KYOTO (315 miles southwest of Tokyo and 25 miles east of Osaka) was the home of the Japanese Emperor, the center of Japanese civilization and the capital of Japan for about 1,100 years or its 1,200 years of existence. Today it known best for its geishas, great temples, beautiful gardens and works of art. It is also the home of Nintendo and more than its share of urban sprawl.

When visiting Kyoto, it is important to keep in mind that it is both a modern city and historical treasure with the old and new often placed side by side. Temples and pagodas share the skyline with office complexes; traditional crafts shops and old neighborhoods are intermixed with modern shopping malls and subway stations; and geishas walk down the streets next to salarymen, office ladies and skateboard punks. Yes, there are many lovely, historical buildings but there are also traffic jams, McDonalds and Mister Donuts.

Kyoto is home to about 1.5 million residents. Around 50 million tourists visit Kyoto every year---including 1 million foreigners, of whom 100,000 are Americans. The number of tourists dipped somewhat after the Kobe earthquake, even though Kyoto was not seriously damaged (the Golden Temple developed cracks and a 9th century statue of a Goddess of Mercy in the Koryuji Temple lost a right arm, but that was about it) but soon returned to normal