Travel: Noku Kyoto – the perfect base to explore Japan’s cultural capital
The hotel is a feat of understated elegance and a stone’s throw from magnificent landmarks and fantastic food
What is it? A boutique hotel a stone’s throw from the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, Japan, and 90 minutes by road from Osaka’s Kansai International Airport.
What’s special about it? Noku Kyoto has three main things going for it: location, location and location. Just a minute’s walk from Marutamachi Station, the hotel is a great base for travellers keen to explore Japan’s cultural capital. Start next door at the Imperial Palace and Garden, once home to the emperor of Japan but now crawling with Pokémon hunters, and then stroll down to the Shimogamo Shrine and Nijo Castle, two of 17 “historic monuments of ancient Kyoto” listed as Unesco World Heritage sites.
For a shrine of a different kind, walk down to the Kyoto International Manga Museum, which is housed in an old school building and is home to some 300,000 comic books. To appease you inner shopaholic, try Teramachi Street, along which everything from clothing to art and books are sold.
I’m famished just thinking about all that walking. Are there any good restaurants? For the love of food! Yes, this is Kyoto, so, of course, there are plenty of great restaurants. Eat your way through the local cuisine at the 400-year-old Nishiki Market. Or nip back to Noku Kyoto for a quick bite at the café, which offers a small Western menu and, more famously, coffee roasted by star barista Takahiro Maeda. The hotel’s basement-level Kyou Karasuma restaurant is known for its beef dishes.