Kyoto was a bullet train (shinkansen) ride from Tokyo which took about 3 hours. This was a pretty cool (but expensive-280 bucks!) little adventure in itself, as the bullet trains are pretty neat. They have the exact feel of being on a plane they are so smooth. It is hard to believe that you are actually on a track, as it doesn't feel like there is any friction below the train, and the speeds you are traveling at are incredible.
After the train ride, I arrived in Kyoto station and immediately noticed a difference from Tokyo. It was definitely more relaxed (but, what isn't?), and less crowded. The architecture in Central Kyoto was different than Tokyo in that it was more what you would think was "classic Japanese" and less modern.
The hotel I was staying at was conveniently located about a 15 minute walk from Kyoto Station. The hotel, called Tour Club, was excellent. The owner of tour club, a traveler himself, had put a lot of thought into the hotel. He built a traditional Japanese hotel with the intent that travelers get the full Japanese experience when staying there. He had built a Japanese rock garden, installed a Japanese bath as well as a Japanese-style dining room. He had Kimono's available for female customers to try on. He also had a huge amount of information available on Kyoto, and had hired an extremely friendly and knowledgeable staff. He had learned a lot, obviously, about what travelers want through his own experience. Tour Club also had many interesting people staying there. It is a place I would highly recommend.
As far as Kyoto itself, it was definitely a big highlight of my trip. I had seen Japanese temples before in Tokyo and in San Francisco and Hawaii, but nothing could compare to Kyoto. First of all, there are over 2000 temples in Kyoto. There are about 20 really famous ones. It can be overwhelming in determining where to go, but by talking to people and reading my Lonely Planet, I pared it down to visit about 10.
It was a great time of the year to visit Kyoto, since it was the fall, and many of the trees were changing colors. The other popular time of the year to visit Kyoto is in the spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom.
The temples themselves were beautiful and really blew away my expectations. They had so much attention to detail and were so exquisite that you really couldn't help but love them. Just walking around them, you are awed by the man-made elegance of the temples themselves and the incredible rock and conventional gardens that surround them, and you are just as amazed at the natural settings they are in.
The garden at Daitako-ji Temple was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. I could have literally sat and looked at these gardens for hours.
I really was blown away by the temples of Kyoto. It is a time-warp going there, knowing they are hundreds of years old, and so significant to the Japanese people and their history. You can imagine Samurai and Shogun walking around planning their empires.
It is a little-known fact that when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in WWII, Kyoto was actually one of the original targets. Tokyo would have obviously been the first for the atomic bomb, but was already leveled from excessive American fire bombing. Kyoto was scratched as a target at the last minute because of concern that destroying all the sacred temples of Kyoto would create a huge amount of ill will toward occupying Americans when they moved into Japan after the surrender. That would have been an unbelieveable tragedy.
Anyway, some of you are probably reading this and still going, "yeah, temples, whatever..", but they are really incredible. It is something you have to see with your own eyes. I am so happy I got to see and experience Kyoto and would like to go back someday. On top of that, it's a lot better than opera.