(a 2-minute read)

I flew into Tokyo at 11:30 p.m. on a November day in 1989 and scanned the crowds for the driver I'd asked the hotel to provide.

For ten centuries Kyoto was the capital of Japan; it is still the spiritual home to a race… that doesn't.

In Kyoto, at The Tawaraya, for eleven generations the same family has nurtured those wise enough to pause to seek their own sense of being, their own moment of place.

Ignoring the modern bustle that is the million-plus city of Kyoto, The Tawaraya eases one's understanding of the essence of relationships Japanese-the serenity of individuality. In any event, the timelessness of this true ryokan, Kyoto's oldest, gives one pause to reflect.

One reads there are nineteen rooms; one would never know. Slipper-polished corridors pass lanterned pools; hand-laced bamboo, a ladle's rest. Silent sliding Shojis open to tatami tradition-this is a place preserved for rituals of respect.

Your individual kimono-ed maidservant will help you acclimatize. No language need be spoken, this is a shrine of perfection guardianed by intelligent sensitive souls - everything is understood. You will be guided by the graciousness of the bows; slippers will appear as you instinctively leave your shoes and your ego at the door.

As there are, at first, no visible concessions to recent centuries, you will be surprised to find a television set hidden beneath an obi cloth cover; a telephone is similarly concealed. There is a modern sink and a western toilet with a heated seat, sterilized glasses and toothbrushes, even bathroom scales; but soaking in the steaming cedar ofuro will quickly recall why you're here.

After your bath, select from the immaculate stock of folded kimono and with paper and pen, gazing out at your lantern-lit garden, you too might phrase a few surprising thoughts.

Dinner is a six-course masterpiece of one exquisitely presented dish after another-a celebration of Japanese classics.

Now the lacquered table and brocade armrests move down stage as your maid unfolds the foam futon and the tatami becomes bed.

The garden lantern calligraphs a maple branch on the shoji; serenity approaches. In all things, luxury is simplicity; at The Tawaraya, simplicity is sublime.

Tawaraya. Anenokoji-agaru, Huya-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, 604
tel 075-211-5566 fax 075-211-2204
Website: http://www.ryokan.or.jp/kyoto/nakagyou/tawara/english.htm

*********************************************************************

DID YOU FIND THIS FREE ARTICLE INTERESTING AND/OR VALUABLE? If so, please donate to keep the website free and fund the addition of more articles like this. No one other than you sponsors this site. Any help is most appreciated - simply click below to securely send a contribution through a credit card and Paypal.   Please email me your travel tales, "postcards," and questions. I'll publish the most interesting, appropriate or outrageous in Correspondence - All the best, Ted (short for Edward)

copyright © 2006, EDWARD CARTER