Kyoto is a city-sized commercial for a Japan that no longer exists.

Well, since Kyoto does exist and is part of Japan, I take it this statement is intended to be gnomic in the tradition of Baudrillard's pronoucement that "The Gulf War did not happen".

Well if my chosen town is a commercial for a Japan that maybe never was, it is also a commercial for environmentalism, education (the most significant number of educational institutions in Japan after Tokyo, and the main educational center of western Japan), refined culture both traditional (yes tea ceremony and noh live on!) and contemporary (Kyoto is a magnet for architects (e.g. Ando), musicians (Nobukazu Takemura), dance (Dumb Type), philosophy (Karatani). It is also a commercial for Buddhism, political activism (Kyoto Protocol), communism and a host of other things. On a per capita basis Kyoto is the most culturally interesting place in Japan! And I couldn't care less about Geisha.

My point is that Kyoto is a model town but no one seems to be applying any of its lessons to other urban locations. Just because they destroyed the Kyoto-ness of other cities in the War doesn't mean they had to rebuild in a completely Modernist style. Kyoto is so nice that it does great PR for the whole of Japan, even though the rest of Japan barely resembles it.

Yes, well I don't think it's a model town, in that there are a lot of problems here too. The bland concretized car-oriented urban style that has inflicted most places in Japan encroaches steadily upon all parts of Kyoto.

There is a subtle but surprisingly resilence. Perhaps this is to be expected from a city that has 1200+ years of continuous history and culture.

By the way if you think most Japanese people see Kyoto as a model town or a "playground" you should be aware that many of them do not like Kyoto-ites and dread being transfered to Kyoto. It can be difficult to foreigners (I mean Japanese from anywhere but Kyoto) to live here.

On top of that there are many oddballs, misfits, radicals, maniacs etc... For example read the dialogue associated with this photo of a temple concert I took a couple of years back.

http://flickr.com/photos/sparklig/5286282/

Unfortunately even the weirdness seems to be in decline. These days there are nowhere near as many freaks and oddballs as there were when I first arrived.

By the way if you think most Japanese people see Kyoto as a model town or a "playground" you should be aware that many of them do not like Kyoto-ites and dread being transfered to Kyoto. It can be difficult to foreigners (I mean Japanese from anywhere but Kyoto) to live here.

I was told by many Tokyoites that Kyotoites are snobs and backstabbers. And that Kyoto is not a "real" city.

The term I've heard used a few times to describe Kyoto-ites is 腹くらい　(or is it 腹黒い). Dark stomach - difficult to read.

While I find Osaka-jin a bit easier to interact with on the first meeting, in the long run we don't really see eye-to-eye. I get along better with Kyoto people.

I find Tokyo people a bit flavourless and, oddly, rude, or at least, much more direct than I expect.

And other such banal generalizations ...