Travel To Kyoto, Japan

Above, a view of Kyoto, Japan from a bullet train's window.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One of the highlights of my trip to Japan in 2004 was a visit to Kyoto, Japan.

Bay of Plenty Times, a New Zealand website, has an interesting article posted about Japan's former capital city.

It begins with:

Gardens, temples, shrines, palaces, a geisha quarter - Kyoto is one of Japan's treasure chests of culture and, fortunately for visitors, is easy to get around and relatively compact.

Tokyo, the city that took the status of capital away from Kyoto, is a sprawling mass of 35 million residents. Kyoto, capital from the 8th century until 1868, has a population of only 1.5 million and is a more manageable size.

The bulk of the city's temples and shrines are in the surrounding hills but all are easy to access by taxi or public transport.

Above, Kinkaku-ji "Golden Pavilion."  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One of the places I wanted to see in Kyoto was the Kinkaku-ji "Golden Pavilion." I was not disappointed when I got there.

Besides the historical sites to see, Kyoto is also a place for kaiju enthusiasts to visit. Godzilla menaced Kiyomizu-dera in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) and blasted Kyoto Tower in the same movie. And, Gamera had his final battle against Irys inside Kyoto Station in Gamera 3 (1999). These are covered in The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan.

To view the full article, go here.