Kyoto is Japan’s majestic city of ancient temples, serene gardens and superb cultural treasures. Your most enjoyable activity will probably be strolling through artistically designed garden landscapes with their winding paths, tranquil ponds, stately trees, lush vegetation and traditional wooden temples, including Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, Tofuku-ji and Maruyama Park.
The sublime gardens unfold as you walk along paths that lead through changing vistas around each bend, where you can stop frequently to absorb each new perspective looking left, right, up and down. The different views are enhanced by small statues, foot-bridges, bamboo railings, temple back-drops and glimpses of distant mountains, all exquisitely arranged to be appreciated in moments of reflection.
Kyoto was ranked as the number one visitor destination in the world by the readers of Travel and Leisure magazine for two years in a row in 2014 and 2015, quite an honor.
More than 50 million visitors come to Kyoto each year, most of them are just staying for the day then moving on, but about 1 million of them do spend the night in a local hotel -- there are lots of accommodations of all price ranges -- and most of the visitors are Asian. No doubt with the growth of Chinese travel these numbers are going to continue increasing.
These crowds of visitors could very much interfere with your appreciation of Kyoto’s heavenly gardens. So, try to visit during the less-busy late fall or early spring in order to properly experience the tranquil garden atmosphere.
This movie is a combination and expansion of some earlier shorter videos on Kyoto.
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