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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Kyoto Souvenir by Arturo Elias is a travel memoir about a favorite destination gradually turning into a second home. After years of returning to Japan with his wife Karen, Elias buys a centuries-old machiya in Kyoto’s Higashiyama district, beginning a restoration that reshapes every visit that follows. The house places each trip inside the practical reality of maintaining an old wooden property in another country. Each return draws Elias closer to the everyday rhythms surrounding it. The project gives him a reason to spend longer periods in Kyoto, where ordinary routines sit beside the landmarks that first drew the couple there. Across years of travel, home repairs lead into a larger question about what it means to belong somewhere that first entered their lives as a holiday destination.
Arturo Elias makes Kyoto Souvenir feel like being shown Kyoto by someone who has spent years learning the city. His conversational style gives cultural observations an easy familiarity, bringing local customs into the memoir through lived situations. That same easy tone is present on every page, and I most liked it when observation opens into friendship. Elias talks about this when a Japanese poem about Tōfuku-ji brings neighbor Keiko-san into his home with Hana-san, where a visit meant to discuss the poem lasts four hours. I also loved the moment much further into the memoir when Karen bakes chocolate chip cookies for Matsumoto-san after he helps arrange a carpenter, and his delighted reaction shows how naturally Elias has made those relationships part of the story. Well written and immersive, readers who enjoy travel memoirs about belonging abroad will adore Kyoto Souvenir.
