Friday, February 03, 2006

Kyoto and Tokyo

After many visits to Japan that involved either Tokyo or Osaka I had an opportunity to spend a short time in Kyoto last week. The former capital of Japan, Kyoto has some oustanding buildings and gardens. We took a short drive through the city – past the old imperial palace and a temple that was described to me as the largest entirely wooden building in the world. I visited three remarkable temples sites: Ryouanji, Kiyomizu-dera and Rokuon-ji. I have heard the story – and don’t know how true it is – that Kyoto was spared the bombing at the end of the Second World War because Truman wanted to preserve the old city. True or not, it was not bombed. Seventeen historic sites in Kyoto are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This cultural richness is in sharp contrast to Tokyo where almost nothing other than the Imperial Palace is from before the war. Historically, the prevailing building construction was wood – so basically everything burned during the bombing in 1945. One could see this as an opportunity to create a modern architectural display-case, but this is scarcely what happened. Tokyo doesn’t enjoy a unique location on the coast, like New York or Hong Kong, and the city is burdened with buildings from uninspiring to ugly. I can’t think of a single iconic building in Tokyo other than the post office tower.

So, if you want to visit Japan go to Kyoto…

posted by William @ 4:58 PM

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