Kyoto v. Edinburgh Throwdown

Remember when I was in Edinburgh and I fucking loved Edinburgh? I think that was the first place I’ve been to that, while still a functioning city, really seemed to bring its history alive. The architecture and aesthetic and minimal-modernizations all conspired to turn Edinburgh into what felt like a living museum. Plus it looks like the set to all my favourite dragon movies.

So when I recently traveled to Kyoto, one of Japan’s historical capitals, it was an interesting chance to compare. All my time in Tokyo and the east of Japan last year wasn’t a fair crack, because Tokyo was really only built up in the last two hundred years, after the Meiji Restoration, and had been severely damaged during the bombing raids of WWII. Kyoto, on the other hand, had been the seat of power of the Shogunates from around the 12^th – 19^th centuries, and an Imperial capital since the 8^th century! It has all the ancient history you could look for in a place; and as an added bonus, the US Secretary of War took it off the top of the bombing list in WWII because he’d had a lovely time there on his honeymoon. As a result, Kyoto is one of Japan’s most well-preserved cities.

Let’s compare further, so I can show off some killer photos and talk about nerd stuff, shall we?

Now, personally, I was one of those kids who dreamt of dragons and wizards, not samurai and ninjas. I’m not saying one is better than the other, I’m just putting it out there. As a young dorky boy, you tend to fall into one of the two camps – of course no boy would ever say that knights or samurai were slouches in the awesome department – if forced, you’d choose who you wanted to be, or at least who you wanted in your camp during an epic battle. I liked plate armour and two handed swords and massive chargers decked out in horse armour that made them look like steel dragons. What did samurai wear, fucking bamboo armour and sun visors? C’mon, no contest.

Edinburgh is imposing and solid and ancient. It feels like what it really was, a fortified city. The six, seven, eight storey structures in central Edinburgh have been standing for hundreds of years, and give the impression that they haven’t even hit their stride yet. Typhoons have destroyed Japanese cities – what do you think the Scots would say to some rain? As mentioned, all Edinburgh’s tiers and bridges create a vivid three-dimensionality that lend the city an M.C. Escher-esque surreality, further enhancing its awesomeness. To brutally mix mythologies, a minotaur stalking the lower tiers of the city wouldn’t seem out of place. Edinburgh is the stuff of dreams of little knight-and-armour dorks like me; wandering it, you feel like you’re exploring one big castle… with pubs and wifi.

So, having traveled through Osaka and Nara (both cities with their own impressive historical chops), I arrived in Kyoto. I booked a room near a district called Gion, which is famous for being a well-preserved slice of 19^th century Japan and also where all the actual-real-life geisha hang out. The weather was gloomy that first day but it made for purty pictures…

Kyoto was stunning and frankly fucking cool. While mostly constructed of wood, huge swathes of it are so well preserved that you’d have a hard time telling what century it was if you hit ‘Try Me’ on a time machine and spun the wheel. Tiny streets led to stone bridges that arched over shallow, cobbled waterways that had been draining the city for hundreds of years. Kyoto’s shops and restaurants prefer the traditional solid-wood or slatted-wood fronting, lending even a bustling street an air of mystery as your illiterate-assed self wanders and wonders what’s behind the closed doors. Tourists, predominantly Japanese, dress in kimonos to explore the city, further accentuating the historical feel. Thousand-year old temples lurk behind stone torii and gnarled bonsai trees curl around carved wooden walls. The city really does feel like another living museum.

Kyoto made me want to rush home and run an L5R campaign, storytelling samurai and shoguns and bandits and Imperial politics. You don’t need a vivid imagination to get a buzz from the history there. But was I a convert? Would I change sides in the epic rap battle of history – West versus East, knight versus samurai, wizard versus ninja?

Hm.  For pure, childlike glee? No – Edinburgh remains the stuff of legends.  For immersive history, it would be a tie.  For beauty and art and the daily aesthetic? Yes – Kyoto is a more beautiful city, by far.  There’s a whole host of subjective comparisons that I won’t go into, but the food here might have a one-up on Edinburgh jussayin… Anyway, Kyoto; do it.