FOUND IN THE ANCIENT CITY A comfort
The team behind APARTMENT HOTEL MIMARU has made room for you to live like a local in the two most attractive cities of Japan: Tokyo and Kyoto.
Arriving in a Japanese city can be overwhelming. When you emerge from the airport experience and find yourself at the beating heart of a neon metropolis, it’s only natural to feel small. Everything around you has a place and a purpose, and as you shunt and shuffle your way to your accommodation, you feel like a tourist.
Despite being much smaller than Tokyo or nearby Osaka, Kyoto
City is still subject to Japan’s unique economy of space. Every inch of space in the city is occupied by something, be it a hole-in-the-wall store, colourful artwork, or a vending machine. Accommodation too adheres to the style – typically compact and functional rather than spacious and leisurely.
So imagine my surprise when, saddled with my needlessly bulky luggage, I lurch into my room at the newly-opened MIMARU KYOTO KARASUMA OIKE NORTH to find a generous, comfortable space that could easily sleep five. Two bunks built into the walls hover above a double bed, and a lounge area complete with a banquet-style table sits adjacent.
I check out the bathroom, certain that some spatial sacrifices have been made to make such a roomy living area possible.
A bath and a shower sit side by side in perfect, capacious harmony, allowing for the Japanese-style three-step bathing method of soaking in the tub, showering to clean off the day’s dirt, and then soaking once more. How is this possible?
“There are just too many hotels in Kyoto now,” says Yuki, a member of staff at APARTMENT HOTEL MIMARU.
“We knew we needed a point of difference.”
Just a 15-minute walk from Kyoto City centre, KARASUMA OIKE NORTH is among the latest of MIMARU’s range of modern Japanese apartment hotel buildings. The first MIMARU opened in Tokyo in February 2018; that city is now home to six MIMARU hotels, with three more to open by spring 2020.
Kyoto will have six MIMARU sites by February 2020, a move Yuki hopes will shake up the local hotel scene.
“Space is at a premium in Japan,” she says. “That’s why we designed our rooms to be this spacious.”
Each APARTMENT HOTEL MIMARU room features the shower/bath combo, a fully equipped kitchen with an induction cooktop, and even a smartphone that can be taken with you when adventuring.
“The smartphone features Wi-Fi and an AI concierge called BEBOT,” Yuki says. “If you get lost outside, BEBOT also has chatbot software to give you directions.”
The driving idea behind MIMARU, she explains, is to make guests feel as though they’re living like locals.
“You’re not coming home to a boxy room, you’re just coming home,” she says. “You can cook, you can relax, and you can hang out.”
After a long day exploring some of Kyoto’s ancient temples (with directions from the front desk), I emerge from Karasuma-Oike subway station among a crowd. This time, I have a purpose: going home to cook dinner. MIMARU is just five mintues away. When in Rome… MICHAEL WAYNE
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