Affectionately known as Emma Japan, Emma Eldridge completed her Masters at the Kyoto University of Foreign Languages and went on to work in Japanese media for four years. A proud member of the team at Young and Well CRC by way of the National Gallery of Victoria and Melbourne Recital Centre, she's a lover of all things art, nautical, news and Nippon. This is her Kyoto.
1. Best thing
about Kyoto.
Oh dear, where
to start? The maples in Autumn, the cherries in Spring. The backstreets of
Kawaramachi, filled with super beaut cafes, restaurants, emporiums and some of
the best vintage you'll ever glimpse. Bamboo forests, temples, shrines and
ryokan. The best traditional Japanese fare you'll ever eat. Shrine markets
where you can buy kimono and bric-a-brac for next to nothing. Tadao Ando
architecture. The Kyoto Costume Institute. The Isetan food court (the Curry
House San Marco has a pork cutlet curry with pineapple and sultana relish that
will bring a smile to the darkest dial). The Nishiki market (try everything).
Sento, onsen and rotenburo where you'll learn all about hadaka tsukiai or 'the
naked relationship.' Running on the banks of the Kamo river. Taiyaki, red
bean-filled fish-shaped waffles, sold by vendors on the edge of Teramachi.
Zazen at Shunko-in. The people - so kind, chic and graceful. The fact that,
like Xi'an (upon which it was based) and indeed Melbourne, Kyoto is a grid city
which means it's perfect for navigating - a day spent ambling about Karasuma,
Kawaramachi, Gion or Ponto-cho will be one of your best ever.
2. Worst thing
about Kyoto.
Pretty much
everything - restaurants, bars, stores - closes down over the New Year period.
So if you're planning a trip to Kyoto, or more broadly, Japan over Christmas/New
Year's, be sure to get your shopping done before 29 or 30 Dec and expect your
favourite izakaya to be closed on 1 Jan. That said, the traditional way to
spend New Year - at a temple, listening as a bell tolls 108 times for all the
sins of Buddhism, then eating soba (for long life) and mochi (glutinous rice
cakes) - is quite the delight.
3. Favourite
secret spot.
The tiny, decrepit
shrine on the river at Arashiyama at which my husband and I got married last
December, the Yakuza Sento or bathhouse near Kyoto Station, or the Buddhist
cemeteries behind Kiyomizu-dera and Choin-in.
4. Favourite
everyone-knows-about-it-but-it's-still-good spot?
You can't visit
Kyoto without eating at Mos Burger or shopping at Muji and Uniqlo at least
once.
5. What was
your newest discovery in Kyoto? What about somewhere you've been going forever
but can't quite give up?
For my
husband's thirtieth birthday dinner, we dutifully lined up outside Kyoto Gogyo
and, around 45 minutes later, enjoyed the best ramen of our life (they
apparently pioneered 'burnt ramen,' an almost black soup that somehow transfers
the taste of the best Japanese BBQ into liquid form!) I'll never give up the
cafe above Mumokuteki, a 'goods and wears' emporium - everything is gluten,
dairy and sugar-free, and beyond delish.
6. Where is the
best place for:
a) Morning
coffee/pick-me-up?
I can't drink
coffee, but my husband was rather taken with Kyoto's Omotesando Koffee outpost
at United Arrows. Coffee Rodin, just off the Nishiki Market, also has [an]
incredible atmosphere.
b) Meal with
friends?
We had a
wonderful, rowdy dinner with friends at Rakuza, an izakaya near Kyoto Station. Their
kakuni pork is incredible, as is their fried fugu.
c) Romantic
rendez-vous?
We enjoyed a
charming Christmas dinner at Aux Bacchanales in Cocon Karasuma (the best steak
frites), and Seryo - the ridiculously amazing ryokan with private garden / hot
springs bath at which we spent our wedding night - is worth the one hour trip
out to Ohara, a mountain village that time forgot (that is, apart from vending
machines).
d) Late night
drink?
The various
spots within Flowing Karasuma, a complex housed in a grand Taisho-era bank, are
great - as are the tiny little bars in the Karasuma streets on either side of
it.
7. Where are
Kyoto's style spots? Where is the best shopping?
I like Fuji
Daimaru - a kind of boutique depato with Beams, Comme des Garcons, Margaret
Howell, Petit Bateau, Tsumori Chisato and Zucca stores galore. Kyoto's A.P.C.
flagship is gorgeous (and conveniently located next to a lovely katsu cafe).
Yojiya, the traditional beauty store, is a must-visit for yuzu lip balm and
gorgeously-packaged blotting paper. Lisn, in Cocon Karasuma, sells an extraord
array of incense along with modern burners. As mentioned above, if you can time
your visit to coincide with a shrine market, you'll be treated to an array of
vintage kimono, traditional art, pottery and 1960s paraphernalia, super cheap.
Aritsugu, the knife store in the centuries old Nishiki market, is beyond
compare, and Ippodo in Teramachi sells Kyoto's best green tea.
8. What is
something you can get/read/experience/eat that you can only do in Kyoto?
There's so much
mega-metropolis stuff you can only experience in Japan, but what makes Kyoto
special is it's foot in that world, but also in an ancient one - walking the
Philosopher's Path or through Arashiyama's bamboo forest and temples like
Gingaku-ji in Kyoto or Enryaku-ji at Mt Hiei and Nanzen-in in Ohara, you feel
an old energy, something you don't encounter often. The scent of incense, the
chant of prayer, the rich purple, and vermillion and gold hues - the atmosphere
is otherworldly. Before visiting a temple or shrine, be sure to buy a 'shrine
book,' then ask the attending monk to stamp and it - this makes for an
incredible souvenir of your time in Kyoto.
9. You can tell
a lot about a city from its airport. Describe Kyoto's.
To visit Kyoto,
you fly into Kansai Airport, which is just outside Osaka. Designed by Renzo
Piano and built on an artificial island, it's very Gattaca-esque (and has great
Hermes and Muji to Go outlets!)
10. How would
you describe Kyoto to someone who has never been there before?
[Kyoto is] one
of the few cities in the world where modernity quite perfectly co-exists with a
glorious past. You must visit!
Benah's This Is My City guides:
