Heart Land

“More soul” is why Singaporean hotelier Chris Teo set up shop in Japan’s old capital over metropolitan Tokyo.

- Liao Xiangjun

Klaxons blare from trees, so loud it makes conversation challenging. “Cicadas,” explains hotelier Chris Teo in a half shout. The executive and managing director of property development firm Roxy-Pacific was the key driver behind its flagship hotel in Singapore, the 500-room Grand Mercure Roxy, and is now working on its overseas hospitality projects. He smiles reassuringly. “You’ll get used to the sound.”

We are in no forest; we are walking through Kyoto’s neatly kept residential areas, en route to the City Hall station. Had we driven, we would have missed out on the cacophony that defines a Japanese summer, as well as forgone the chance to join thousands of folk converging on the heart of Japan’s biggest and most famous festival, the Gion Matsuri.

Comprising several grand processions and smaller rituals spread over the month of July, the Matsuri draws over a million visitors annually, tourists and locals alike. The most stunning of these are the road processions, where over 30 colourful “floats” snake their way through the city centre, each flying the flag of the noble house that constructed it by hand.