Kyoto

The currency is the yen, which in mid-2026 is at about 160 to the dollar and 185 to the euro. The 10% consumption tax already comes built into the listed price, and the tax exemption for tourists on purchases over ¥5,000 is transitioning to a refund done at the airport: confirm at the register before counting on it. The reference ranges: coffee ¥400-600; teishoku lunch ¥900-1,500; convenience store meal ¥500-800; ramen ¥900-1,300; ordinary dinner ¥3,000-6,000; kaiseki ¥15,000-40,000; temple admission ¥400-1,300. Lodging: dorm ¥3,000-4,500, capsule ¥3,500-5,000, business hotel ¥10,000-18,000, ryokan with two meals ¥20,000-50,000. Since March 1, 2026, the municipal lodging tax is charged per person and per night in five brackets: ¥200 below ¥6,000, ¥400 from ¥6,000 to ¥19,999, ¥1,000 from ¥20,000 to ¥49,999, ¥4,000 from ¥50,000 to ¥99,999, and ¥10,000 above ¥100,000. It's the highest in Japan and is usually charged at check-in. There's no tipping anywhere, and insisting is awkward: it's common to leave coins on the table and have someone run after you to give them back. Some izakaya charge a cover (otōshi) of ¥300-500, and formal restaurants add a 10% to 15% service charge. Cards work at hotels, stores, and chains, but temples, markets, small taxis, and old-fashioned counters still want cash. The ATMs at 7-Eleven and the post office accept foreign cards 24 hours a day.

Kansai Airport (KIX), 100 km from downtown

The international airport is Kansai, KIX, and it's 100 km away, a distance that tends to surprise newcomers. The Haruka express train links KIX to Kyoto Station in 75 to 80 minutes for about ¥3,100, departing every 30 minutes; the direct bus takes 90 to 105 minutes and costs about ¥2,800, and it's worth it with big luggage, because there isn't a single step along the way. From Itami domestic airport, ITM, the bus arrives in 55 to 70 minutes for about ¥1,400. From Tokyo, the Nozomi shinkansen makes the trip in 2 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 20 minutes for about ¥14,000, and here's the detail that costs money: it isn't covered by the Japan Rail Pass. Pass holders take the Hikari, which is 20 minutes slower but already paid for.

The bus does the heavy lifting: only two metro lines

Within the city there are only two subway lines, the Karasuma (north-south) and the Tōzai (east-west), so the municipal bus carries everything else, with a flat fare of ¥230 in the central zone and the boarding door marked on each vehicle. Check the sign, because it changes from model to model. The bus-only day pass was discontinued in March 2024; what exists now is the Subway and Bus One-Day Pass, at ¥1,100, which only starts to pay off from five trips on. IC cards (ICOCA, Suica, Pasmo) work on everything, including by phone; the physical ICOCA costs ¥2,000, of which ¥500 is a refundable deposit. City hall has announced a differentiated fare between residents (¥200) and non-residents (¥350-400) on the central lines starting in 2027, plus express lines aimed at visitors. The network is rounded out by the private railways Hankyu, Keihan, and Kintetsu, the JR Sagano line to Arashiyama (15 min), the Randen tram to the northwest, and the Eizan to the northeast. The city is flat and walkable, all of Higashiyama can be done on foot, and the bicycle is efficient, with rental from ¥1,000 to ¥1,500 a day, as long as you leave it in a paid spot: an impounded bicycle costs about ¥2,300 to get back.

Here the risk is almost never other people, it's weather and carelessness. Violent crime is very low, and walking alone at night isn't, in practice, a significant risk; a forgotten item usually comes back through the kōban, the neighborhood police box. The real dangers are different: heatstroke in July and August, when the basin goes past 35 °C with high humidity and the body needs water and shade every hour; typhoons between August and September, which halt trains and planes for a day; and earthquakes, for which the instruction is simple: get away from glass, protect your head, and follow the loudspeaker's guidance. A bicycle on a narrow sidewalk causes more accidents with pedestrians than anything else. As for scams, the repertoire is modest: ticket scalpers, rickshaws, and “private tours” approaching at the exit of Kiyomizu at a price well above the counter, and some bars in Kiyamachi and Gion with an unannounced cover charge. Ask the price before sitting down, and be wary of anyone calling out on the street. Emergencies: 110 for police, 119 for fire and ambulance, both with English service by transfer.

