Kyoto's most photographed places are all managed best by the clock. Fushimi Inari, the mountain of ten thousand red gates, is open all night; walk it at dawn and the crowds are gone by the time you are ten minutes up the path, along with most of the noise. The Arashiyama bamboo grove works the same way, magical before 8am, a corridor of selfie sticks by 10.

Reserve the famous rock garden at Ryoan-ji for the middle of the day instead; stillness there survives the crowds better. Buy a bus-and-subway day pass, wear shoes that slip off easily, and plan around one long temple morning and one neighborhood evening in Gion, where the point is not spotting a geisha but the lanterns coming on over the Shirakawa canal.

Kyoto is a morning city. Sleep early, rise early, win.