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At first glance, Kyoto may seem like a conglomeration of opposites.
Thousand-year old temples filled with Buddhist statues and modern universities
filled with some of the nation's brightest students and professors.
Winding narrow footpaths to be explored leisurely and the high-speed bullet train
to whisk one off to Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo and beyond.
A 400 year old tradition of preparing green tea, and McDonald's.
These are not simply a list of random pairings, but actual examples of how Kyoto masterfully combines traditional
and contemporary thought, nature and technology, to create a city unique in all the world.
Kyoto is eager to welcome your convention to this magnificent city.
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Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 1000 years, and remains the cultural heart of Japan,
an amazing blend of modern convenience with ancient tradition.
It is unique within Japan in that it was virtually untouched during World War II, leaving a myriad of temples,
shrines and a castle intact.
This legacy has been recognized by UNESCO, which has designated 17 separate sites within Kyoto's borders
as World Cultural Heritage sites.
It is also home to 47 institutions of higher learning, and half of all Japanese Nobel Prize winners have been Kyoto University researchers. Kyoto even uses traditional art forms to create modern technology, as in the example of one company that used long-standing pottery techniques to develop high-tech ceramics. Very few cities in all the world have achieved this harmony of culture and modernity.
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The Kansai International Airport (KIX), located slightly over an hour away from Kyoto, is the most-used international airport in Japan after Tokyo. 49 airlines from over seventy different cities throughout the world serve KIX with almost 700 departures per week. KIX is approximately eleven hours from points within Europe - almost the same amount of time it would take to reach the West Coast of the USA.
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