- a great ride on the Shinkansen bullet train from the Tokyo Station to the Kyoto Station took about 2.5 hours on the Super Express Nozomi line. Price varies from about $100 to $200 depending on the class. Definitely an nice experience for us North Americans starved of rail experiences.
- Kyoto National Museum has a nice collection of Japanese (and a few Korean and Chinese) art and artifact from ancient to 19th century. Very impressive collection of statuary, ceramics, prints, calligraphy, etc. We see samples of this stuff in various Western museums but it's sooooo much more impressive when you catch it on prime time.
- The New Miyako hotel right by the train station has great rooms and a wonderful Japanese breakfast restaurant for about $150.
- Philosopher's road in one of the many temple districts is a wonderful walk that winds through a picturesque part of the city leading to the Ginkokuji (the Silver temple) one of the main tourist attractions.
- Kiyomizu Shrine with a giant statue of Budha and some magnificent buildings nestled into low mountains.
- Kyoto University. One of the great academic instituitions in the world. I was there for work so I only saw a couple of buildings but for those who enjoy academic pilgrimages in general, you shouldn't miss this one. Being a hotspot for foreign visitors, there are also some intresting (and affordable) restaurants that have English menues and senses of humor. I ate at James' Place which is a tribute restaurant to James Brown. They serve Japanese style hamburgers (no bun). Filling lunch for under $10.
Kyoto has over 2000 temples. It has guidelines to restrict height of new buildings. It was not obliterated in WW II, and it's simply smaller than Tokyo. This ancient capital of Japan is, I think, what most of us believed Japan was before our naive expectations are shattered by Shinjuku and the rest of the Tokyo urban juggernaut.
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