Don't eat while walking

Don't eat while walking, especially in Nishiki and on the Higashiyama slopes. Every shop has its own counter, step or trash can, and eating standing next to the vendor is the expected behavior, as is carrying the package closed to a bench.

No photos in Gion's private alleys

Since 2024 the district's private lanes are off-limits to anyone uninvited, with signs in Japanese and English announcing fines (published amounts range from ¥10,000 to ¥30,000). Photographing maiko on their way to work, even on a public street, is banned by the neighborhood council.

Take your shoes off wherever there's a step

In temple halls, ryokan, teahouses, and many restaurants, the step (genkan) marks the boundary. Take your shoes off, turn them to face the door, and never step onto the tatami with shoes on, or down onto the genkan floor in just socks.

Use the change tray

Registers and counters have a small tray for cash and cards. Put the money in it rather than handing it over directly; change comes back the same way, often with both hands.

Quiet on transit and in gardens

You don't talk on the phone on buses and trains, and conversation volume drops near prayer halls and dry gardens. In a moss garden, stepping off the stone path damages years of upkeep.

Kaiseki restaurants and teahouses require a referral

Many kaiseki restaurants and teahouses operate by referral (ichigen-san okotowari, “we don't serve first-time customers without an introduction”). The refusal applies to any new customer with no referral. Ask your hotel to book, a week ahead.

Combining Fushimi Inari with Kinkaku-ji or Arashiyama

Trying to fit Fushimi Inari, in the south, into the same day as Kinkaku-ji, in the northwest, and Arashiyama, in the west. The distance weighs on only one side: from Kinkaku-ji to Fushimi Inari is 50 to 80 minutes by bus and train, with a transfer at Kyoto Station, while from Arashiyama it's about 30 minutes on the JR Sagano and JR Nara lines. What doesn't fit is the visit itself, because Kinkaku-ji and Arashiyama, half an hour apart from each other, already fill the day from 8am to late afternoon. Leave Fushimi Inari for another day, or for after 7pm.

The tourist lines stop letting people on

Counting on the bus between 10am and 5pm in high season. The tourist routes fill up and simply stop letting anyone else on; the subway plus walking, or the JR and Keihan trains, almost always get you there first.

Booking “in Kyoto” without opening the map

Booking a “hotel in Kyoto” without opening the map and waking up in Yamashina, Katsura, or southern Fushimi, 25 to 40 minutes from everything. Stay within the rectangle between the station, Karasuma-Oike, Sanjō, and Gion.

Thinking Fushimi Inari takes half an hour

Thinking Fushimi Inari can be done in half an hour. The first torii are 10 minutes from the entrance, but the full loop to the top, at 233 m, takes 2 to 3 hours of steps.

The last admission is 30 minutes before closing

Arriving at a temple after 4pm. Most close between 4:30pm and 5pm, and the last ticket is sold 30 minutes before; in winter, some close even earlier. The difference between getting in and being left outside can be a few minutes, so check each temple's hours the day before.

