Northern Higashiyama: the great torii and the canal
A giant vermilion torii, the Okazaki museums, and the canal that climbs to Nanzen-ji. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. The great torii
The vermilion *torii* (shrine gate) over Jingu-michi, twenty-four metres of steel that you walk and drive under — one of the largest in Japan. Stand back on the approach and take the scale before you go through; it's the gateway to the whole *Okazaki* quarter, not just the shrine.

2. Heian Shrine
A *jinja* (Shinto shrine) built in 1895 as a bright vermilion-and-green copy of the old imperial palace, scaled down. The free outer courtyard is the draw; pay for the *teien* (garden) behind if the weeping cherries are out in early April, which is when this place is at its best.

3. Okazaki canal
The broad canal running west from the shrine, cherry trees along both banks and a little tour boat in spring. Walk the towpath rather than the road; in blossom week it's one of the calmer places to stand under the trees in this part of the city.

4. Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (Kyocera)
The 1933 museum on the canal, reopened in 2020 after a careful renovation that kept the old tiled roof and slid a glass entrance underneath. Worth a look from outside even if you don't go in; the forecourt is a good place to sit.

5. Lake Biwa Canal Museum
A small free museum where the canal meets the foot of the hills, telling how Meiji-era Kyoto cut a waterway through the mountains from Lake Biwa to power the city. Go in for ten minutes; it explains the aqueduct and the incline you're about to reach.

6. Keage Incline
The old inclined railway that carried canal boats up the slope, rails still set in the ground and cherry trees grown between them. Walk the disused track up toward *Nanzen-ji* and the *Tozai* subway; in April it's a tunnel of blossom and the natural end to the canal.

Northern Higashiyama: the great torii and the canal