Living in Japan [antikvár]

AWARAYA TOSHI OKAZAKI SATOW KYOTO James Michener, Pierre Trudeau, Alfred Hitchcock, Leonard Bernstein, Marlon Brando, John D Rockefeller IV, Betty Ford, Rudolph Nureyev, Arthur Miller, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir have one thing in comnnon: they have all stayed at Ta-waraya in Kyoto. With a history of three hundred years, Tawaraya is the queen of Japan's traditional ryokan (inns). Toshi Okazaki Satow, the 11 th-generation owner, nnaintains Tawaraya's tradition of reserve and cultural nuance, providing a carefully controlled balance between nnodern connforts, and scrolls, lacquered furniture, and flower arrangements. Tawaraya's street entrance is so small one could walk right past it without noticing; there is no lobby, just a small reading room, and some nooks to sit and relax; corridors with flowers; and the rooms, all looking out on a private corner of a perfectly tended garden. Each room is a refuge; the garden, the tables and chairs are designed with attention to every detail, it's the tradition of tea ceremony and classic hospitality compressed into just eighteen rooms in the heart of busy modern Kyoto.