36 Hours in Kyoto, Japan
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KYOTO, the former imperial capital of Japan, is a vibrant mash-up, an ancient city electrified by the breathtakingly new. Cruise the futuristic food halls of a department store, gaping at the perfect fruit and glistening sea creatures, before zipping up to the traditional floor, with its kimonos and tea ceremony implements. See 2,000 ancient temples and shrines, then dine at a sleekly modern restaurant. Glimpse a geisha gliding down a cobblestone lane, bracketed by wooden machiya houses, and feel yourself catapulted to the 18th century -- until you see her duck into a very 21st-century taxi, with a passenger door that opens and shuts automatically.
Friday
5 p.m. 1) HERITAGE HUNT
Two and a half years ago, the city enacted a landmark law aimed at protecting the city's heritage districts, which have been defiled in recent decades by concrete block towers and other forces of modernization. Fleeting fantasies of old Kyoto can be found in Gion, the entertainment district, where, around dusk, geisha and maiko (geisha-in-training) can often be spotted flitting down Hanami-koji like exquisite rare birds to meet clients. As the sky dims, wander along Shirakawa Minami-dori, an atmospheric street surrounded by preserved wooden structures. But don't wander too far or you'll hit a gantlet of concrete and aluminum high-rises shrouded in neon signs and tangled electrical wires.
7 p.m. 2) MODERN KAISEKI
Kaiseki is Kyoto's haute cuisine, an elaborate multicourse meal that originated about 500 years ago as an accompaniment to tea ceremonies. Today, sampling the cuisine can be a rarefied and pricey experience; meals at Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurants like Kikunoi (kikunoi.jp/english) run upward of $160 a person. But for an unbuttoned -- and surprisingly affordable -- take on kaiseki, try Giro Giro Hitoshina (420-7 Nanba-cho, Nishi Kiya-machi-dori, Higashigawa, Matsubarashita, Shimogyo-ku; 81-75-343-7070), a stylish restaurant carved out of an old wooden town house, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Takase-gawa canal. Edakuni Eiichi, the chef, turns out innovative dishes like daikon rolls stuffed with foie gras and sweet potatoes. The set 10-course meal, which changes monthly, is 3,680 yen (about $40 at 91 yen to the dollar).
First Published April 24, 2010 2:00 am
