The Most Beautiful Towns in the Pacific...

As entries in a scenic beauty contest, I offer for first prize either the gorgeous view of Xochimilco in Mexico, where skies, mountains, and poplars are reflected, amid playful fish, in myriad lanes of water; or the lakes of Kashmir, guarded like beautiful maidens by the stern surveillance of the Himalayas. These two places stand out in my memory a

Walk there in 40 minutes from Arashiyama Station, via the equally lovely Saga-Toriimoto Preserved Street, a scenic route lined by Meiji-era style machiya (town houses).