Kyoto: Empty attractions

Kyoto really has a lot of attractions, from castles to shrines and gardens. No wonder, as it was the city of the emperor for many decades in the Japanese Edo period. In the last two days we've already seen some of these attractions but we had to notice that e.g. the emperor's castle can only be viewed from the outside (but has really nice architecture and gardens) and Nijo Castle can be entered but all you can see there (with shoes off) are ... empty rooms. We have noticed that in Himeji and Hiroshima already. - A bit disappointing to say the least...