The Kyoto Gosho is the still centre the rest of the city turns around — a square kilometre of gravel, pine and walled enclosures where the emperors lived until the court left for Tokyo in 1869. This is the slow morning walk through it: not a sprint between gates, but a circuit of the park (Kyoto Gyoen), the palace itself, and the shrine on its edge.
Enter at the south and walk the broad central avenue north — the scale is the first surprise, the city's noise simply gone. Pass the walled Sento grounds, then turn into the main palace enclosure, free now and unbooked: the ceremonial hall, the raked white courtyards, the South Garden's old cherry and orange trees. Give it the better part of an hour.
Out the east side, Nashinoki-jinja guards one of the city's named springs and tunnels its approach in autumn clover. Back in the park, the restored Kaninomiya residence is the last of two hundred noble mansions that once stood here. Leave by the north gate into the streets around Doshisha and the Imadegawa subway — or carry on east to the river.
