Now, coffee has a strong element in Korean culture with a large number of cafes but calling those of Japan “cafes” or “coffee shops” would be a little unproper as they maintain their own tea as a mainstream culture. Also, when it comes to coffee, Japan’s history is much longer. The Japanese go live in Nepal or South America to cultivate coffee. They have studied coffee for a long time, they have more kinds of coffee and they have made their coffee more suitable for the tastes of Asians, deeper and less bitter.
I don’t drink coffee, so when I go to a cafe, I never know what to order. Citrus tea or Chinese Quince tea are too sweet for me, so I opt for something tasteless and I end up not going to cafes. I don’t go to cafes in Kyoto either, but if I do go, I order either deep green Matcha, milk tea or mild coffee.
It is interesting that as many as seven teah ouses can be selected which impressed me, as I don't even go to a tea house often and this city is relatively small for being a world-class city.
But the number seven is limited to the area near Doshisha University, the place I stayed at and Higashiyama which I frequent, and there must be hidden gems that I don’t know about yet.
To find hidden gems people would have to come often to Kyoto, stay in Kyoto for a long time like me and be curious.
Just one of the seven tea houses is modern. The rest have the commonality of being old and bearing the traces of the passage of time. One of them is Francois in which I am now sitting.
From Gion (the center of Kyoto) if you walk for 2 kilometers along the main street to Yasaka Shrine and enter the alley to the right before crossing Kamogawa river bridge, you will find this famous tea house and Takase river in front of it which looks like a rigolet.
I have waited in a line of five people for Francois once or twice. The line of five had seemed to be short to me. Yet, after waiting for over an hour, I had given up. I didn’t expect much when I came today, yet I finally got to sit down in the tea house.
It’s a small space.
I realized that lines for a meal move fast even when the lines are long. But the lines for a tea house never move, as people do not leave the tea house. It is even worse for tea houses with a good atmosphere.
Francois is decorated in a medieval European style as if hugging me softly. The customers are mostly women with occasional couples or men who came alone to enjoy tea or read. The gossip of middle aged women is much quieter than in Korea, yet that the gossip is endless seems to be the same both for Japan and Korea.
The long history has smeared the dome, pillars, velvet chairs, tables and teacups. Being so well aged, the copies of the Mona Lisa, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer and Millet almost look like they are originals. The ceilings and walls of yellow with orange tints are enchanting like some corner of wall in Rome. Soft classical music add appeal to the mood.
Maybe because this place is a little away from Gion, the busy part of the city, the customers here are mostly locals with no foreign tourists. Softness with the depth of history permeated are felt in the air. As in anywhere in the world, a place with depth and a good mood is usually where locals frequent. That is why trying to see a country within a few days makes no sense.
Around 150 years ago, the Japanese government sent people from various fields to Europe so that they could learn politics, law, education and the economics of advanced countries. Perhaps because of that, I heard long ago that the Japanese think that they belong to Europe, not Asia. I also heard my mother’s Japanese alumnae from decades ago confess that they had thought for a long time that Japan was a part of the West.
Perhaps that makes sense, as Japan has an economy and culture which the West envy. Yet, looking at their faces which remind me of a friend from Seoul, their faces look just like ours. The Japanese are the only ones not to know this, they don’t know that they look just like someone I know from my town.
The red color of the old fashioned velvet chairs that fill this tea house heightens the Christmas mood, I’m writing this essay drinking a cup of milk tea while Mona Lisa, which looks like an original with age on the wall, looks at me with a smile.
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A line for Francois Kissaten with a history of 100 years
Old stained glass and pillar, at Francois in Kyoto
Gossip and Mona Lisa, Francois in Kyoto
Millet, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Vermeer and Mona Lisa that the Japanese love
Furniture, the history of this Kissaten and a cup of milk tea
