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Kyoto · Japan
A vermillion hall and arched bridge reflected in a still pond among autumn maples at Daigo-ji, Kyoto
Kyoto · Japan
Autumn at Daigo-ji, the vermillion hall among the maples.

the japan edition · field notes

Kyoto

Kyoto is where this house is based, and where most of a tour's quiet arrangements are made: the temple visited before its gates open to the public, the district that keeps its own rules for a guest. This is the writing on the city itself, season by season and quarter by quarter, from the geisha districts and their etiquette to the temples in blossom and in autumn colour, where to stay and why one part of the city suits a stay better than another, and the honest questions a first-time visitor should ask before they book a hotel or a guide. Kyoto is the base of the Classic Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan and the Autumn Leaves Tour of Japan, and it features, in some part, on several of our other journeys besides.

18 articles
A suspension bridge crossing the Seto Inland Sea at dusk, its towers lit gold above dark water and low island silhouettesregionsThe Art Islands of the Inland SeaNaoshima, Teshima and Inujima turn the Seto Inland Sea into a working gallery, where concrete, water and industrial memory sit inside a geography that changes them.the full articleTwo blue and white shinkansen bullet trains with gold trim standing side by side at a station platform beneath an overhead canopyplanningHow to Choose a Japan Tour OperatorTwo companies can sell what looks like the same Japan itinerary, and only one of them actually runs it. The questions that separate a Japan tour operator from a reseller, before a booking is made.the full articleKiyomizu-dera in Kyoto with weeping cherry blossoms in early springplanningWhat Eighteen Months Ahead Actually MeansEvery Japan specialist says the same thing: book eighteen months out. The number is the interval at which Japan's smallest ryokan and most sought after tables allocate their calendars.the full articleA maiko in a red kimono and flowered hair ornaments dances with an open fan in a tatami room, a painted scroll and shoji screen behind hercultureIs Gion Closed to Tourists? Kyoto's Geisha District RulesGion is not closed to tourists. A short run of private lanes is, from 2024, to protect the geiko and maiko who live there. A report on the rules of Kyoto's geisha district, the manners a guest needs, and how an evening with geiko and maiko is properly arranged.the full articleAncient ginkgo tree in golden autumn colour at a Japanese gardenregionsKanazawa Is the Quiet Answer to KyotoA castle city on the Japan Sea coast with three hundred years of unbroken cultural patronage, no wartime bombing, and a fraction of the visitors. Those who have been tend to agree.the full articleA stone-paved alley in a Kyoto teahouse district lit by rows of red paper lanterns at duskcultureWhat Is a Geisha? Kyoto's Five Geisha DistrictsA geisha, called geiko in Kyoto, is a professional entertainer trained for years in dance, music and conversation. Five hanamachi keep that training alive in the city, and the oldest of them is not the one most visitors have heard of.the full articleKiyomizu-dera's wooden temple hall lit at dusk above a hillside of brilliant red autumn colourregionsKyoto in AutumnKyoto in autumn is the old capital at its most composed: a basin that turns from the hills down into the streets, canals and evening lanes of late November.the full articleA weeping cherry tree in full bloom arching over a stone stepped lane between traditional wooden houses in Kyoto's Higashiyama districtregionsKyoto in Cherry Blossom SeasonKyoto's cherry blossom season is read less through any single site than through its canals, its old quarters, and the way spring light moves across a city closed in by hills on three sides.the full articleDaigo-ji's vermilion Bentendo hall and arched bridge reflected in a pond, framed by gold and red autumn maplesregionsKyoto's Temples in AutumnKyoto's temple grounds do more than grow maples in autumn. Tōfukuji, Eikan-dō, Nanzenji, Kiyomizu-dera and a handful of quieter precincts teach the eye how to see the colour they hold.the full articleKiyomizu-dera's three storied pagoda framed by cherry blossom on the slope of Higashiyama, two figures in kimono with a red parasol on the path belowregionsKyoto's Temples in BlossomKyoto keeps its densest cherry blossom inside temple and shrine grounds rather than along its canals, and each precinct, from Daigo-ji's pagoda to Ryōan-ji's raked stone, holds the flower in its own particular way.the full articleCherry blossom branch in close detail, petals catching late afternoon lightseasonsOn Mono no Aware, and Why Japan Keeps Returning to ItThe eighteenth-century scholar Motoori Norinaga used the term to describe a particular kind of gentle sadness at the passing of things. Three hundred years later, it remains the most exported Japanese idea in the world.the full articleTwo blue and white shinkansen bullet trains with gold trim standing side by side at a station platform beneath an overhead canopyplanningHow to Plan a Japan ItineraryA Japan itinerary succeeds on rhythm rather than coverage, and the country rewards the traveller who builds one rather than a list of famous names.the full articleA round hinoki cypress bath filling with hot water in a private Kyoto ryokan room, a stone-walled garden visible through the glass beyondexperiencesA Luxury Onsen Ryokan Room, in KyotoA luxury onsen ryokan room in Kyoto is often sold on privacy alone, but the real test is the water itself, and in a city with few natural sources of its own, that water has to come from somewhere specific.the full articleTraditional wooden sake fermentation vessels beneath a paper shoji window in a dim, steam-filled brewery interiorcultureSake, the Art of NishijinKyoto's most storied sake comes from Fushimi, and everyone who cares about sake knows it. One working brewery, in a neighbourhood famous for something else entirely, still answers a different, older water table.the full articleRed maple leaves over a mountain stream in central Japan at autumn peakseasonsThe Foliage Front: How Japan's Autumn MovesAutumn in Japan is not a season so much as a line that migrates from the mountains of Hokkaidō to the temples of Kyoto over roughly twelve weeks. Understanding the geography of its passage puts a traveller in the right place in the right week.the full articleDense Tokyo skyline at dusk seen from above, Tokyo Tower lit orange among a vast field of illuminated towers stretching to the horizonplanningWhere to Base in TokyoTokyo has no single old centre the way Kyoto does. Choosing where to base decides which version of the city arrives each morning, and which one is there at night.the full articleAn empty cobblestone lane at dusk in Kyoto's Gion district, lined with dark wooden machiya facades and a single lit lanternplanningWhere to Stay in KyotoKyoto is too finely grained a city for accommodation to be an afterthought. The right stay is chosen by district and by rhythm, not by star rating, and it holds true in any season.the full articleA tatami guest room in a Kyoto ryokan with a low window seat and a paper floor lantern, shoji screens open to a maple garden outsideplanningWhere to Stay in Kyoto in Blossom SeasonKyoto's cherry blossom season is read as much through where it is watched from as where it grows. Four registers of stay shape the days differently: the garden ryokan, the machiya, the hotel, and the room set against water.the full article

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