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CITY GUIDE / 6 discovery ideas

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Kyoto.

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1. Nature · Arashiyama

   Listen to the Arashiyama bamboo grove

   The path runs between stems tall enough to close over your head, and the sound they make in wind is on Japan's official list of a hundred soundscapes worth preserving. Go early — and photograph it.

2. Culture & art · Higashiyama

   Stand on a temple stage built without nails

   Kiyomizu-dera's veranda juts out over the hillside on a lattice of keyaki pillars joined without a single nail, thirteen metres above the slope. Stand on it — and photograph it.

3. Food · Nakagyo

   Eat your way down Nishiki Market

   Four hundred metres of covered lane, some stalls run by the same family for four centuries, selling pickles, tofu skin, grilled eel and knives. Taste as you go — and photograph it.

4. Culture & art · Gion

   Watch for a geiko crossing Hanamikoji at dusk

   Gion is one of the last districts where geiko and maiko still work, and around six they cross the lane between engagements. Wait quietly, keep your distance — and photograph it.

5. Nature · Ukyo

   Count the stones at Ryoan-ji and come up short

   Fifteen rocks sit in raked gravel, and the garden is laid out so that from any position on the veranda one of them is always hidden. Sit and try — and photograph it.

6. Nature

   Experience cherry blossom season (hanami) in Japan

   Celebrate spring with a traditional hanami picnic under trees covered in pink blossoms — and photograph it.