Kyoto has dozens of temples that could stand in for the city, but the five-storey pagoda of To-ji does the job better than any, because you can see it from the Shinkansen. Kyo-o-gokoku-ji is its formal name, and the temple was founded at the very beginning of the Heian capital, in the 790s, as one of two guardian temples placed on either side of the southern gate. Its pagoda, at about fifty-five metres, is the tallest wooden pagoda in Japan, and the version that stands today dates to the middle of the seventeenth century, rebuilt after fire by the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu. Earlier ones were struck by lightning with some regularity, which shows the risk of building high in a thunderstorm country.
Emperor Saga gave the temple to the monk Kukai, known after death as Kobo Daishi, in 823, and it became a centre of esoteric Shingon Buddhism, with a lecture hall full of carved Buddhist figures arranged as a three-dimensional mandala. The founder is still honoured on the twenty-first of every month with a big flea market, one of the best in Japan, where you can buy antiques, plants, pickles and old kimonos. If the date works for your schedule, it is worth bending your trip around it.
For a rider, Kyoto is a place to park the bike and walk, and that means the stop here is about patience. The grid streets are narrow and one-way in places, the bicycles and buses are everywhere, and you must follow the signs for motorcycle parking, which can be hard to find. Aim for early morning, before the tour groups arrive, and enjoy the temple with only the sound of gravel. The route then goes west towards Yakushi-ji in Nara, another of the old temples, with twin pagodas, and it can cross the hills by one of the minor roads away from the heavy traffic.
Fuel is easy within the city, but stations tend to be in the outer ring, so top up on the way in. The neighbourhood has plenty of small places for noodles and sweets, and the nearby Kyoto Station area is full of choice. April and November are lovely but crowded, July is steamy and August swelters, while January mornings can be crisp, empty and silver, in many ways the best light for photographs.