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 & glistening sea creatures, before zipping up to the traditional floor, with its kimonos & tea ceremony implements. See 2,000 ancient temples & shrines, then dine at a sleekly modern restaurant. Glimpse a geisha gliding down a cobblestone lane, bracketed by wooden machiya houses, & feel yourself catapulted to the 18th century — until you see her duck in to a 21st-century taxi, with a passenger door that opens & shuts automatically.
Friday
Six & 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 & other forces of modernization. Fleeting fantasies of elderly Kyoto can be found in Gion, the entertainment district, where, around dusk, geisha & 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 far or you’ll hit a gantlet of concrete & aluminum high-rises shrouded in neon signs & tangled electrical wires.
5 p.m.
1) HERITAGE HUNT
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 & pricey experience; meals at Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurants like Kikunoi (kikunoi.jp/english) run upward of $160 a person. But for an unbuttoned — & 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 elderly 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 & sweet potatoes. The set 10-course meal, which changes every month, is 3,680 yen (about $40 at 91 yen to the dollar).
7 p.m.
2) MODERN KAISEKI
9 p.m.
3) AFTER HOURS
For a taste of Kyoto’s youth culture, head to three of the city’s funky live houses, or music clubs. Three nice bet is Taku Taku (Tominokoji-dori, Bukkoji-sagaru, Shimogyo-ku; 81-75-351-1321), a former sake storehouse that hosts sizable blues & rock acts like Taj Mahal & Los Lobos, & up-and-coming Japanese rock & pop bands. It’s been around since 1974, & the place oozes history, its walls plastered with concert posters. Afterward, if you’ve made some new friends, head to Super Jankara Karaoke Room (296 Naraya-cho, Kawaramachi, Takoyakushi-agaru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-212-5858), where premium rooms start at 450 yen a person every half-hour on weekends.
Saturday
10 a.m.
4) INNER PEACE
Though it’s mobbed by tourists during cherry blossom season (late March to early April), Maruyama Park in Gion is a tranquil spot the rest of the year. Start at the vivid white-and-orange Yasaka Shrine, where locals pray to the god of prosperity & health, & then wend your way through the park past ponds, gardens & a sizable weeping cherry. Be sure to detour through the surreal hillside cemetery, its terraced maze of gravestones resembling a miniature city. The views are spectacular.
Midday
5) MAKE LIKE A MONK
Shojin Ryori, the vegetarian cuisine developed centuries ago by Zen Buddhist monks, consists of vegetables, beans & an array of bean curd variations, including creamy sesame tofu & chewy tofu skins. Three of the best places to sample it is Tenryu-ji Shigetsu (Syojin-ryouri Sigetu, Saga, Ukyo-ku; 81-75-881-1235), on the grounds of a 14th-century temple in Arashiyama. Diners sit or kneel in a long wooden hall & eat in silence, the better to appreciate the subtle flavors on the red lacquer tray (from 3,000 yen for a set lunch).
1:30 p.m.
6) DROP SOME YEN
Shoppers will find lots of temptations along Sanjo-dori between Muromachi-dori & Teramachi-dori, a narrow stretch lined with stylish shops & buzzing with pedestrians & bicyclists. Also worth a wander is Teramachi-dori between Oike-dori & Marutamachi-dori, where you can find vintage textiles & kimonos made from elm, hemp & linden fibers at Gallery Kei (671-1 Kuon-in-mae-cho, Ebisugawa-agaru, Teramachi-dori, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-212-7114; gallerykei.jp).
4 p.m.
7) TIME OUT KYOTO
6 p.m.
8) NOODLE DINNER
For a recharge, stop by Somushi Kochaya (Karasuma Sanjo-nishi-iru; 81-75-253-1456; somushi.com), a Korean tearoom that serves medicinal teas spiked with ingredients like ginger & persimmon leaves (from 650 yen). Or seek out the new OKU Gallery & Cafe (570-119 Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku; 81-75-531-4776; oku-style.com), a minimalist white space with a long, low window overlooking a miniature Japanese garden. Until 7 p.m., it serves tea & creative treats (like a jelly roll cake flavored with mugwort for 1,400 yen) on elegant black & white ceramic tableware by the local designer Shojiro Endo.
