KYOTO--Reflecting the Japanese traditional aesthetics of “wabi-sabi” (transience and imperfection), moss-covered gardens have long mesmerized visitors from home and abroad. But there has been ...

Muko is the entryway into the southwesterly hills that form the natural border between Kyoto and Osaka, and it's worth taking a quiet trip to explore its temples, gardens, and pilgrimage hiking ...

Ryoan-ji is probably Kyoto's most famous rock garden. The minimalist design of the place, which features 15 rocks placed on ...

In this guide, I’ll share a handful of less-touristy activities that allow you to see a different side of Kyoto—one that goes ...

Kyoto has long been at the top of my list of ... traditional wooden houses and meticulously kept gardens – all make visiting here a photographer’s delight. Home to centuries’ worth of ...

Many of their gardens were built by the pioneer of the modern Japanese garden, Ogawa Jihei VII. While Kyoto's cityscape was transforming after the fall of feudalism, Jihei designed spaces of ...

Every day, hundreds of people visit Ryoanji Temple to see its Zen rock garden – which is probably the most famous of its kind in Japan. Located in Kyoto's northern outskirts, the temple was ...

Beyond the futuristic Kyoto Station, modern shopping complexes, and sleek luxury hotels, lies a city with celebrated centuries-old wonders, breathtaking temples, serene Zen gardens, narrow cobbled ...

Oshima Hiroshi, a chauffeur and tour guide, showed Steve Jobs around Kyoto. Oshima says one of Jobs' favorite destinations was Ryoanji, a 500-year-old Zen temple known for its rock garden.