Book and Bed — Kyoto, Japan

It may not have room service or Egyptian cotton bed sheets, but one thing Kyoto’s newest design hotel does have, are books.
Following the success of its Tokyo outpost which opened in 2015, this is the second Book and Bed hotel for real estate company R-Store, who chose the central Gion district for its Kyoto location. Dressed by Makoto Tanijiri of Suppose Design Office, on the surface, the hotel has the appearance of a bookshop, with floor-to-ceiling shelves that are packed with over 3,500 tomes curated by local bookstore Keibunsha Ichijoji. However on closer inspection, 20 blue curtains can be pulled aside, to reveal integrated capsule-like rooms, each with their own mattresses, clothes hanger and power socket.
The perfect hideaway for the solo traveller, bookworms can spend the day visiting the city’s sites, before retiring with a novel and a beer from the small neon-lit bar. And for locals who don’t need a bed for the night, the rooms can be rented hourly during the day, for that quick solitary reading fix.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
9F Kamogawa Building
200 Nakanocho-Nishiiru
Higashiyama-ku
Kyoto
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Danielle Demetriou is a British writer and editor who moved from London to Japan in 2007. She writes about design, architecture and culture (for newspapers, magazines and books) and lives in an old machiya townhouse in Kyoto.
Instagram - @danielleinjapan
-
A postmodernist home reborn: we tour the British embassy in Brazil
We tour the British Embassy in Brazil after its thorough renovation by Hersen Mendes Arquitetura, which breathes new life into a postmodernist structure within the country's famous modernist capital
-
Bvlgari's celebration of the Serpenti snakes its way from Tokyo to Shanghai, Seoul and Mumbai
Roman high jeweller Bvlgari marks the Year of the Snake with the sensual Serpenti Infinito exhibition
-
Fancy transforming your ageing Casio into a smartwatch? Ollee has the answer
The Ollee Watch transforms Casio's cult digital watch into a retro-tinged smart device
-
Seoul welcomes the world’s first MoMA Bookstore
Manhattan’s cultural heavyweight opens its first dedicated bookstore – in Seoul, in partnership with Hyundai Card
-
Will the revamped Park Hyatt Tokyo keep its cinematic soul?
As Park Hyatt Tokyo prepares to reopen after an extensive transformation, film fans wonder: will it still evoke Sofia Coppola’s dreamscape?
-
Stay at Patina Osaka for a dose of ‘transformative luxury’ in western Japan
From nature-inspired interiors to sound-tracked cocktails and an unusually green setting, Patina Osaka is a contemporary urban escape that sets itself apart
-
Tune into the rhythm of Tokyo’s most ambitious record shop
Vinyl Delivery Service in east Tokyo’s Skwat Kameari Art Centre is spinning a new narrative for the traditional record store model
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Waldorf Astoria Osaka
‘It’s rare to work on a brand new hotel of this scale in Japan in today’s landscape,’ says designer Andre Fu about Osaka’s newest luxury hotel. Wallpaper* paid it an early visit
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Rosewood Miyakojima: ‘Japan, but not as most people know it’
Rosewood Miyakojima offers a smooth balance of intuitive Japanese ‘omotenashi’ fused with Rosewood’s luxury edge
-
This arresting new photography book is a visual mediation on daily life in Indonesia
With his lens, photographer Farid Renais Ghimas explores home, memory and the spaces in between
-
A new book captures the kitschy allure of Japanese ‘love hotels’
For his latest project, French photographer François Prost documents the whimsical façades that characterise these erotic roadside venues.