Kyoto

Kyoto is a city of about a million and a half people that happens to contain a thousand years of imperial capital, and the two things sit side by side in the most charming way. You’ll find convenience stores opposite seventh-century temples and salarymen cycling past women in full kimono, and the whole thing works because nobody here finds any of it remarkable. I adore that about it.

Here’s what I tell every first-timer: the temples aren’t the point in quite the way you imagine. The point is the hour of the day. Kiyomizu-dera at six in the morning and Kiyomizu-dera at noon are not the same building, and Kyoto gives absolutely everything to the people who get up early.

So this is my whole Rolodex: where to stay, where to eat and how to actually get a table, which temples earn the alarm and which you can happily skip. The practical side lives in the Primer.