Present-day Kyoto

Firstly, Kyoto is where even the Japanese come to discover the absolute heart of Japan...

This city was Japan's Imperial Capital for a continuous period of more than one thousand years, from the late 8th century until the late 19th-century Meiji Restoration, the birth of "modern Japan". Unlike most other cities in Japan, it survived the Second World War unscathed, retaining both its physical integrity and its unparalleled heritage of living culture.

Kyoto's distinctive setting (laid out on the pattern of China's T'ang Dynasty capital Chang'an) includes the Imperial Palace, with its vast public parklands; the Kamo River and tributaries; over two thousand temples and shrines, some of which date back to the city's earliest years; classic examples of every period and style of Japanese garden design, and a rich heritage of traditional stores, workshops, town-houses, inns, storehouses and other evidence of what is now often referred to elsewhere as 'lost Japan'.

Kyoto is home to around 20% of Japan's National Treasures, and 15% of its Important Cultural Properties. Master craftsmen (some designated "Living National Treasures") can be found with unbroken direct lineage of fifteen or twenty generations of mastery in the same field. The headquarters of Japan's major Buddhist sects are here, and the main schools in traditional disciplines such as tea ceremony, calligraphy, Noh drama, and other aesthetic and performing arts.

Kyoto is an internationally respected learning center, with over thirty universities and colleges, and over 126,000 tertiary-level students, a higher student ratio than any city in Japan. It's cheaper to live here than in Tokyo, with Kyoto's long-established supportive infrastructure of reasonable student accommodation, low-priced restaurants and after-hours entertainment. Due to Kyoto's smaller, more human scale, transportation doesn't swallow up time and money - in fact, you can bicycle anywhere. Well-known as a comparatively quiet and safe town, Kyoto is also geared to students' part-time work requirements.

Meanwhile, Kyoto is not ALL old temples and museums of archaic traditions! In addition to many striking examples of avant-garde architecture, the ancient capital is known for world-class "leading edge" high-technology. Kyoto-based computer-game developer/manufacturer Nintendo is famous around the world, and Kyocera, an innovative local company, has redefined a Kyoto craft tradition in producing space-age industrial "super-ceramics". The city government is constantly upgrading infrastructure, and has recently opened a number of new facilities including new subway rail links, an excellent Concert Hall, a Museum of Modern Art, an Exhibition Hall (including the new Japan Design Museum) and a massive new central railway terminal. As a world crossroads, Kyoto attracts numerous high-level international conferences and symposia.

For useful links providing further information on Kyoto, click here.

Kyoto is located about 50 kilometers north-east of Osaka, occupies 610 square kilometers, and has a population of approximately 1.5 million. (It also attracts around 40 million tourists per year).

International air access is via Kansai International Airport, with a 70-minute express train ride to Kyoto Station.

By Shinkansen, Tokyo is about 3 hours away, and Hiroshima, 2 hours. Osaka is just 40 minutes away by inter-city railways. Nara, Imperial capital before Kyoto, is one hour away, to the south.

Average monthly temperatures range from 4°C to 27.7°C, with some snow in winter, humid heat in summer.

Kyoto is mainly flat, surrounded by forested hills to the east, north and west. Biwako, Japan's largest lake, is a few kilometers to the east, and the Japan Sea, 70km to the north.

Kyoto is on the approximately the same latitude (35 degrees) as Xian, Srinagar, Kabul, Tehran, Cyprus, Crete, Casablanca, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Memphis, Alberquerque, and Yokohama ...