For Sanity's Sake - A Weekend in Kyoto, Japan

Written by Amanda Jones for San Francisco Chronicle

Recently, I received a phone call that was the stuff of dreams. A girlfriend called from Tokyo and offered up her miles for me to join her for a long weekend. Her project had gone desperately awry, she was demented, and tens-of-thousands of frequent-flyer miles seemed a perfectly reasonable price to pay for an English-language gossip session. The call came on Tuesday. By Thursday I was selflessly en route to Japan.

Sipping my way across the Pacific, I read a guidebook that promised Kyoto as the cradle of Zen Buddhism, the defender of traditional culture and the most gracious city in all of Japan. Just the place to take an art director on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I arrived, found Lori holed up at the Hilton and told her we would be taking a short train ride. I encountered no resistance, and thus, with catatonic friend in tow, we boarded the Bullet Train. A two-and-a-half hour flash past industrial wastelands and a few doggedly provincial rice paddies, we disembarked in Kyoto.

I'd read that in order to get a true impression of ancient Japanese culture, one must check into the dimly-lit world of the ryokan, or inn. There are plenty of these in Kyoto, but since we were there on a mission of morale and therefore our purpose must be one of indulgence, we had no option but to go for broke and select the finest --the Tawaraya.

The 300-year-old Tawaraya has oft been touted as one of the world's most distinguished hotels, undoubtedly owing to the impeccable service as much as its minimalist beauty.

Mrs. Toshi Satow, the eleventh-generation-owner, runs the 18-room ryokan with an almost mystical quality of precise, unobtrusive service. Each room has a personal attendant--a heyagakari. Dressed in a jewel-colored kimono, she administered liberal quantities of tea, ran scalding baths in the traditional wooden tub, laid out our yukattas (a cotton robe meant for in-room lounging and dining), served keiseki meal, and then, when all was done, moved aside the dining table to prepare our futons. The only effort required of us was that we appear scrubbed and yukatta-clad in time for dinner, which was brought to our room.

Many ryokans in Kyoto will serve keiseki-ryori, a multi-course (somewhere between eight and twenty) ceremonial feast. It is a protracted experience, with small portions of food prepared according to thousand-year-old recipes, involving coveted ingredients and served on priceless porcelain. It's a very serious affair and it is therefore advisable to observe the age-old customs. Allow me to pass on the few tips we learned the hard way: shower before lowering yourself into the tub; bathe before dinner, then, wrapped in your yukatta, emerge and patiently await the parade of delicacies to come. The table, a low lacquered one, is set with floor cushions. While it is nothing short of torturous for American knees, try to start the meal crouched on your haunches in the seiza position, knees tucked under the table. Too much sake and it's horribly tempting to end the meal Roman-style, with only an elbow remaining on the cushion, body recumbent on the tatami mat. Your heyagakari is too courtly to comment if you do this, but be aware that if you do, you are letting down the entire Western branch of civilization.

Having regrouped her faculties in the tub, I was able to lure Lori into the outside world again. We ventured forth to discover Kyoto, starting, most prudently, with the Philosophers' Walk.

Surprisingly few places remain in Japan where the rush to reach tomorrow hasn't swallowed the folkloric way of life. Kyoto is an uncommon exception. It's a large city, but it still shelters pockets of life that the twentieth-century hasn't remodeled or razed in war. We found this in the first temple we wandered into--the Ginkaku-ji, a fantasyland built by an escapist Shogun in 1489, an age when the country had been decimated by civil war. An extravagant complex, it is one of Kyoto's most sumptuous (and flagrantly un-Zen) Buddhist temples. From here we sauntered southward down a path resembling a scene from a Japanese tea cup. Stooping willow trees dipped into a shimmering canal spanned by tiny arched bridges. We stopped to speak pidgin Japanese with a man who insisted he was 118 years old. By mid-April, he said, the cherry trees burst into a gossamer pink cloud, completing the perfection.

We wandered to the Hon-en Temple and then the serene little Anraku-ji, a secluded shrine built for two martyred monks whose most human crimes were that of lust and duplicity. They had converted a couple of the Emperor's ladies-in-waiting into "nuns." Apparently, their intentions had not been entirely honorable and the cuckolded Emperor had them executed. They remain in history as spiritual heroes.

