Kyoto is a city in the central part of
the island of Honshu, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5
million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan for more than one
thousand years, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as
well as a major part of the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area.
With temples, parks, bustling business districts, markets, from
regal estates to the tightly-packed neighborhoods, Kyoto is one
of the oldest and most famous Asian metropolises. In Japanese,
the city has been called Kyo, Miyako or Kyo no Miyako. In the
11th century, the city was renamed Kyoto ("capital
city"), after the Chinese word for capital city. After Edo
was renamed Tokyo ("Eastern Capital") in 1868, Kyoto
was known for a short time as Saikyo ("Western
Capital").
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