This is a very small (6 rooms) 4-star hotel tucked away on a historic street west of the Imperial Palace. We felt it was a great find! It’s a 100-year-old house that was renovated into a hotel a few years ago. It still has the historic façade and the old curved beams, but everything else is brand new and spotless. The staff is extremely helpful and understands English well.
The room is very large by Japanese standards (45 sq mtrs). We booked a “2 Large Beds” room, and it was actually a 2-room suite with 2 wide twin beds, a sectional sofa and coffee table, and a large tub with shower. It had a balcony, but no view. The beds were nice and soft, with big down comforters.
The street is almost all historic buildings (most of them renovated) that was one of the original Geisha districts of Kyoto, and it’s extremely quiet. There’s a large temple complex at the end. The neighborhood has a lot of very small restaurants, mostly Japanese and a few western. The hotel staff created flyers in Japanese and English for many of them, including maps. There are a lot of small shops and a 7-11 in the neighborhood, but it is a 10-block walk to a supermarket or large pharmacy.
Unfortunately, it’s a half-hour bus ride to downtown, but it’s much closer to the Imperial Palace, the Textile Museum, and the temples in northern Kyoto. We had stayed downtown at a big tourist hotel earlier in our trip, and found this hotel, the staff and the neighborhood to all be a lovely change.
