
Kyoto has run on the same street grid since its founding in 794, and largely escaped the bombings of World War II, so those old streets still stand. Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari and Arashiyama draw the crowds they deserve, and then a turn or two puts you onto a quiet lane of machiya townhouses. Keep going and you might find an empty temple garden or one of the old coffee counters this city has been pouring at since the 1940s.
Japan’s former imperial capital is not one busy city with a few calm corners. It is a calm city with a handful of very busy ones, and the distance between the two is often a couple of minutes on foot.





