When I first visited Brazil in 2020, my destination choice was largely driven by tropical weather and affordable hotels. Since becoming a full-time resident, those parts of Brazilian life are undoubtedly still seductive, but I've also fallen deeper for the Brazil that stretches beyond Copacabana and the sounds of bossa nova. This is the country Brazilians affectionately call Brasil com S, a place with more than 70 national parks, more than 4,600 miles of coastline, and more local fruit stands than fast food chains.
But the best things to do in Kyoto represent not only a city of preservation-this has also long been a place of innovation: bamboo harvested here helped Thomas Edison fashion the filament for the first light bulb; Japan's first streetcar rattled to life on Kyoto's avenues; and Nintendo grew from a small playing-card company into a global powerhouse in its backstreets.