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Orientation
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Kyoto is contained within a wide valley surrounded by hills on three sides and drained by the Katsura-gawa to the west and the smaller, easterly Kamo-gawa. Thanks to its grid-iron street system, this is one of Japan's easier cities to find your way around. The
central district
of banks, shops and the main tourist facilities lies between the Imperial Palace in the north and
Kyoto Station
to the south. Nijo-jo and Horikawa-dori define the district's western extent, while the Kamo-gawa provides a natural boundary to the east. Within this core, the
downtown
area is concentrated around Shijo-dori and north along Kawaramachi-dori to Oike-dori. Shijo-dori leads east over the Kamo-gawa into
Gion
, the city's major entertainment district, and to the eastern hills,
Higashiyama
, which shelter many of Kyoto's most famous temples. Much of this central area is best tackled on foot, but the city's other sights are widely scattered. To the northwest,
Kinkaku-ji
and
Ryoan-ji
provide the focus for a second group of temples, while the southwestern suburbs hide the superb gardens of
Saiho-ji
and the
Katsura Rikyu.
In general, Kyoto
addresses
follow the same pattern as for the rest of Japan
. There are, however, a few added subtleties which are worth mastering. Unusually, most of the city's main roads are named and the location of a place is generally described by reference to the nearest major junction. Since the land slopes gently south, the most usual indicator is whether a place lies north of (
agaru
, literally "above") or south of (
sagaru
, "below") a particular east-west road. For example, Kawaramachi Sanjo simply means the place is near the intersection of Kawaramachi-dori and Sanjo-dori; Kawaramachi Sanjo-agaru tells you it's north of Sanjo-dori; Kawaramachi Sanjo-sagaru, that it's to the south. At a higher level of sophistication, the address might also indicate whether a place lies east (
higashi
) or west (
nishi
) of the north-south road. Finally, ten east-west avenues are numbered consecutively from Ichijo-dori (First Street), on a level with today's Imperial Palace, to Jujo-dori (Tenth Street) down below the station, which helps pinpoint roughly how far south you are. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Japan,
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