The editors’ selection

Set in the heart of Kyoto, Malda has been attracting holiday-makers since opening in 2018. There are three rooms across three floors (each designed with a different colour in mind) and a smartly appointed café on the ground floor. Feel the warmth of the heated, polished-concrete floors as you kick back in the organic cotton roomwear provided and enjoy Malda’s signature breakfast, freshly cooked in the kitchen and brought to your room.

Also known as the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji is one of the most beautiful sites in town. To refurbish its kokerabuki (a roof made with a layer of thin wooden shingles), about 100,000 aged wooden boards were replaced as well as 10,000 gold leaves on the phoenix statue on top of the roof. The renewal has certainly brought some sparkle to the temple – make sure to take a look while the makeover is still fresh.

A quiet corner of northeastern Kyoto is the setting for Donkou + Café Kissa Fang, a remarkable private library and café by book curator Yoshitaka Haba. Donkou (slow thinking) is the name of a private library designed to be a place where time flows slowly, it welcomes visitors on a reservation-only basis: up to six people at a time for 90 minutes, three times a day. Art books, novels, photography and rare titles are among the 3,000 books available to browse and are best enjoyed with a meticulously prepared cup of nel-drip coffee. Visitors can relax on the tatami platform or one of two reading chairs, while the outside terrace comes with views of the hinoki cypress forest, framed by an elegant somei-yoshino cherry tree.

donkou.jp
4-9 Kamitakano Kamonhayashi-cho, Sakyo-ku, 606-0072