Nijo Castle is not really a castle, in the sense of a stronghold, but a palace dressed up as one. The first shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, Tokugawa Ieyasu, built it in 1603 as his residence in Kyoto, to show the emperor and the nobles who held real power in Japan, and his grandson Iemitsu added to it in the 1620s. The Ninomaru Palace, the main building, has long corridors with floors that squeak like nightingales when walked on, a feature meant to warn of intruders, and rooms covered in gold-leaf screens painted with tigers, pines and eagles by the Kano school. The style was intended to impress and intimidate visiting lords.
It was here, in 1867, that the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, announced the return of power to the emperor, which ended more than two and a half centuries of Tokugawa rule and opened the way to modern Japan. The castle later became an imperial villa, and then was given to the city. UNESCO listed it in 1994.
Kyoto is a grid, and Nijo stands in the centre of it, on Horikawa Street, a few kilometres from the main station. The moat and stone walls are very impressive in cherry blossom season in early April, when the evening illuminations draw crowds. Traffic around the castle is heavy, with buses and taxis, and the best way to approach on a bike is early in the morning or on a weekday. Parking for motorcycles is available at some car parks nearby, though you should check the prices and be prepared to walk.
Fuel is easy in Kyoto, a city with stations on every major road, although they are fewer in the central part. Cafes and noodle shops are everywhere. The roads out of Kyoto north and west lead to mountain country, and the ride list continues to Yoshino and Omine, in Nara's mountains, and the Kimpu-jinja shrine, a shrine tied to Shugendo, the mountain religion of Japan's ascetic priests, reached by a road that climbs through cedar forest.
Visit in the quiet of morning, listen to the floors, and then leave the city behind with the engine warm and a cup of green tea in your pocket.