Ace Hotel Kyoto

Kengo Kuma said the red brick of Kyoto's old Central Telephone Office would converse with his new building across the courtyard between them, a reasonable hope for a telephone exchange. Tetsuro Yoshida designed the exchange in 1926, and its brick and gridded windows still face the street. Kuma replied in a grid of timber. Between the two a stone path runs through trees and planting, past a tall pink sculpture stacked like spinning tops, and inside, the lobby keeps the brick under heavy timber beams, with lights strung from thin red rods and a white kettle on a blue banner over the far doorway. The rooms to ask for are the Historic Kings and Twins, in Yoshida's building itself. Guests say the rooms keep the noise out. The Standard and Deluxe Kings and the Tatami Suite then let some back in on a TEAC turntable, a lot of music for an address that once dealt only in calls.

Recommended for couples who care how a room is made and mean to spend the day out in Kyoto, and for a family of four, who can share the Tatami Suite's futons. There is no pool and no kids' club, and the city makes up for both. The Kamogawa and the Sanjo Ohashi bridge are a ten-minute walk, Nishiki Market's food stalls twelve, and dinner need not mean a walk at all: Piopiko is a taqueria by Wes Avila, a Los Angeles chef, and Mr Maurice's cooks Italian-American, with a cocktail bar on the roof. The Tokyo Bikes are lent free each morning to whoever comes down first. Everyone else has the subway, which comes up inside the building.