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Kyoto

City in JapanKyoto lies in a basin on Honshu, Japan's largest island, closed in by mountains on three sides, with the Kamo River on its east side. It is in the Kansai region, near Osaka and Kobe.

What it's known for

Kyoto was the seat of Japan's emperors from 794 until the capital moved to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration. It has roughly 2,000 temples and shrines, such as Kinkaku-ji and Fushimi Inari, and 17 historic monuments in and around the city were added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1994.

Fun facts

  1. Kyoto simply means 'capital city', and the first city here was called Heian-kyō, the 'tranquility and peace capital'.
  2. During the Second World War, Kyoto was taken off the list of targets for the atomic bomb, and Nagasaki was put on the list instead.
  3. The video game company Nintendo is based in Kyoto, and the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases is named after a conference held in the city.

Finding it on the globe

Find Osaka Bay on Japan's main island, then move about 40 km inland to the northeast: Kyoto sits in its ring of hills, away from the sea.

Easy to mix up

The names Kyoto and Tokyo look alike, and both have been capitals. Kyoto was the imperial capital for more than a thousand years, but Tokyo has been Japan's capital since the Meiji Restoration.

Sources: Wikipedia: Kyoto