Best Kyoto Neighborhoodsfor Families, ranked.

Kyoto Station ranks first because the trip’s long journeys start there: the airport, the Shinkansen and the day trips. Sleeping beside it makes the luggage days the short ones, since the Haruka from Kansai Airport arrives at the same station the Shinkansen leaves from. For the Anchor, the child who tires fastest when the day’s structure is unconfirmed, the trip’s biggest journeys then start from a station the family has already walked through on the first day. A younger child has a tower, an aquarium and trains without a transfer: Kyoto Tower, the Kyoto Aquarium and the Kyoto Railway Museum can all be reached on foot from it, the museum also one stop on the Sagano Line. By the second day a teenager can be sent to the platform alone.

Who it costs. The Sensor, because a station carrying the Shinkansen, the JR lines, a subway and a private railway is a great deal of noise and crowding to cross at the start and end of every day.

Downtown ranks second because food, shelter and three rail lines sit within a few minutes of each other. For the Dynamo, who wears thin when kept still, a wet afternoon here can still be spent moving, with lunch, a roof and a museum all on foot. Nishiki Market’s covered street of food shops is a few minutes from Shijo or Hankyu Karasuma, and the Kyoto International Manga Museum is a short walk from Karasuma Oike, where the Karasuma subway meets the Tozai Line. The market is a teenager’s to roam with a time to meet, and a younger child is never far from food.

Who it costs. The Sensor, inside Nishiki itself. The market is a covered street a few meters wide whose food shops pack people close together, and that press of noise and crowding is the part of the day this child has least room for.

Gion and Higashiyama rank third: the temples a family came to Kyoto for are on foot, and the long-distance trains are not. The gain is the hour before the streets fill, when a family that sleeps here can already be at a temple, and it goes to the Sensor, the child worn down by noise and crowding. Yasaka Shrine is a short walk from Gion-shijo, and the city bus from Kyoto Station stops right outside it. In that early hour a younger child can be at the shrine before breakfast, and a teenager out on the old streets with a parent. The Kiyomizu-dera temple is the harder one, with no rail station close by.

Who it costs. The Sprinter, because the district’s great temple sits at the end of a walk. Twenty-five minutes on foot, or a bus and ten more, is a long way to spend walking and standing before the temple itself begins.

Nijo Castle and the Imperial Palace rank fourth: two of Kyoto’s great sights, and less else for a child on foot. Sleeping here buys two easy mornings, one at each sight, and then the rest of the city is a ride away. For the Anchor, who needs a plan confirmed before it starts, two sights with a known way in are an easy pair to promise: the stop for Nijo Castle is Nijojo-mae on the Tozai subway, and the palace is a short walk from Imadegawa on the Karasuma subway. Nijo, one stop on from the castle, is also on the JR Sagano Line to Arashiyama. The castle’s grounds suit a younger child, and the palace’s English tour a teenager.

Who it costs. The Dynamo, on the days after the two sights. Each of those mornings opens with a ride, and a child who needs to move spends it held still before the day has begun.

Arashiyama ranks fifth because every other part of Kyoto is a ride away from it. Mornings by the river with no train to catch first are the reward here for the Dynamo, who drains when there is no room to move. Arashiyama Park, with a play area on the Kameyama hillside and a deck over the Hozu gorge, is a short walk from the Randen and Hankyu stations, and the bamboo grove and the Monkey Park are close. JR, Randen and Hankyu all stop here, but each line runs to a different part of the city. The climb to the monkeys as soon as the gate opens is a teenager’s, and the park before breakfast a younger child’s.

Who it costs. The Anchor, from the airport on. Kansai Airport is two trains away, the Haruka to Kyoto and then the Sagano Line, and every day elsewhere in the city starts with a journey, which leaves a child who needs confirmed structure re-learning the route every morning.