Kyoto: the old capital, without the usual errors

Heian-kyō was founded in 794 on the model of Tang Chang’an. The Kyoto City Archaeological Research Institute gives the grid as roughly 4.5 km east–west by 5.2 km north–south, with Suzaku-ōji 84 metres wide down the centre. Numbered east–west avenues ran Ichijō through Kujō. Addresses in the old city still work that way: Kyoto City Hall sits at 寺町通御池上る — Teramachi-dōri, Oike, agaru (north of the intersection).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes Kyoto as a basin surrounded on three sides — north, west and east — by hills. The flat centre burned and was rebuilt; the great temples and gardens survive on the slopes because those slopes escaped the fires.

The inscription, dated 17 December 1994, is Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities), criteria (ii) and (iv). UNESCO itself names two prefectures. There are 17 components: 16 religious establishments and Nijō Castle, the only secular one. Together they comprise 198 buildings and 12 gardens.

The familiar “1,600 temples and 400 shrines” is a rounding of Kyoto Prefecture’s 1,656 Buddhist and 385 Shinto religious corporations inside the city (March 2024). Those are legal entities, not a census of buildings.

JMA 1991–2020 normals for the Kyoto station, from the Kyoto Local Meteorological Office and the climate tables:

• Sakura: first bloom 26 March, full bloom 4 April, on the Somei Yoshino specimen tree. JMA observes; it does not forecast. Observed dates by city sit on the cherry blossom schedule; how to sit under the trees is on the hanami guide.
• Maple colouring: 5 December. That is the first day most leaves on the sample tree have turned and green is almost gone — late-stage change, not peak viewing. Temples programme autumn night openings in late November.
• August: mean daily high 33.7 °C, overnight low 24.7 °C, humidity 66%. The nights barely cool. Humidity is not exceptional for Japan; the basin is.
• January: mean 4.8 °C. Snow falls on about 45 days a year but the annual maximum depth normal is 7 cm — photogenic snow on Kinkaku-ji is uncommon.

A separate historical series, archived at NOAA, tracks Yamazakura full flowering at Arashiyama from a first observation in 812. It is not continuous, not Somei Yoshino, and not the JMA station record — do not splice the two.

Kyoto Station is served by JR West, JR Central (Tōkaidō Shinkansen — every Nozomi, Hikari and Kodama stops), Kintetsu, and the municipal subway Karasuma Line. Hankyu, Keihan and Randen do not serve Kyoto Station.

There is no ordinary route 100

Express route 100 was suspended on 19 March 2022. In 2026, “100” means EX100: ¥500, weekends and holidays only, Kyoto Station → Gojōzaka → Gion → Okazaki → Ginkaku-ji, about 10 / 17 / 30 minutes. Board at the front and pay on boarding — the reverse of ordinary city buses. The 1-day pass covers it. Weekday equivalents at ¥230 are routes 106 and 206. Keihan’s weekday Okoshi Bus to Kiyomizu-dera (¥500) is a limited run, 1 July 2026 – 29 January 2027.

Randen (Keifuku) is a ¥250 flat fare — not ¥220 — with a free transfer at Katabiranotsuji and a ¥250 charge per item of hand baggage. Guides that still print ¥220 are three years out of date.

Large luggage is not banned on city buses and carries no surcharge; the city asks you to use lockers or rail instead. For IC cards and the national rail picture, see the transportation guide.

Kyoto City’s own overtourism workstreams for 2026 name four pressure points — Higashiyama, Gion, Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari — and a Comfort Map that forecasts hourly crowding at 11 spots. There are no visitor caps and no paid district entry. Check the map, then go early.

Higashiyama — Kiyomizu-dera

The temple opens at 06:00 and treats the Niōmon forecourt as part of the grounds. No food brought in, no tripods or monopods, no drones, no sitting that blocks others; staff will ask you to leave. The official site does not publish the admission fee in readable text — confirm at the gate. Night openings run in late March, mid-August and late November.

Fushimi — Inari Taisha

No admission, and Kyoto City lists the grounds as 閉門なし — no closing gate — not “open 24 hours” in the shrine’s own words. Inariyama is 233 metres; the mountain circuit is about 4 km and roughly two hours. Claims that Senbon Torii is keep-right or one-way have no shrine-official source.

Kinugasa — Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji, Ryōan-ji

Kinkaku-ji is open 09:00–17:00. Its official FAQ permits personal snapshots and refuses photography published to third parties, SNS included. It does not publish the current fee in readable text; the circulating claim that it rose to ¥1,000 in April 2026 looks like a conflation with Ginkaku-ji.

Ginkaku-ji doubled adult admission to ¥1,000 on 1 April 2026, the first rise in 32 years. Ryōan-ji is ¥600, 08:00–17:00 from March to November.

Arashiyama — Tenryū-ji and the bamboo path

Chikurin no Komichi is a public road: no gate, no fee, no hours. Kyoto City also runs a separate city-owned bamboo path open 09:00–17:00 — do not conflate the two. Tenryū-ji’s garden is ¥500; the cloud-dragon ceiling is ¥500 extra and weekends/holidays only, outside designated spring and autumn periods. A Kyoto City survey in October 2025 found carvings on at least 350 stems in the grove.

Also useful: Nijō Castle is ¥800 entry, ¥1,300 with Ninomaru Palace; the Honmaru Palace is a further ¥1,000 by advance booking. Nishiki Market’s association asks visitors not to eat while walking. That is an association request, not a city ordinance.

Dated listings sit on the festivals calendar.

English coverage collapses three different regimes into the word “fine.” They are not the same. About 80% of residents told the city they feel inconvenienced by crowding or bad manners; the city’s answer is dispersal and pricing, not a photography ordinance.

Kyoto’s word is geiko (芸妓), not geisha; the apprentice is a maiko (舞妓). The Ōkini Foundation reported roughly 211 across the five hanamachi in 2024 — attribute that, do not treat it as a city statistic. Kyoto City’s own tourism site prohibits photographing them without permission, including stopping them to ask. Most kimono-clad figures in daylight are other visitors in rental kimono; no official percentage exists, so none is printed here.

• Hanami guide — how to read kaika and mankai, and how not to harm the trees.
• Cherry blossom tracker — observed first bloom and full bloom by city.
• Festivals calendar — dated listings, including Gion and Aoi.
• Autumn foliage — private kōyō forecasts, not a JMA product.
• Regions of Japan — Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai context.