Words cannot describe the delight that my partner and I experienced at Horie''s. We happened on Horie''s through a recommendation from Mrs. Hirota, who operates Hirota Guest House, recommended by Fodor''s and Lonely Planet. But Horie''s beat Hirota Guest House hands down. Mrs. Horie lives in a house built by her grandfather in the 1800s, and she still has pictures showing that her house was one of the first ones built in this northern neighborhood of Kyoto that is now full of houses. She only has two rooms, both of which overlooking a zen garden, and walled in from the rest of the house by antique shoji door. The rooms are very, very large by Japanese standard, and are equipped with heaters and air conditioners. Staying in a place with only two rooms make showering and bathing in the morning indefinitely easy on us.
Mrs. Horie speaks English--she taught middle school and studied in Berkley for a few months. She is extremely sweet, full of knowledge about Kyoto, especially places that one should visit off the beaten path. Upon our arrival, Mrs. Horie brought tea and biscuits into our room, and then sat down with a map of Kyoto and went over our itinerary. As her house is about a half-hour walk to Ryoanji, Kyoto''s famous Zen garden, and Kinkakuji--the famous golden pavilion, it''s really convenient to those sites. In addition, it''s about a ten minutes walk to the Kyoto subway, so you can get to central Kyoto in about ten minutes subway ride.
For our breakfast, Mrs. Horie served bacon, eggs, vegetable tempura, a tofu hotpot, rice, miso soup, a vegetable plate full of freshly plucked tomatoes and delicious cucumbers, as well as a tray of fresh strawberries, kiwi, and native Japanese apples, along with coffee, tea, juice... We did not have to eat until dinner time, even after having walked for ten hours. Believe me, at $100 for two, with breakfast thrown in and some of the largest rooms in Japan, this is the best bargain of the Kyoto area.
We regret that we discovered Mrs. Horie too late, and so had to leave after only a night there. We wished that we had not made reservations elsewhere, for we would have stayed there longer and followed Mrs. Horie''s advice on places to go. Mrs. Horie told us that a bit north of her place are a few temples and old houses hidden in bamboo groves (I believe the region is called Aoyama), where very few tourists thread and so we would have the place to ourselves, and where there would be no charge for visiting. We promised to come back, and I promised to write about her here. IF ANYONE EVER HAS A CHANCE TO VISIT KYOTO, DO CONTACT MRS. HORIE.