It's easy to fall in love in Kyoto

If during wintertime you have a chance to visit Kyoto, do so only when you’re ready to fall in love — with the city, with nature, with someone or even with yourself. Anywhere you look, romance is abloom in Kyoto, even if in winter the cherry blossoms are still shy.

Kyoto is serene and still — you are compelled to do some Zen-like introspection. It is mysterious and mesmerizing — you find attention and affection even from the slightest snowfall. This former capital of Japan for more than a thousand years surely captivates the soul.

The winter breeze blows not only snow but also sweet whispers as you ponder on what to do in Kyoto with just, say, two days in your hands. It’s mindboggling how you can find the time to nurture your love affair with Kyoto with just a couple of days considering that the city exudes with an almost overwhelming legacy of culture and history.

But anywhere you go, it’s perfectly possible to get a beautiful glimpse of Kyoto’s culture and history even if for just a couple of days. Buddhist temples are aplenty in the city that reverence is didactically observed by its gentle and genteel people. Take for example the Rokuon-ji Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, whose centerpiece is the Kinkaku-ji or more popularly known as the Golden Pavilion, which was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji in 1220. You can just imagine how beautiful, too, are the centuries-old gardens, inside the temple. Aside from bonsai cedar and cypress trees, what makes the gardens around Japan magical is the presence of moss. Any self-respecting artist in Japan will tell you that the moss is an intrinsic part of a Japanese garden, without it the completion of the art is not achieved.

The Kinkaku-ji or Golden Pavilion at the Rokuon-ji Temple.

Kyoto is also endowed with majestic palaces replete with intricate works of art that will definitely take your breath away. The Nijo-jo Castle, another World Heritage Site, which, for the longest time when Kyoto was the capital of Japan, was the seat of power of the Shogunates. The castle is famous for its squeaking cedar floors called “Nightingales,” a safety device installed in the olden times in the premises to alert the ninjas guarding the castle that an unwanted guest had intruded Nijo-jo. The Nijo-jo castle is also famous for housing many of Japan’s oldest and most important artworks, like the ones by the artists of the famed Kano School.

At Kyoto’s traditional village, there’s a great chance of bumping into a geisha walking past old wooden houses — her brightly colored and flowing silk obi defies being bundled up in wintertime; her footsteps leave a sing-song melody with the click-clacking of her geta (wooden sandals) on the pavement. It’s bizarre how you suddenly lose sight of the geisha, even if you follow her. Instead, you end up in a restaurant or a hole-in-the-wall at Kyoto’s traditional village that serves kuzara, which is a colorful array of small dishes meant to hold small pieces of rare Japanese delicacies. The kuzara is served in Kyoto’s elegant ceramics and lacquer ware, products of which the city is also known for.

If it’s good food that will make you fall in love all the more with Kyoto, I suggest you try the Kyoto beef. Some Japanese will tell you the Kyoto beef is more tasty and tender, and at times, more expensive than its cousin, the iconic Kobe beef. Only, the Kyoto beef is not sold in the international market because the production of the meat is controlled only for the consumption of the portion of the population of Kyoto.  

The author with Bulletin’s Isabel de Leon at the To-ji Temple.

At times, however, the beauty of Kyoto’s culture cannot only be found in the plate where you dine in but also in the little Japanese teacups where you slowly sip a fresh brew of green tea. Sipping green tea at the Taizo-in Temple, where one can also learn how to do a Zen-sitting meditation from a monk named Daiko Matsuyama, is a divine experience. From a relaxing experience of nursing a pot of green tea in the middle of Kyoto winter, you find yourself walking around the Taizo-in Temple, ogling at the pond of koi fish or being fascinated at the colorful garden foliage now bathed in snow.

Anywhere you cast your sight, Kyoto is simply mesmerizing. The serenity it evokes is something that makes the soul jovial. You become attuned to your system. Because the Zen-like feeling permeates anywhere in the city, you inevitably fall in love — with Kyoto. You even fall in love with yourself as you reflect more on your strengths of how to be more caring, more giving and more in love with others.

In Kyoto, your heart becomes open — as open as the sky.

(Cebu Pacific flies to Osaka every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. From Osaka, you can take the train or car to Kyoto. For flight details of Cebu Pacific, call its Manila office at 702-0888 or Cebu office at 032-230-0888. For more information about visit to Japan, call the Japanese Embassy in Manila at 551-5710 loc. 2314.)

(E-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.comor follow me on Twitter @bum_tenorio. Have a blessed Sunday.)