What Miranda Kerr and Evan Spiegel discovered in Kyoto, Japan

Photo credit: Miranda Kerr | threads

Temples Older Than Time

Imagine walking through a corridor of vermilion torii gates, where the only sounds are the hush of your footsteps and the rustle of bamboo leaves. At Fushimi Inari Shrine, time doesn’t seem to pass—it lingers. And at Kiyomizu-dera Temple, where the wooden stage juts out over a valley of cherry trees and crimson autumn leaves, you feel as though the very air carries the prayers of a thousand years. These temples are not relics. They are living, breathing sanctuaries. Built more than 1,200 years ago, they have outlived dynasties, wars, and fashions. And in their quiet endurance, they offer something deeply radical: perspective. Kerr and Spiegel, accustomed to the flash of cameras and relentless schedules, came here not as celebrities, but as seekers—joining countless pilgrims before them in pursuit of something real.

Photo credit: Miranda Kerr | threads

Serenity That Sees Through You

To enter a Kyoto temple garden is to be disarmed. Not by grandeur, but by grace. Every stone is placed with intention. Every moss-covered path, every whispering pine, every raked gravel pattern invites stillness. Even your breath seems to soften in response. There is no need for an app to guide your meditation here. You simply sit. The temple does the rest. Kerr, whose life’s work embraces beauty and inner peace, once shared how she found a “different kind of meditation” in Kyoto—not one she practiced, but one that enveloped her. Spiegel, whose creations thrive on constant connection, found something far rarer: disconnection, and in that, peace.

Photo credit: Miranda Kerr | threads

The Ponds That Reflect More Than Sky

They sat together, it’s said, by a temple pond—where the water was so still it mirrored not just the sky above, but everything within. In Kyoto, these ponds are more than ornamental; they are spiritual mirrors. When you gaze into them, what stares back is not your curated identity, but your truest self. Here, in silence broken only by the ripple of a koi or the fall of a maple leaf, even two of the world’s most visible people could disappear—into contemplation, into calm, into a different rhythm of being. For the gentleman who’s constantly navigating ambition, expectation, and the ever-ticking clock, these sacred waters offer something invaluable: the chance to slow down without losing direction. To remember that presence is a form of power.

Photo credit: Miranda Kerr | threads

The Nourishment of the Soul

It is said that Kyoto doesn’t just invite you to slow down—it teaches you how. Walk the Philosopher’s Path, where cherry blossoms fall like snow into the canal. Stand beneath the bamboo canopy of Arashiyama, where the wind speaks in whispers. Everything here seems to say: “Breathe. You are not late. You are exactly where you need to be.” Modern life strips us of our depth in the pursuit of speed. But Kyoto? Kyoto restores it. Not with words, but with rituals—tea ceremonies that honour simplicity, incense that lingers like memory, and wooden sandals that echo against ancient stone. Kerr and Spiegel left with more than photos. They left with something that doesn’t translate easily into language or caption: a sense of being reordered from the inside out. Their time in Kyoto wasn't an escape—it was a homecoming to something within.

Photo credit: Miranda Kerr | threads

A Pilgrimage for the Modern Gentleman

For the readers of GC, Kyoto is not just a travel destination. It is a calling. A place that whispers to the parts of us dulled by deadlines and demands. A city that doesn't ask for your attention—but commands it, gently. To walk its temple grounds is to receive an education in elegance—the kind that transcends clothing and posture. It is an elegance of the spirit, a quiet dignity, a reverence for life lived with intention. As Kerr and Spiegel remind us, true luxury is not found in excess, but in meaning. And perhaps the greatest gentlemanly pursuit of our age is not to conquer more, but to seek what endures. To rediscover what matters.

Kyoto Waits

And so, if your heart has felt restless lately… if you’ve wondered what lies beyond ambition… if you long for a deeper kind of beauty—Kyoto is waiting. Not to impress you, but to transform you. Come. Walk where emperors once wandered. Sit where poets sat in silence. Let the ancient stones remind you that before you were someone, you were a soul. And in Kyoto, that is more than enough.