From geisha girls and golden temples to bamboo forests and Buddhist eating, Jenny Southan seeks enlightenment in Kyoto, Japan’s capital of Zen

Toshitomo-san is an 18-year-old maiko, a trainee geisha. It’s almost impossible to get face time with one of Kyoto’s famous hostesses unless you have an introduction from a local.

Luckily, I’ve had help from the Hyatt Regency hotel’s manager. What I didn’t expect was that this rarefied entertainer would demand I entertain her.

Gion is Kyoto’s most famous geisha district – a place where you’ll find wooden teahouses, inns and exclusive restaurants – but these elusive Japanese entertainers also reside in the low-rise Miyagawa-cho district, where I am. There are 33 okiya (geisha houses) in this atmospheric part of the city, and Komaya is one of the best.

Hidden away here are a small group of trainee maikos and fully fledged geikos (geisha). Their days are spent mastering the traditional arts of dance, song, classical music, tea ceremony and flower arranging.

The girls are relatively cut off from the wider world – until recently they couldn’t use the internet or mobiles, although Toshitomo tells me that she is allowed to go to Starbucks once a month to have the “seasonal special”. Needless to say, it’s a dying lifestyle.

The translator tells me that five or six years ago there were about 200 geisha in Kyoto but now there are only 100 or so. If you want to spend an hour with one, it will cost around £250.

Formalities out of the way, Toshitomo-san says: “You sing song from Titanic?” Despite the glass of Yamazaki whisky in my hand, I am still pretty sober, and I have a terrible memory for Celine Dion lyrics.

Before I can protest further, the maiko has pulled out a karaoke console, and I have little choice but to attempt My Heart Will Go On. Thankfully, Toshitomo joins in, and by the end she’s laughing and hugging me with tears in her eyes.

“This is the beauty of Kyoto,” says Ken Yokoyama, the Hyatt Regency’s general manager. “If you know someone, you can do anything. We can arrange a visit to a special temple before it opens or introduce you to a Zen monk who will teach you meditation.”

The Japanese city can be something of an enigma to foreigners – signs in unreadable script, restaurants hidden away behind sliding doors marked with red lanterns and little English spoken.

However, tour company Inside Japan specialises in private tours and bespoke experiences, whether that’s meeting geisha, local craftspeople or sake brewers. If you have any local contacts you can also ask them for advice.

Yoshio, an erudite chap of many languages that I meet on my trip, recommends Ganko Takasegawa Nijoen restaurant, located in a 380-year-old villa with a beautiful garden designed by Meiji-era master Ogawa Jihei (gankofood.co.jp/en; tel +81 752 233 456).

The capital of Japan until 1868, Kyoto is easy to reach by Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo (two hours 20 minutes) and JR Special Rapid trains from Osaka (30 minutes). The vast glass-and-steel station is a sight in itself.

At 828 sq km, Kyoto is not as small as you may think, but with the Kamo River running through the centre, quaint pedestrian districts, and thousands of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, it makes for an inspiring weekend.

Stay in a ryokan (a traditional inn – although there might be a curfew), or for Western hospitality, an international hotel such as the new Ritz-Carlton, which opened in February last year.

The smart Hyatt Regency has a spa, Asian and international breakfast buffets and a garden terrace, and is conveniently located opposite the National Museum. This houses collections of calligraphy, ceramics, lacquerware and woodblock prints. (Entry ¥520/£2.80; open Tues-Sun; 9.30am-5pm; kyohaku.go.jp/eng.)

Being inland, Kyoto doesn’t have its roots in sushi; vegetables play a bigger part in local cuisine thanks to a strong Buddhist influence.

The 400-year-old covered Nishiki market is a fascinating place to spend an hour or two – stretching five blocks, it is lined with open-fronted shops selling rice balls, octopi on sticks, inky squid, seaweed and pickled root vegetables. You can also try Baumkuchen sponge cake, baked slowly on a spit before being sliced into wheels. (Take a taxi to Takakura-dori. Open daily; 9am-6pm.)

I visit the Tenryu-Ji Temple (entry ¥500/£2.70; 8.30am-5pm) for a taste of Zen cuisine. Set in gardens of cherry, acacia and bonsai trees, it has an eatery where you can sit cross-legged on a tatami floor and sample tofu, yuba (dried bean curds), nama-fu (raw wheat gluten) and seasonal vegetables with Asahi beer. (Open daily 11am-2pm; set meals ¥3,000-¥7,000/£16-£38;
tenryuji.com.)

Another incredible restaurant is Ankyu (tel +81 755 3159 99; book in advance), near Toshitomo-san’s house. A family business, it has only six stools set at a bar facing the kitchen.

The 12-course kaseike tasting menu (vegetarian on request) changes daily and each delightful morsel – be it three delicate pieces of tempura (ostrich fern, hen of the wood mushroom, sweet potato), or a chunk of bamboo scattered with shiso leaf – is served on a different ceramic dish. It won a second Michelin star in 2012.

With time short, I prioritise the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) in the north. This majestic Zen temple, dating back to the 1300s, when it was occupied by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and rebuilt in 1955, stands at the edge of a lake and is covered entirely in gold leaf.

During cherry blossom season and in the autumn, when the leaves are turning, the shore is packed with tourists, but the woodland trails around it lead you to more tranquil spots, where signs read “Mind the moss”. (Entry ¥400/£2.15; open 9am-5pm; shokoku-ji.jp/k_sanpai.html.)

Apart from the magical Arashiyama bamboo forest (30 minutes’ drive west), the place I most want to see is the 15th-century Fushimi Inari-Taisha shrine on Inari Mountain (open 24 hours).

Hiking the 4km of trails that run up the forested slopes through tunnels of orange tori gates, I come across hundreds of kitsune (stone foxes) – messengers of the god Inari, they are idols of rice and sake, promising success in industry and agriculture – as well as altars where you can light candles or add messages to wooden votive plaques.

In honour of Toshitomo-san, I write out the chorus of My Heart Will Go On.


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