Destination Kyoto, Japan

The cherry blossoms in full bloom adorning the riverside looked resplendent. The water sparkled in the sunlight. My idyllic day was getting better moment by moment as suddenly, a white-faced geisha or a geiko as they are known here, dressed in a traditional kimono, crossed in front of me. 

This was the romantic Japan that I had seen in films and read about in books. Kyoto, the country’s capital for over 1,000 years, (the role now taken by Tokyo) and the birthplace of the tea ceremony, beats to its own rhythm embracing effortlessly the past and present.

Here temples, customs and culture rub shoulders with technology, trendy restaurants, cafés and designer shops. Modern futuristic buildings sit harmoniously with Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, castles and palaces.

Weeping cherry trees

©Kyoto Prefecture/© JNTOcaption

Nestled in a valley and surrounded by green mountains, Kyoto has an appealing charm. People are friendly and it is an easy city to get around as there are only two subway lines. So, if you get lost, all you need to do is point on a map to your destination and somebody will help you even if they do not speak English.

I arrived by the Tokaido Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo, which is an experience in itself. I was taken aback by how contemporary Kyoto was. Starbucks and other familiar names that you would find on any high street back home greeted me. Not a sign of one of the 1,600 or so Budhist temples or 400 Shinto shrines that would tell me a tale of Kyoto’s glorious yesteryears. 

But, as I started to explore I started to uncover the city’s treasures such as the Kyoto Imperial Palace, nestled in the Imperial Palace Park, the Kiyomizu-dera Temple renowned for the Kiyomizu-no-butai (main hall's wooden veranda) which looks like it comes out of the mountain slope and the Ryoan-ji Temple known for its Sekitei rock garden. 

Yasaka Shrine

©JNTO

Rokuon-ji Temple, also called Kinkaku-ji or the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, one of Japan’s most famed sights, surrounded by beautiful gardens shimmered in the sunlight, the reflection captured in the surrounding pond. This was a picture to be stored in the memory bank.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is impressive. This Shinto shrine, renowned for its scarlet red tori (gates) that weave up the mountain behind it, was dedicated, in the 8^th century, to the gods of rice and sake by the Hata family. 

Kyoto, Gion

©JNTO

The Japanese are reputed to like harmony in all things and wandering around you certainly feel a Zen-like calm. However, there are only so many temples and shrines you can look at so it was time to have complete change of scene and head to Nishiki Market, a long shopping street peppered with shops, stalls and restaurants. This is a good place to go to sample Kyoto’s excellent cuisine.

In Gion, the fabled geisha district, laced among the wooden buildings are chic Japanese restaurants and ochayas (teahouses). Roaming around the cobbled streets, I got a glimpse into another world. Oh, and fitted in just one more shrine, the lauded Yasaka-jinja.

By Daralyn Danns

Getting there

Japan Airlines. For information about flights and fares visit uk.jal.co.jp

I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto. For further information and rates go to kyoto.regency.hyatt.com

First published in All About Hair (All About Hair UK), the travel and lifestyle blog with a luxury twist