Night view Kyoto Japan.most popular city in the world.Kyoto Station Night Walking Tour.kyoto city
Kyoto, once the capital of Japan, is a city on the island of Honshu. It’s famous for its numerous classical Buddhist temples, as well as gardens, imperial palaces, Shinto shrines and traditional wooden houses. It’s also known for formal traditions such as kaiseki dining, consisting of multiple courses of precise dishes, and geisha, female entertainers often found in the Gion district.
Kyoto Tower
Kyoto is Japan’s most elegant city, where its cultural traditions are best preserved. Here we expect to find wooden townhouses on lantern lit lanes, ancient shrines and temples, stately palaces and meditative gardens. So a first time visitor to Kyoto might well be surprised by the sight of the brightly painted red and white tower that stands directly across from Kyoto Station’s north central exit.
Finding Your Way Around
Within Kyoto Tower are a puzzling array of facilities and businesses, and it can be hard to find your way around. It is important to realize that the structure is divided into two parts. At its base is the Kyoto Tower Building, a simple nine story block that holds restaurants, shops, a hotel, a tourist information center and a public spa. This building acts as a pedestal for the tower proper which soars above it for another 100 meters. Inside the tower itself are the observation levels. To reach these levels you must first take the elevator up to the 11th floor, which is the transfer point between the building and the tower. You will then take another elevator to the upper levels. On Level 3 is the Sky Lounge bar and on Level 5 is the Observation Deck. The Observation Deck is open to visitors 365 days a year, and offers sweeping views over the entire city and most of its major landmarks. Below is a guide to the tower’s most important attractions.
KTIC opened in 2015 and is staffed by multilingual staff who can help foreign travelers with their enquiries. The center has free maps and sightseeing information for not only Kyoto but all across Japan. Staff here can make reservations for tours, hotels, chartered taxis and even kabuki theater shows. Various discount transit passes are also available.
Kyoto Trains
Trains are the best way to get to and from Kyoto. You can also explore some parts of the city by train. Here, I’ll give a quick overview of Kyoto’s train system and some links to free English-language route maps.
Kyoto’s train system consists of the national JR Line and several local private lines. While trains are not the most convenient way to explore within Kyoto (buses and subways are more convenient), you can get some place by train within Kyoto: Arashiyama, Uji and Tofuku-ji are some of the places you can visit by train from Kyoto Station.
Also, if you want to go to nearby cities like Osaka, Otsu, Kobe or Nara, trains are the way to go. JR trains run to all these places. If you have a JR Rail Pass, you’ll want to use JR trains to visit these places. However, in some cases, private lines are more convenient. For example, the private Kintetsu Line is a faster and more convenient way to get to Nara than the JR Nara Line.