clack of geta (traditional wooden sandals) on the paving stones, geisha passing in a flourish of brightly colored silks, and temple pagodas surrounded by cherry blossom trees.

Kyoto was among the few Japanese cities that escaped the allied bombings of World War II and as a result, Kyoto still has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the traditional townhouses known as machiya. However the city is continuously undergoing modernization with some of the traditional Kyoto buildings being replaced by newer architecture, such as the Kyoto Station complex.

History

During the 8th century, when powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the Imperial government, the Emperor chose to relocate the capital to a region far from the Buddhist influence. Emperor Kammu selected the village of Uda, at the time in the Kadono district of Yamashiro Province, for this honour.

The new city, Heiankyo (平安京, "tranquility and peace capital"), a scaled replica of the then Tang capital Chang'an, became the seat of Japan's imperial court in 794, beginning the Heian period of Japanese history. Although military rulers established their governments either in Kyoto (Muromachi shogunate) or in other cities such as Kamakura (Kamakura shogunate) and Edo (Tokugawa shogunate), Kyoto remained Japan's capital until the transfer of the imperial court to Tokyo in 1869 at the time of the Imperial Restoration.

Tourism

Kyoto contains roughly 2,000 temples and shrines, and receives over 30 million tourists annually. About 20% of Japan's National Treasures and 14% of Important Cultural Properties exist in the city proper. The UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) includes 17 locations in Kyoto, Uji in Kyoto Prefecture, and Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture. The site was designated as World Heritage in 1994.

Gourmet

Kyoto was the kitchen of the Imperial Court. Top ranking nobles inherited a multitude of refined cuisines, including specialties unique to Kyoto such as “Kaiseki-ryori” and vegetarian friendly “Shojin-ryori”, as well as “Obanzai” for everyday dining. Other Kyoto specialties include, Kyoyasai (traditional Kyoto vegetables), Yatsuhashi (Kyoto snack), Matcha (green tea) from Uji City, hamo (a white fish served with ume as sushi), Yu Do-fu (try places around Nanzenji temple), suppon (an expensive turtle dish), vegetarian dishes (thanks to the abundance of temples), and kaiseki-ryori (multi-course chef's choice that can be extremely good and expensive).

Today Kyoto remains the home of traditional Japanese cuisine, and there are many specialty eateries for sushi, tempura, soba, and ramen. Kyoto is also famous throughout Japan for Japanese sweets. It goes without saying that eating in Kyoto is a fun, enriching experience.

Weather

Kyoto has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), featuring a marked seasonal variation in temperature and precipitation. Summers are hot and humid, though contrarily, winters are relatively cold with occasional snowfall. Kyoto's rain season begins around the middle of June and lasts until the end of July, yielding to a hot and sunny latter half of the summer. Kyoto, along with most of the Pacific coast and central areas of Japan, is prone to typhoons during September and October.

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