Luxury Vacations in Kyoto

As Japan’s former imperial capital for more than a thousand years, a place of shrines, temples and treasures, Kyoto has long been an incubator and preserver of high-art forms, from calligraphy and ceramics to tea ceremonies and refined geiko (as geisha are known here) entertainments.

Traditional? Certainly. Some Japanese come to Kyoto in costume. You needn’t worry too much about your own outfit, however, to get an authentic taste of this beguilingly timeless city, whether at a private teahouse in Gion hosted by a dainty maiko (apprentice geiko), at the famously serene gardens of Shisen-dô, or at the fire ceremony of a Buddhist monk on Mount Hiei. Or, indeed, over dinner – for Kyoto is populated by food-lovers who can and will, though with impeccable good manners and an air of modesty, point out that their relatively small metropolis, barely one-ninth the size of Tokyo, has the highest Michelin-star quotient per capita of any city on earth.