“At our heart is the 800-year-od Shakusui-en, a pond garden that firmly grounds our contemporary Hotel in tradition, artistry and natural beauty” The Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto boasts its traditional pond garden, “Shakusui-en” that was once owned by samurai family. It’s more than a traditional garden, it’s a garden that bears a significant history. It …
Hundreds of people walking down the most iconic historical alleys in Kyoto, a queue formed in front of the pictures-taking spots, shopkeepers were busy attending customers, offering food tester and the street buzzing with chatters in different languages. Those were all a distant past. Kyoto nowadays does not feel like Kyoto anymore. Before the pandemic, …
In our recent visit to Hakone, we found a tiny restaurant named Kandachiya Soba that offers soba, buckwheat noodle. The restaurant was a full house when we arrived. Its narrow place can only fit about 10 people. It only took us less than five minutes to get a table. These days people don’t spend a …
Travelling sounds scary amid the pandemic let alone staying in a hotel, but it’s summer now, a holiday season. After restraining from travel for quite sometime, it’s not a surprise if the call to explore a new place finally surfacing. This time we followed that call and headed to Hakone. We had two staycations in …
Food is a part of hotel services that make a memorable stay. In most of traditional Japanese hotels, the room rate is often inclusive of breakfast and dinner because most of the traditional hotels are located either in secluded area or there isn’t any restaurant nearby. We have stayed in numerous tradition Japanese hotels throughout …
Summer is here. I couldn’t pen down my thought of one summer dish: unagi. Unagi is a freshwater eel that is usually cooked in glazed-grill style. It’s a common food staple in Japanese cooking. Unagi is often eaten during a hot summer day especially by end of July or day of the ox, ‘doyo no …