すみません (sumimasen)

“excuse me” and “sorry” at once; used to call the waiter (soo-mee-mah-sen)

ありがとうございます (arigatō gozaimasu)

thank you very much, the standard polite form (ah-ree-gah-toh goh-zai-mahss)

おおきに (ōkini)

thank you in the Kyoto dialect, used by shopkeepers and at the end of a bill (oh-kee-nee)

おいくらですか (o-ikura desu ka)

how much is it? (oh-ee-koo-rah dess-kah)

写真を撮ってもいいですか (shashin o totte mo ii desu ka)

may I take a photo? The question that avoids almost every problem in Gion (sha-shin o tot-te mo ii dés-ka)

ごちそうさまでした (gochisōsama deshita)

said on finishing a meal and leaving the restaurant; the equivalent of thanking the food itself (goh-chee-soh-sah-mah desh-tah)

The closed basin and the rivers

Kyoto sits in a sedimentary basin closed off by mountains on three sides: Kitayama to the north, Higashiyama to the east (with Mount Hiei, 848 m), and Nishiyama to the west; only the south is open, toward Osaka and the bay. The Kamo river cuts the city from north to south and takes in the Takano at Demachiyanagi, in a Y-shaped delta; the Katsura runs to the west, under the Togetsukyō bridge, and the two join the Uji to form the Yodo, which empties out in Osaka.

The 794 grid and the address

The 794 grid survived: the east-west streets are still numbered from Ichijō to Kujō, and a local address doesn't use a door number, but the nearest intersection plus a direction, agaru (going up, to the north), sagaru (going down, to the south), higashi-iru and nishi-iru (entering to the east or the west).

The trapped heat and the height law

The basin works like a pot: the air doesn't circulate, summer goes past 35 °C with high humidity, and winter holds in the cold, with occasional snow. The 2007 landscape law limits building height to between 10 and 31 m across most of the city, bans rooftop billboards and requires discreet facades, which explains the low skyline and the absence of skyscrapers: the only tall landmarks are Kyoto Tower (131 m, 1964) and the station roof (1997, 470 m long).

The five hanamachi are still active

The five hanamachi (Gion Kōbu, Gion Higashi, Miyagawachō, Pontochō, and Kamishichiken) keep up the system of okiya, ochaya, and dance schools that trains geiko and maiko. There are about 200 women in total today, against more than 2,000 in the 1920s, and the work is artistic and contractual: dance, shamisen, conversation at private dinners. The public can see this legally at the seasonal odori, above all the Miyako Odori, in April, at the Gion Kōbu theater, and the Kamogawa Odori of Pontochō, in May. Off the stage, the rule is not to photograph women on their way to work and not to enter the private alleys.

Craft traditions registered before industry

The city has produced officially recognized crafts since before industrialization: Nishijin-ori silk, kyō-yūzen dyeing, kiyomizu-yaki ceramics, fans, needles, brushes, and incense. At the same time, it's home to companies that grew out of that technical base: Shimadzu (1875, instrumentation), Nintendo (1889, hanafuda cards before video games), Kyocera (1959), Omron, Murata, Rohm, and Nidec, and to a large university population: about 150,000 students, a bit more than a tenth of the population, and more than ten Nobel laureates tied to Kyoto University, from Hideki Yukawa (1949) to Susumu Kitagawa (2025).

Kabuki, film, and market

For popular culture, Kyoto has the Minami-za kabuki theater, whose origins go back to the early 17th century and whose current building dates from 1929, with the Kaomise season in December; the Kyoto International Manga Museum, opened in 2006 in a former elementary school, with about 300,000 items; and the Tōei Uzumasa studio park, a legacy of the era when the city was the center of Japanese period-film production. Pontochō brings together bars and restaurants in an alley of wooden buildings. Check your chosen venue’s hours and transport back before planning the evening.

“The Temple of the Golden Pavilion,” Yukio Mishima (1956)

A novel built around the real 1950 arson of Kinkaku-ji, set by a novice monk. It captures the city's uneasy relationship with its own preserved beauty.

“The Old Capital” (Koto), Yasunari Kawabata (1962)

The city seen through its trades and its calendar: Nishijin weaving, Kitayama cedars, street festivals. It's the most precise portrait of a Kyoto that industrialized without ceasing to be a city of craft.

“Sisters of the Gion,” Kenji Mizoguchi (1936)

A film shot in the district about two geisha with opposite survival strategies. It shows the real economics behind the teahouses, without the tourist gloss.