Recently the hot topic of “conversation” (if it can be called that) in my office is what people will be doing for the upcoming summer holiday next month. In typical Japanese salaryman fashion, many of my colleagues will spend the week-long holiday at home watching television in between daily visits to the office. They may even squeeze in a trip to the driving range if they can find the time.

Aah, the good life.

Anyhow, since I’m one of the few people who hasn’t yet finalized my plans, every person I chat with about the holiday likes to give me their opinion about where I should visit. Curiously, they all offer the same advice: “You should go to Kyoto.”

Every single one. I kid you not.

Japanese people seem to have an strange fascination-bordering-on-obsession with Kyoto. The impression I get is that Kyoto is a representation of traditional Japanese culture; a place where the Japanese spirit lives on, despite the rampant materialism and hyper-consumerism that plague Japanese society today. Or something like that.

“Yes, many Japanese temple and historic place,” they say. “You can see the Japanese traditional life.” Sounds all fine and dandy, however — and this is a big however — oddly enough, whenever I ask if the person recommending Kyoto has ever been there, nine times out of ten they’ll sheepishly admit that they’ve only been there once and that it was for a junior high school trip (which usually took place before I was born). Arbitrarily recommending a destination that one has no inclination to visit oneself . . . well, that’s just odd, isn’t it?