During three days we visited ten temples, but the one that shone was Kiyomizu. It's not golden like Kyoto's legendary Kinkaku-ji Temple, nor pretentious like the Ginkaku-ji, but if any place in the world would make me understand why people give it all up to practice Zen, this place did. Built in 780, it sits high above the city in a verdant canyon, tranquil in its wooden simplicity.

By the second day Lori had regained her humor and her appetite. Fortunately, a restaurant graced every street corner; unfortunately, most had a kanji-script menu. On one occasion, I ordered what I thought was chicken teriyaki and was served a stuffed eel still sporting its clearly resentful head. Lori grinned and tucked into her salmon steak. There was nothing left to do but order yet another flask of chilled sake. The solution, we discovered, was to frequent sushi bars, where finger pointing and head bobbing resulted in a vaguely familiar repast.

Gion was where it was at for nightlife--a quirky mix of neon-lit discos, private clubs and traditional geisha sanctums. During the day, the only thing to do in Gion is shop for breathsuckingly expensive antiques along Shinmonzen-dori (try $12,000 for a rice bowl). But by night, the air is hung with red paper lanterns and the white-faced women appear dressed in shimmering kimonos, shuffling in and out of well-guarded doorways.

Three luxurious days later, it seemed most metaphoric to hop on the Bullet Train and watch the landscape accelerate to a monotonous blur as we sped back to the madness of Tokyo. I looked over at Lori. The glaze had lifted from her eyes and she wore a beatific smile. That is what a few hot baths and some smiling Buddha's will do for you.

Ryokans and Temple Lodgings:

Tawaraya - Fuyacho, Oike-Sagaru, Nakagyo-Ku
telephone: 81-075-211-5566
fax: 81-075-211-2204
Most Expensive

Hiiragiya - Oike-kado, Fuyacho, Nakakyo-ku
telephone: 81-075-221-1136
fax: 81-075-221-1139
Expensive

Kinmata - Gokomachi Shijo agaru. Nakagyo-ku.
telephone: 81-075-221-1039
Moderately expensive

Iwanami - Higashioji Nishi-iru, Shinmonzen-dori, Higashiyama-ku
telephone: 81-075-561-7135
Inexpensive

Myoken-Ji Temple Lodgings - Teranouchi Higashi-iru, Horikawa-dori, Kamigyo-ku
No phone. Send a postcard well in advance to make a booking.
Very inexpensive

Restaurant suggestions (all within walking distance from the ryokans):

Ten-you address: Gokomachi Sanjo Sagaru, Nakakyo-ku
phone: 212-7778
My favorite food in Kyoto. Great donburi and tempura.
Moderately expensive.

Gontaro
address: Fuyacho, north of Shijo
phone: 221-5810
Very good soba (thin buckwheat noodles) and udon (noodles boiled with vegetables and seafood).
Moderately priced.

Mukadeya
address: Shinmachi, north of Shijo.
phone: 256-7039
Classic Kyoto cooking in a very authentic setting. Excellent Zen cuisine (vegetarian) and other Kyoto specialities.
Expensive.

Best Guidebooks

Old Kyoto - A Guide to Traditional Shops, Restaurants and Inns by Diane Durston. Pub: Kodansha.

Must-See in Kyoto Pub: JTB. This is a great little complilation of history, cultural facts, and tips on Japanese etiquette.

Gateway to Japan - by June Kinoshita and Nicholas Palevsky. Pub: Kodansha Books

Bullet Train
Most travel agents in Tokyo will sell tickets on the bullet train. If you want to book in advance, American Express Travel can do it for you. Cost is approximately $250 for non-smoking standard seats.

Other things to do in Kyoto:

-Visit the Nikishi food market, a melange of strange and wonderful fruits, vegetables and undersea creatures.

-Shop for the famous Kyoto porcelain in the Kiyomizu-dori area.

-Visit the Koryu-ji Temple and see the Miroku Bosatsu Buddha statue, said to be one of the most beautiful Buddha images in the world.

-Visit Nijo Castle, a 17th-century Shogun's residence where there are life-sized dummies exhibiting how life in those days was carried out. Note the "bells" under the wrap-around verandah, created to warn the Shogun's guards when ninjas appeared with assasination in mind.