Explore Kyoto

Nishiki Market is a covered shopping street about 390 metres long in central Kyoto, running along Nishikikōji one block north of Shijō-dōri, between Takakura and Teramachi streets. Over a hundred shops and stalls sell fish, Kyoto pickles, tofu and yuba, sweets and kitchen knives, and food has been traded here for around 400 years.

Yasaka Shrine, once called Gion Shrine, stands at the east end of Shijō-dōri in Kyoto's Gion district. By its own records it dates to 656; it is dedicated to the deity Susanoo and heads some 2,300 Yasaka shrines. The grounds hold a main hall in the Gion-zukuri style, a dance stage hung with lanterns and the vermilion west gate.

Heian Shrine was built in 1895 for the 1,100th anniversary of the founding of Heian-kyō, the old name of Kyoto. Its vermilion halls with green roofs reproduce the state hall of the ancient imperial palace at reduced scale, and it enshrines the emperors Kanmu and Kōmei. Behind the halls lies a stroll garden laid out by Ogawa Jihei VII.

The Kyoto Imperial Palace was the residence of Japan's emperors until the capital moved to Tokyo in 1869. Visitors follow a set route through the walled grounds in Kyoto Gyoen and see the halls, among them the Shishinden ceremonial hall, from outside; the present buildings date from 1855, and guided tours run several times a day.

Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of the kami Inari, worshipped for rice, harvests and business, at the foot of Mount Inari in southern Kyoto. Founded in 711, it has paths lined with thousands of vermilion torii gates donated by businesses, which climb through forest past smaller shrines to the 233 m summit.

The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is a stand of tall mōsō bamboo in the Sagano area of western Kyoto. A path of a few hundred metres, lined with low brushwood fences, runs through it near the north gate of Tenryū-ji and Nonomiya Shrine. The Ministry of the Environment lists the sound of wind in the bamboo among Japan's 100 soundscapes.