Kyoto
Kyoto, officially Kyoto City , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu.
As of 2020, the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the ninth-most populous city in Japan. More than half (56.8%) of Kyoto Prefecture's population resides in the city. The city is the cultural anchor of the substantially larger Greater Kyoto, a metropolitan statistical area home to approximately 3.8 million people. It is also part of the even larger Keihanshin metropolitan area, along with Osaka and Kobe.
Getting to Kyoto
Kyoto does not have its own airport, but is served by Osaka's two airports, Kansai International and Itami. There is an excellent road and railway network between the two cities. = = == = Through Itami Airport = By train = Hokuriku Arch Pass = = Overnight travel = By car By bus = From Tokyo ==== The run between Tokyo and the Kansai region is the busiest in Japan.
Worth seeing
Kyoto offers an incredible number of attractions for tourists, and visitors will probably need to plan an itinerary in advance in order to visit as many as possible. Japan National Tourist Organization's self-guided "Kyoto Walks" pamphlet enables first time visitors to tour the city with ease and with minimum fuss by providing bus numbers, names of bus stops and clearly marked walking routes.
Things to do
Public baths have been a cornerstone of the society for centuries in Kyoto. The first public baths, or sentō (銭湯), were documented in the 13th century. Soon they became one of the few places in society where social status was irrelevant. Noblemen shared baths with commoners and warriors. Today over 140 bath houses remain in Kyoto.
- 01Funaoka Onsen
- 02Toei Kyoto Studio Park
Where to eat
If you've just stepped off the train and the first thing on your mind is a bite to eat, there are several restaurants on the tenth and eleventh floors of the Isetan department store attached to Kyoto station. Most of the offerings are Japanese, including a veritable Ramen village, and there are a few casual Italian cafes.
Getting around Kyoto the local way
- Get inFrom Kyoto, the JR Kosei line goes directly to the Hieizan-Sakamoto station which is a 1,200-m walk from the Sakamoto Cable Car or the trailhead to climb Mount Hiei on foot.
- Get inFrom here the Eizan Cable Car makes the trip to the top of Mount Hiei for ¥850/1080 one-way/return (incl.
- Get inThe Hiyoshi Taisha shrine and the cable car to Mt.
- Get aroundFor going between the two, you can use the Sakamoto Cable Car, which costs ¥840/1570 one-way/round-trip and runs daily from 08:00 to 17:00 once every 30 minutes.
- Get aroundAt over 2 km, this is the longest cable car in Japan and takes about 11 minutes for the journey.
- Get aroundThis cable car line was built in 1927 and refurbished in 1993.
From Wikivoyage: Mount Hiei, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-07.
Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: 663highland (CC BY 2.5), Wikimedia Commons.
