Kyoto, Japan

Muni Kyoto

Price per night from$545.21

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (JPY87,527.28), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Muni Kyoto Photos

Style

Feels like ohm

Setting

Nature-bound Arashiyama

Explore

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That Muni Kyoto’s owner is one of Japan’s most prominent art collectors should come as no surprise; for one, his gallery is just across the street, and two, the hotel’s aesthetics are impeccable, from its waterfall-riven Zen gardens to serene bedrooms to balconies with painterly scenery. There’s masterly craft, too, to kaiseki dining given a French spin. And the hotel’s museum-like calm makes this visual feast all the better to meditate on.

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Half a bottle of champagne or non-alcoholic sparkling wine each

Facilities

Photos Muni Kyoto facilities

Need to know

Rooms

21.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Early check-in is free, late check-out is charged at JPY10,000 an hour until 3pm; both are subject to availability and on request. If you’ll be arriving after 8pm you’ll need to contact the hotel to let them know ahead.

More details

Rates include an unlimited breakfast buffet with Japanese and international dishes.

Also

Aside from the Duplex, rooms in all categories are step-free and navigable by wheelchair, but there are no special adaptations. The hotel’s public spaces are step- and barrier-free and there’s a lift to all floors. There are also some loaner wheelchairs, which can be used inside the building for free.

Please note

The hotel’s Juice & Sweets bar is currently closed.

At the hotel

Gardens, juice bar and pâtisserie, gym and free WiFi. In rooms: 55-inch TV, Bluetooth speaker, free minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, underfloor heating and cooling, pyjamas, bathrobes, slippers, hairbrush, take-home toiletries pouch with Kyoto-themed illustrations, and custom bath products.

Our favourite rooms

No one does quiet luxury with such grace as Japan. At Muni Kyoto, furnishings and fittings feel — and assuredly are — expensive, with picks from B&B Italia, custom wooden pieces, minimalist arboreal artwork by Kineta Kunimatu and, yes, a tech-y Japanese toilet. But the most valuable asset is the view — nab a balcony room on the second floor to get a panorama of Togetsukyo Bridge, the Katsura River and Kyoto’s gently undulating mountain buffer. It’s where you want to be for the pink, green, orange and white seasonal turns.

Spa

There’s no spa at Muni Kyoto, but you can book shiatsu massages in-room, and the 24-hour, guests-only gym has a selection of Technogym equipment to try, from an elliptical to treadmills, bikes and weight benches. For an extra charge, there are also morning yoga sessions held in the white garden.

Packing tips

Keep your personal mantra in mind — from the gardens soundtracked by rushing waters to mountain-view balconies, there are many contemplative corners here. Comfortable shoes and a scarf for temple cover-ups are a must too. And, if you forget something, don’t fear — the hotel has a library of items you can borrow, from dehumidifiers to umbrellas to hair-straighteners to plug-adaptors and nappy bins.

Also

Alongside The Magician by Marc Chagall, which hangs in the dining room, wall space is reserved for another big-name artist's work — this changes every six months.

Pet‐friendly

Pets are not allowed to stay at Muni Kyoto. See more pet-friendly hotels in Kyoto.

Children

Kids are welcome to stay (free if under 13 and sharing their parents’ bed); there are some amenities and facilities for them, but this stay is best suited to adults.

Food and Drink

Photos Muni Kyoto food and drink

Top Table

You don’t need a temple for a Zen moment — go alfresco and the murmuring of the Katsura River and scenery that looks like a historic Japanese woodblock will bring the inner calm.

Dress Code

Align your fit with the feel and mash up French insouciance and Japanese structuralism: say Breton stripes and a beret with wide-legged monpe trousers. The restaurant requires more refinement than the cafe.

Hotel restaurant

The maths at Restaurant Muni is as intricate as the delicate dishes they serve over their uniquely French-accented kaiseki experience. There are 10 to 13 courses, each inspired by Japan’s 72 micro-seasons and 24 solar terms; the menu refreshes every 15 days; and you’ll need to book at least three days in advance. What that all equals is a succession of eats more alluring than Jane Birkin breathing a haiku: cherry salmon in saffron beurre-blanc; bamboo-shoot velouté with Shirobai clams; melon with herb gelée. The hotel is one of a small number of places allowed to serve rare aged-Omi- beef from exclusive butcher Sakaeya. Café Muni follows suit with a hyper-seasonal afternoon tea, served all year round (11.30am–1pm), plus gyūdon (a rice dish with beef and egg) for breakfast, lingering Franco-Japanese lunches and romantic moonlit dinners with a selection of small plates.

Hotel bar

Take tea with local sweets at Café Muni (from 3pm to 5pm) or sip something more potent with the wine of the day or Japanese beer and whisky; and the hotel’s juice and sweets bar is currently closed but will soon reopen for strawberry and cheese soft-serves, matcha madeleines and freshly pressed watermelon to sip. There's no dedicated bar area, but Restaurant Muni has a packed wine cellar with more than 1,000 bottles, including some rare vintages, plus a sake of the day and beers from local breweries.

Last orders

At Café Muni, breakfast is from 7am to 10.30am, lunch from 11.30am to 3pm, and dinner from 5pm to 9pm. Seatings at Restaurant Muni start at 6.30pm and finish when the last course has been served.

Location

Photos Muni Kyoto location
Address
Muni Kyoto
3 Sagatenryuji Susukinobabacho
Ukyo Ward
+81 75-863-1110
Japan

Muni Kyoto sits in the leafy, western, temple-dotted Arashiyama district, overlooking Togetsukyo Bridge and the Katsura River; set close to the Unesco-listed Tenryu-ji Temple and oft-photographed bamboo forest.

Planes

Kyoto doesn’t have its own airport; visitors usually touch down in Tokyo and ride the bullet train west (the Nozomi Shinkansen takes just over two hours). However, you could fly from Tokyo to Osaka’s Itami Airport, which is an hour’s drive away; or land at Kansai International (a 90-minute drive away). From Kansai, staff can arrange picks up in a luxury minivan (seating up to five) for JPY40,000 one-way (must be booked in advance). For charges from other airports please contact the hotel.

Trains

Kyoto Station is a 20-minute drive from the hotel, or 30-minute ride on the JR San'in railway line. The nearest train stations to the hotel are Arashiyama and Saga-Arashiyama, which serve various destinations in the region (hot tip: the latter is the starting point of the Sagano Scenic Railway, which runs alongside the Hozu River).

Automobiles

Kyoto is well served by public transport, taxis and bike hire (one of the main modes of transport in the city), so it’s unlikely you’ll need a car — and Gion’s historic streets are car-free. If you want a set of wheels to explore the outskirts, there are limited parking spaces at the hotel (JPY 2,750 a night) and two EV charging stations; it’s strongly advised to book both in advance. You can use it before check-in and until 3pm after check-out.

Worth getting out of bed for

Arashiyama isn’t necessarily where first-time visitors to Kyoto stay; it’s west of the centre and quiet, offering immersion in nature. But they visit in droves to wander through the towering canes of the famous Bamboo Forest (visit before 9am to avoid the crowds). Yet there’s more to do here than feel Lilliputian — the art-collector who owns the hotel luckily has a gallery just next door; the Fukuda Art Museum has 2,000 artworks and artefacts dating back to the Edo era right up to present day. Hotel staff can arrange private tours, but also ask them to show you the prominent pieces on-site.

More cultural manna awaits around the block at the Saga Arashiyama Museum of Arts and Culture, where azalea bushes and cherry trees make its outside look painterly, while within it celebrates Hyakunin Isshu, an anthology containing 100 waka poems collected over six centuries, inspired by nearby Mount Ogura. Arashiyama Yusai-tei, former Meiji-era home of dyeing artist Yusai Okuda lets nature do the talking, framing spectacular scenery in huge round windows.

Tap into your Zen at nearby Buddhist temple Tenryu-ji. It’s far from the only one, with Hōgon-In, Kōgen-ji, Junei-in and more temples within the immediate surrounds (they don’t call Kyoto the City of Ten Thousand Shrines for nothing). Inner peace may also come from a more chaotic source: feeding the macaques at Iwatayama Monkey Park. The Kimono Forest — poles wrapped in the distinctive textiles used for the garment you’ll see many sporting here — is a celebration of Kyoto’s craft; and you can dive deeper, with sushi-making and flower-arranging sessions and tea ceremonies arranged by Muni Kyoto’s staff. 

Local restaurants

Embrace dining as a spiritual practice at Shigetsu, a restaurant attached to Tenryu-Ji temple, that promotes Buddhist principles. Food is vegetarian, simple, soulful and deliriously aesthetic, of course, served on vermillion trays set on tatami matting. For a meatier kaiseki meal, try Suetomo in old-town Gion, where menus change monthly, but all include soups, sashimi and star-turns from the region’s fish and meat — the headline act is the crab, available throughout November. To immerse yourself further in nature, take a 15-minute taxi ride north to Takao, where you can dine riverside (in summer) on lantern-lit kawadoko platforms at Momijiya Honkan Takao Sanso ryokan — sometimes you can see fireflies dancing, too. 

Local cafés

What Bread, Espresso and Arashiyama Garden café serves won’t surprise you (the clue’s in the name, although they do also have cake), but the historic, thatch-roofed machiya (farmhouse) will raise an eyebrow — the thick, extra-fluffy French toast is a must. Also local is Muku, a modern breakfasting-lunching spot specialising in dashi broth and rice, although that is oversimplifying the precise beauty of the teeny dishes chefs send out to accompany. 

Local bars

Bar K6 has well over 1,000 bottles of rare and niche spirits, including many whiskies with an ‘e’ and without. However messy the night gets, glam up first, the very talented mixologists all wear tuxes to fit in with the old-school feel. For friendly local brews, stop into Kyoto Arashiyama Brewery, which has six taps of house suds and staff that speak English. 

Reviews

Photos Muni Kyoto reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this Zen den close to Arashiyama’s Bamboo Forest and unpacked their kimono silks and tin of ceremonial-grade matcha, a full account of their ‘ohm’-my-god break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Muni Kyoto…

Muni Kyoto is one of those hotels that shows you what life could be — that strand of your multiverse that’s clutter-free, delineated in exquisite details and, oh, so quiet. It’s mindful monkish asceticism with a dash of fashion designer Rick Owens-esque deconstructed decadence. And in this world, this version of you flips through a Harukami novel on a balcony while listening to the ASMR of the Katsura River rushing by; steals moments of quiet in still, dainty gardens; and polishes off a 13-course French-Japanese kaiseki feast of famous aged Omi beef (the butcher deemed the hotel a worthy customer), mountain vegetables and river fish — all while sat by the art-collector owner’s Chagall painting, of course. Muni’s inspired by ‘ma’, the philosophy of simplicity, and we can assure you you’ll spend the whole stay thinking, ‘Yes, this is ma life.’  

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Price per night from $495.38

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