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Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | What better way to see Kyoto than at dawn, when the back streets and alleys of this 1,200-year-old city are still under the spell of the past? Old folks fuss about with their bonsai and laundry poles, pausing to chat on their way to the neighborhood shrine with flowers and morning prayers. Knock-kneed white egrets stalk the stream beds for breakfast, and the giant bronze temple bells awaken the former capital of Japan every morning as they have done for centuries.
Through wars, fires, famines, tyrants, and now rapid modernization, the old neighborhoods of Kyoto are the places where the customs and traditions of this fascinating city, with its confusing blend of old and new, have managed to survive.
American writer and former Kyoto resident Diane Durston introduces seven must-see precincts of this ancient capital city, including four Historic Preservation Districts. Among them are the world-famous geisha quarter, the kimono textile neighborhoods, the sake-brewing area of Fushimi, and the tea-growing region of Uji. Durston weaves together local lore and historical sites to create a panoply of provocative walking tours that take the reader back in time to the elegance of earlier days.
Accompanying each section is a full-color map and the fine photography of Katsuhiko Mizuno, a Kyoto native and one of the city's most famous photographers. Sections highlighting Kyoto crafts, cuisine, festivals, and tourist essentials round out this attractive volume, making it the perfect introduction -and guide- to one of the world's most evocative cities.
FEATURES
* Photographs by one of Kyoto's most renowned photographers
* Locations of the most important Historic Preservations Districts
* Detailed maps and suggested routes
* Scenic and little-known walking paths
* Completely revised and updated information | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Diane Durston | | Paperback: | 64 pages | | Publisher: | Kodansha USA | | Publication Date: | November 15, 2002 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 4770028776 | | Package Length: | 11.44 inches | | Package Width: | 9.38 inches | | Package Height: | 0.38 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.09 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 7 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 7 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 walking tours of Kyoto Mar 14, 2009
By Mortone
"Mortone"
This book is a series of maps for walking tours in different parts of Kyoto. It tells how to get to the start of a walk, what you will see along the way, and how long the walk might take. You will see the site seeing jewels of this ancient and wonderful city, but you will also see their settings which are equally beautiful. Each walking tour has a little writeup on the area, its history, and pictures of what you might see. If this book has a shortcoming it is that it does not have enough pictures, but these are the picture you need to take, and hopefully share. This book is one of the best books for planing a visit to Kyoto if you are in the area for only a short time. I lived there for three years, and use this book to reminisce - along with my photographs of places along each walk.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 A wonderful book for a beautiful city Sep 19, 2007
By C. Lynne Price
"lynnemezzo"
I was privileged to have spent 4 months in Japan, but of all the places I visited, I fell in love with Kyoto. This is a marvelous book for doing all the walking that one needs to do here. Take a city tour first, but then leave several days to revisit all the places that enthralled you, and believe me, there will be many! Get this book and study it well; you won't be disappointed.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Invaluable guide with awsome photographs Nov 16, 2010
By Kasara
Whether you are a world traveler or an armchair traveler, I highly recommend this book. This book is especially invaluable for anyone planning a trip to Kyoto, Japan. The photographs are superb and will help you decide which sites to see if your time is limited. The very best of Kyoto is included here with excellent text, amazing photos, and easy-to-follow maps. I used this book to plan a week in Kyoto and found it so easy to locate all of the beautiful places that are illustrated in the book. (I was pleased to meet the photographer while in Kyoto. What great hospitality!) Whether you travel to Japan or not, you will surely enjoy this wonderful book. I bought more copies for my friends!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Machinami...the city rows...the old neighborhoods... Apr 25, 2012
By John P. Jones III
...Kyoto is the very essence of Japan, the foundation of so much of its culture. In recognition of this, the American leadership in the Second World War spared the city from bombing. Still, although the city dates from the 700's, few buildings are more than 180 years old, due to the repeated fires that have ravaged it, largely built of wood. Diane Durston lived in Kyoto for almost two decades, and is fluent in Japanese. Alas, many of us will be lucky to spend a week there. And if that lucky break should occur, this book would be an excellent guide for seeing parts of the city, on foot, since there is one walk for each day of the week.
Durston's tour focuses on the older sections, where the more traditional houses, and in part, ways of life, still exist. The neighborhoods are called machinami, which means wooden row houses, long and narrow, made for ells as the Japanese would say. Americans would call them "shot-gun" houses, with one room behind the other. The custom originated to minimize taxes (ah, tax avoidance) since each house was taxed on its frontage. Four of the neighborhoods are now protected by Japanese law as heritage sites. For me, the most interesting is "Sanneizaka," which is bordered by Maruyama Park, and the Kiyomizu-dera and Yasaka Jinja temples. Nearby is another neighborhood, the "Gion Shinbashi" entertainment district, famous for its geishas. The third is "Sagano Toriimoto," which is in the country, on the extreme northern side of the city, but still reachable by commercial transportation. The fourth is also on the north side, but within the city proper, "Kamigamo Shake-Machi". Then there are the three that are not protected, "Nishijin," the weaver's district in the northwest; "Honganjhi / Shimabara" around the Kyoto train station, an area of both religious significance, as well as those much more worldly concerns. Finally, there is "Fushimi, outside the city proper, on the far south side, and famous for its sake.
