Koujitsu-kyo (好日居) is a café that opened recently near Heian shrine. Built in what used to be an old home, it’s a casually elegant space with a European-inflected traditional Japanese woody style. (My description is not so good… I’ll try to go back to take better pictures.) The owner, who worked as an architect before she quit her job to open the café, renovated the building herself. We sat in the soft light next to the garden doors in the back and snacked on red bean mochi, matcha, cookies and fragrant Chinese teas. Everything was delicious, enhanced by the peaceful atmosphere of the place and by the owner’s obvious bliss in sharing it with us. Koujitsu-kyo is a short walk from Kyoto’s National Museum of Modern Art, near the boutiques across the river and down the street.
The table centerpiece in the photo above is part of an exhibit of the café owner’s grandma’s delightfully strange and cute collection of kewpie dolls, each of which the grandma embellished with tiny hand-knitted outfits and accessories.