History

Kyoto was built in 794 AD as the capital city of Japan for the Imperial family and today it is the 6^th largest city with a population approaching 1.5 million people. For almost 1000 years Kyoto ruled as the capital city of Japan until it was moved to Tokyo in 1867. Kyoto was carefully planned on grid format based on Chinese Feng Shui philosophy and is one of the few cities that was not bombed during the Second World War. Many old cultural sites still remain, and it is easy to get around the greater city area to see them, with most roads running from north to south and east to west, unlike the meandering streets of other big cities.