Orientation
Kyoto's city planners way back in 794 decided to copy the Chinese capital Chang'an present-day Xi'an and adopt a grid pattern, which persists to this day in the city core. West-east streets are numbered, with IchijÅ-dÅri ä¸æ¡é, "First Street" up north and JÅ«jÅ-dÅri åæ¡é, "Tenth Street" down south, but there is no obvious pattern to the names of north-south streets.
Understand
Nestled among the mountains of Western Honshu, Kyoto was the capital of Japan and the residence of the Emperor from 794 until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when the capital was moved to Tokyo. During its millennium at the center of Japanese power, culture, tradition, and religion, it accumulated an unparalleled collection of palaces, temples and shrines, built for emperors, shoguns, and monks. Kyoto was among the few Japanese cities that escaped the allied bombings of World War II and as a result, Kyoto still has an abundance of prewar buildings, such as the traditional townhouses known as machiya. However the city is continuously undergoing modernization with some of the traditional Kyoto buildings being replaced by newer architecture, such as the Kyoto Station complex.