KYOTO, JAPAN – It’s quite late when the cab we hail outside Kyoto’s main rail station deposits us at a small boat landing on the Oigawa River in a remote area of this ancient city known as Arashiyama. We admire the beach-ball-shaped moon’s reflection bouncing off the black water while waiting for a boat to take us to Hoshinoya Kyoto, a traditional inn known as a ryokan that is the talk of the Japanese hotel industry.

Soon we’re snuggled in a small wooden craft sipping hot tea while slowly heading up river to the ryokan. A shadowy figure emerges in the darkness as the boat nears the inn’s small dock. Tomoko Tsuchida, Hoshinoya Kyoto’s guest relation’s manager offers us a warm welcome but dispenses with the regular check-in formalities because of the lateness of our arrival.

“We can do that tomorrow morning,” she tells us.

Minutes later, Tomoko introduces us to the splendour of a Hoshinoya Kyoto room, featuring traditional trappings such as hand-painted walls and hand-made furniture that are surrounded by lavish 21st century luxuries such as an automatic toilet whose lid magically opens when we slide back the bathroom door.

We are impressed.

After experiencing a far less modern ryokan with its squat toilet and rain barrel-sized bathtub on a previous stay in Kyoto, the sight of the oversized room stuffed with many space-age amenities puts my fears of having to “rough it” — all part of a Japanese ryokan experience — to rest.

Tomoko wishes us a good night’s rest and soon we drift off into a deep jetlag-induced sleep in a bed draped in the finest linens.

Next morning, we awake to the sound of water gurgling outside our window. We draw back the curtains and find we’ve arrived in an ecological wonderland featuring a dense rain forest, waterfalls, white-faced monkeys jumping from one pencil straight tree to another, giant birds skimming the river’s jade-coloured water in search of food, lush gardens thick with cherry trees and rare plants, and moss-covered hiking trails that lead to a simple mountain temple where 2,000-year-old Buddhist relics sit unguarded.

The sight is breathtaking.

The idyllic 25-room inn is nestled in the bosom of one of Arashiyama’s many lush valleys, which have served as “cottage country” for nobles dating back to when Kyoto was Japan’s national capital during the Heian era, circa 794-1185.

While it now takes just 25 minutes by car to reach Arashiyama from downtown Kyoto, back then it would have taken a full day over some rough mountain terrain — a journey many royal courts felt was well worth the effort.

Japan’s famed shipping merchant RyoiSuminokura first built a retreat on these grounds back in 1554 and lived here peacefully until 1614. Afterwards, the sprawling home was turned into a ryokan, which the Hoshinoya resort company bought and closed for two years while it was renovated and modernized.

The inn reopened in 2010 to much acclaim because the results of the makeover are absolutely stunning. No expense was spared and no detail left out in creating an authentic Japanese ryokan experience without denying guests their modern comforts.

The best of Japan’s architects, furniture makers, landscape designers and gardeners were assembled by the Hoshinoya company to complete a task that included repairing original decor like the inn’s delicate woodblock-printed wall coverings, bamboo furnishings and other architectural features perfected by Kyoto’s ancient craftsmen and handed down to a chosen few over the centuries.

But the best part of the Hoshinoya Kyoto experience for guests is learning the traditions of Japan. Classes are held daily in the ancient arts of incense making, flower arranging and block painting. You can also participate in a tea ceremony and sample some traditional Kyoto cuisine known as Kaiseki prepared by the inn’s world renowned executive chef Ichiro Kubota.

After a wonderful breakfast served in the relaxed confines of our room perched high above a river where jagged rocks jut out of shallow water, Tomoko takes us to the first of our hands-on lessons: “monko” or incense making.

The charming teacher tells us there’s no need to don our modern clothing.

“We encourage guests to walk around our premises in the traditional pajamas we supply on arrival so they’ll always feel relaxed,” she says while leading us to a small room off the main lobby where she explains how Samurai warriors used incense as a relaxing form of entertainment before going into battle.

“Noble families also developed their own scents (the original cologne) so they could be distinguished in a crowd,” says Tomoko. “Women back then were required to hide their faces with a fan when passing others in the street, but the personalized scents would always identify them to passers-by.”

The aloeswood used in incense making is worth its weight in gold, “literally,” Tomoko tells us. “One ounce of aloeswood is actually more expensive than an ounce of gold,” the instructor says as she helps us make our own scents with the aid of sand and charcoal.

After the enlightening incense workshop, Tomoko introduces us to the ancient art of woodblock-printing, which was perfected here during the Heian era, but is now practised by only two Kyoto families.

The painstaking task of transferring patterns from wooden forms onto delicate rice paper starts with the mixing of paint, a thin coating of which is applied to the hand-carved wooden form and then pressed onto the rice paper.

The procedure takes a steady hand and lots of patience but soon we marvel at completing our own design.

“You’ve done very well,” Tomoko tells us. “Your friends back home will be very proud of you. You deserve a cup of our famous green tea now.”

Everything in Japan requires a ceremony, it seems, even preparing a cup of tea.

“Tea ceremonies are probably the most popular in our country,” says the young instructor as she begins the “matcha” (tea ceremony) by combining a small amount of lime-coloured powder with hot water and mixing it with a bamboo whisk.

The product is unlike any tea we’ve ever tried; the taste is bitter and looks more like a thick green milkshake.

“We make this tea by grinding up the whole tea leaf into a powder before it dries; hence the vibrant lime green colour,” Tomoko tells us.

This traditional green tea, which is also widely used in baking, is an acquired taste.

Tomoko says many guests arrive at Hoshinoya Kyoto and trade their modern clothing for more traditional garments like kimonos.

“Guests like to rent kimonos and then walk around the streets of Arashiyama or take a rickshaw ride through our bamboo forest because they want to live the way traditional Japanese did centuries ago,” says Tomoko.

“It’s all part of the experience of coming here.”

The grounds at Hoshinoya Kyoto feature two beautiful Japanese gardens, a “water garden” with a waterfall, a hidden garden and a unique iron plate garden designed in a chrysanthemum pattern which is traditional to the area.

After a full day of learning the traditions and customs of Kyoto and touring lovely Arashiyama (lots of shops and restaurants), we are treated to one of Chef Kubota’s traditional meals consisting of such regional delicacies as Yuba soy milk skim pudding, sea bream marinated with seaweed and sweet vinegar, steamed egg cake in lily root, wild boar, steamed rice with grilled salmon flakes and cumquat in syrup infused with the flavour of Grand Marnier.

Grand Marnier?

The mention of the French liqueur jumps off the menu but Chef Kubota explains he uses many French ingredients in his “traditional” dishes because “French and Japanese cooking styles complement each other so well.”

Chef’s respect for French cooking stems from the fact he served his apprenticeship in France at Paris’ famed three-star Michelin restaurant Georges Blanc. He returned home and quickly gained fame for his use of French ingredients like Grand Marnier in what he describes as “the new style of Kyoto cuisine.”

Every course Chef serves in the inn’s quaint dining room is prepared to perfection and the dishes are washed down with lots of sweet sake.

Up early next morning, we hike to the top of the mountain which provides a majestic backdrop to the ryokan and find an old monk guarding the weathered temple, which dates back 2,000 years. From the bell tower we are rewarded with a spectacular view of the valley and downtown Kyoto and its many UNESCO World Heritage Sites (16 in all) off in the distance. We sit and soak in the peaceful surroundings that have inspired poems and songs and realize that even in a modern world, traditions can be kept alive.