The book is only 64 pages but is all that a first time visitor needs. The pictures are of the highest quality, and simply beckon the viewer to visit. There is a map in the back of all of Kyoto, with the specific neighborhoods identified by boxes. And then in each of the seven sections of the neighborhoods, there is a much more detailed "recommended walking tour" map. The accompanying text succinctly covers the essential features of the area. There are also five separate sections at the end that cover the crafts produced in the neighborhoods, cuisine, the tea ceremony, festivals and the shrines and temples.
I managed to "grab the brass ring" and spent 10 days there in 1984, and another seven in 1988. My copy of this book was purchased there, and dates from 1987. I am glad to see that there is a newer version available, from 2002. Although I have not read the newer version, I suspect it bemoans the loss of some parts of the older life that preservation efforts could not save. This is a great book if you are intending to go, and even at the somewhat elevated prices currently displayed by the secondary sellers, still worth the price as it would be an excellent preparation for your visit. 5-stars.
The Kyoto you've been looking for Dec 11, 2011
By Charles E. Stevens
Kyoto is a bit of a maddening city. Most famous cities dazzle you with their charm, overwhelm the senses, and create larger-than-life impressions: I think of the first time I wandered into New York's Times Square, emerged from a metro station to encounter the madness that occurs when the Champs Elysees and eleven other roads combine to circle the Arc de Triomphe, stood amazed by the enormity of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, or bathed in the sea of humanity and neon lights encountered at the Shibuya "scramble crossing" in Tokyo. Kyoto is much more demure and prefers to keep its secrets hidden away, out of view of the hoi polloi (or at least the camera toting tourist). I remember my first encounter with Kyoto more than a decade ago, stepping off the train with visions of what this ancient capital must look and be like, only to be confronted with a massive, modern, and somewhat generic and sterile train station. Exiting the station, one encounters a sea of nondescript concrete buildings and the orange and white monstrosity that is Kyoto Tower. I visited the main sights and was duly impressed by the wonders that are Kiyomizu-dera, Kinkaku-ji, Nijo-jo, etc. ... but even these were often "enjoyed" in the midst of a crush of school children shouting "Haro!", tour groups with identically dressed (and sharp-elbowed) grannies, and clueless foreigners exposing much more skin than would be acceptable to Japanese sensibilities. I enjoyed Kyoto, but left a bit bewildered by this modern city that seemed to lock up its historical sites in crowded, closed off pockets, like animals in a zoo.
Since then, I have been back to Kyoto at least a dozen times, and with each visit I appreciate more and more that the way to enjoy Kyoto (and see the REAL Kyoto) is to get off the beaten path and away from the tourist throngs. Even this is easier said than done, because the majority of the paths (beaten or otherwise) in Kyoto really are generic, uninteresting messes of concrete buildings and electrical wires. But when one *does* find that magical lane or alley with old Kyoto machiya townhouses, the small temple hidden away, quiet except for the chanting of a monk, and fragrant with a thousand years of burnt incense, or the tranquil bamboo forest half-hidden by pre-dawn mists, one finds the Kyoto he or she has been looking for, waiting to be found by the traveler experienced enough and patient enough to know where to look.
This is where Diane Durston's book comes in. This book is far from comprehensive, and what it does cover is often not on the main "must see" checklist of Kyoto sights. But, I daresay that someone who walks these "paths to the heart of the city" will have a deeper, more meaningful and profound experience (and deeper understanding of Kyoto) than someone just riding the Raku Buses, nose firmly entrenched in Lonely Planet Japan and checking off the must see sights along with the rest of the crowd. Even for the first time visitor to Kyoto, many of these walks are easy to incorporate into even the shortest trip to the city. After visiting the famous Kiyomizu-dera, stroll down Sanneizaka and Ninenzaka, past the quaint shops and teahouses, and continue on through the easy-to-miss Ishibe-koji and down to Yasaka-jinja. Before or after a show at Gion Corner, stroll the streets around the theater and the willow-draped Shirakawa canal where one might catch sight of a geisha (or at least a maiko). Take the time to visit the Fushimi Inari shrine, perhaps on a trip to or from Nara. Make the effort to travel up to Arashiyama, even though it's a bit out of the way. Even better, use this book along with Durston's "Old Kyoto", full of excellent ideas for shopping, eating, and sleeping in Kyoto. I just wish I had come across Durston's books the first time I visited Kyoto ... then again, perhaps my struggles to find the "real" Kyoto made me appreciate it all the more once I did find it. Or at least, that's what I'll tell myself! Learn from my mistake--get this book and "Old Kyoto", sooner rather than later! You won't regret it.
See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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