Kyoto Tower

From the outside it’s an eyesore, and inside it’s even worse, but the Kyoto Tower, opposite Kyoto Station, is a great place at which to get your bearings. The 100m-high panoramic observation deck has free telescopes offering close-ups of all kinds of city details, from the carved roof tiles of nearby Higashi Hongan-ji to the crowds along the balcony of the distant Kiyomizu-dera.