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Central Kyoto: 6 Live Cameras in Japan — station and market

The bus and taxi stands at Kyoto station, Kyoto Tower, Higashi Honganji and its plaza, and Nishiki market. Six cameras showing where arrivals go next.

What you can see

The six gather around Kyoto station and just north of it. Where temple cameras show the destination, these six show the arrival point and the way through.

Kyoto Station Bus Stands is the bus terminal at the station's Karasuma side. The routes to the sights in the city leave from here, so the length of the queues is a measure of how busy the city is that day. Of the six, this is where the city's crowding shows earliest.

Kyoto Station Hachijo Taxi Stand is the taxi rank at the Shinkansen-side exit. The length of the queue tells you which hours people are arriving. Movement carries on late into the night.

Kyoto Tower is the view turned towards Kyoto station. The white tower stands in the middle, and the lights come on as the sun goes down. The way the sky changes colour shows plainly. This is a camera for the sky, not for people.

Ohigashi-san Plaza is the public green in front of Higashi Honganji, filmed from the Buddhist supply shop opposite. The framing moves from time to time, closing in on the trees in the plaza and the street. Cameras that move are few on this site.

Higashi Honganji looks down on the great roofs of the Goeido and Amidado from the building opposite. The two halls stand side by side, with the traffic and the people of the street passing in front. The high angle fits hall and street into one picture.

Nishiki Market is the arcade shopping street known as "Kyoto's kitchen". The stream matches the shops' opening hours and runs only from 11:00 to 18:00. Of the six, this is the only one with fixed hours.

Cameras you can watch now: 6

All 6 are live video. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

The operator publishes no viewing season, and we will not invent one here. The bus queues as a measure, the taxi queue showing arrival hours, movement late at night, the tower lighting up at sunset, the framing that moves and the hall-and-street picture all come from the camera descriptions.

All six run on Japan time. Nishiki Market streams only from 11:00 to 18:00 by the operator's own note, so it shows nothing outside those hours. The Hachijo taxi stand keeps moving late into the night, which makes it the one to open after dark.

The two station cameras and Nishiki are streamed by the Kyoto City Tourism Association; the tower, the plaza and Higashi Honganji by a Buddhist supply shop across from the temple. The shop states that it holds the rights to the video and that it may be used for non-commercial purposes only. This site carries advertising, so that condition does not apply to us, and we copy neither video nor image. The association likewise declines reuse. Please open the streaming pages themselves.

If it isn't showing

All six also appear on the Kyoto page; Higashi Honganji is filed under World Heritage.

The rest of Kyoto is split into Arashiyama and Sagano, Gion and Higashiyama, The Hills of Kyoto and Kyoto Imperial Garden.

Station fronts elsewhere are in Shibuya Crossing & Station Fronts, and temple gates in Temple and Shrine Approaches.

How to read the crowds is in Reading Kyoto's crowds before you go; why we copy no images is in How we handle the camera images.

Where to find Central Kyoto

Agencies publishing the cameras on this page

The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.

To find other cameras, go to the camera list. You can narrow all 439 cameras by format, region, subject and provider.