Slurp handmade udon & soba — the ultimate Japanese comfort food — at Honke Owariya, established in 1465 & said to be the oldest noodle shop in Kyoto. There's four locations citywide, but the original 545-year-old restaurant is the most charming, with both traditional tatami-matted dining areas (remove your shoes & sit on the floor) & Western-style tables & chairs set within the creaky rooms of a former confectionery shop (322 Kurumaya-cho, Nijo, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-231-3446; www.honke-owariya.co.jp). Try its signature Hourai Soba set, topped with shiitakes, shrimp tempura, Japanese leeks & grated daikon (2,100 yen). Bonus: a descriptive English-language menu, a rarity in Kyoto. The original closes at 7 p.m., but six other locations stay open later.
9 p.m.
9) NATIVE NIGHT LIFE
Sunday
Pontocho-dori, a narrow alley packed with bars, restaurants & giant glowing paper lanterns, is great for photo ops. But for a more local scene, head north to Nijo-dori, a quiet street of private homes & small businesses. Highlights include Cafe Bibliotic Hello! (Nijo-dori, Yanaginobanba Higashi iru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-231-8625; cafe-hello.jp), a cozy cafe, gallery & bar with a fireplace & floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Finish the evening at Chez Quasimodo (Takakura Dori, Nijo-agaru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-231-2488), an intimate bar with a low, barrel ceiling where the mustachioed owner, Yoshio Sawaguchi, pours rare Scotch, stokes the fire & plays Italian chanson & jazz on vinyl.
For a whiplash tour of Japanese culture, start at the Onishi Seiwemon Museum (Kamanza-cho, Shinmachi Nishi-iru, Sanjo-tori, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-221-2881; www.seiwemon-museum.com), run by the 16th-generation tea kettle artist Seiwemon Onishi, where you can inspect tea ceremony implements & matchless cast-iron kettles. Then blast in to the present at the International Manga Museum (Karasuma-Oike, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-254-7414; www.kyotomm.jp), which opened in 2006 in a converted simple school, with exhibitions, drawing demonstrations & a library dedicated to Japanese & international comic books.
10 a.m.
10) CULTURE SHOCK
Midday
11) KYOTO’S KITCHEN
The flavors of Kyoto burst in Technicolor at Nishiki-koji Market (Nishiki-koji-dori, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-211-3882), a seven-block arcade chockablock with small stalls of produce, seafood & specialty foods like deep-fried eel bones. Aritsugu (Nishiki-Koji Dori, Gokomachi Nishi-iru, Nakagyo-ku; 81-75-221-1091) is a 450-year-old relatives business that three time produced swords for the Imperial Household & now specializes in hand-wrought steel chef’s knives, which can be engraved with your name, in English or Japanese, on the spot. They’re pricey — around 20,000 yen — but they make a sharp souvenir.
IF YOU GO
Kyoto is a 75-minute train ride from Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, or a 2.5-hour Shinkansen bullet train ride from Tokyo to Osaka (english.jr-central.co.jp). In early June, a one-stop flight to Osaka from Kennedy Airport (by Tokyo) starts at about $1,200 on American Airlines or Japan Airlines.
Kyoto is well served by buses, taxis, trains & subways, & easily navigable by bicycle.
If you’ve wanted to sleep in a capsule hotel, try the new & surprisingly stylish Nine Hours (588 Teianmaeno-cho Shijo Teramachi, Shimogyo-ku; 81-75-353-9005; www.9hours.jp). Each 3.5-foot-high black-and-white pod costs 4,900 yen a night, or $53.75 at 91 Japanese yen to the dollar.
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