Four Seasons Kyoto: Palatial Zen In The City

2 months ago

Luke Abrahams checks in

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At first glance you might mistake Four Seasons Kyoto for a modern-day Emperor’s Palace rather than a slick hotel. Its sheer size is palatial in proportions, and it’s got enough security to outdo a Presidential Campaign. Secret service looks aside, its long and spellbinding history trumps all the modcons. Luke Abrahams checks in.

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Hotel Review: Four Seasons Kyoto

STAY

Set within the very quiet Higashiyama district, the hotel’s major claim to fame comes courtesy of its quaint 800-year-old pond and landscaped gardens, once all owned by a very wealthy Samurai family. All that remains of their existence nowadays is a scurry of stone paths and bric-a-brac mementos very much worthy of your Instagram and Tiktok feed.

Style wise, FS Kyoto is best summed up as modern Japanese chic. The centrepiece of it all is the grand lobby, a vision of calm clean lines accentuated by lashings of cream, strokes of marble and cypress wood. Shoji paper lanterns give the space an almost portal-like effect, while all the seasonal floral displays (that’s cherry blossom during our visit) give it a storied sense of place. Walk further in and you’ll come face-to-face with the hotel’s jaw dropper, a cosmically aligned row of nine-metre-high windows that perfectly frame an ancient ikeniwa (pond garden). Picture quintessential Japan in your mind’s eye: stone bridges, rows of cherry blossom, tinged maples and a teahouse. It’s a floral mise-en-much like a portrait, as rich, lush and poetic as those painted by the late Japanese artist Kawase Hasui. Pure magic.

Rooms? Equally as lovely. While it is Four Seasons cookie cutter hotel vibes to the max, the supreme comfort of it all makes up for what the digs lack in personality. Dark hardwood floors, swathes of imperial purple, hand-painted panels and fusama screen doors are all designed to tell the story of Japanese interior design through a modern lens. Bathrooms are vast and are kitted out in monsoon-style showers (you’ll go wild playing with all the settings while you are starkers) and the tubs have lazy reading evenings written all over them. Signature suites are among the best boudoirs to nab as they come with roomy balconies that spy the temple tops of the city and the garden below.

All that aside, the major highlight of the whole place is the staff. The level of service was exceptional, and among the best I had during my nine-day sprint in Japan.

EAT

The Emba Kyoto Chophouse is the main joint here. Come nightfall, expect premium cuts of grilled beef, seasonal seafood and locally foraged herbs and veggies. Tables by the pond are, naturally, the best, and it’s wise to ask your waiter what’s best to eat if, like me, you are one of those indecisive foodie types.

Breakfast – served in the lounge and bar areas or outside on the terrace – comes in the form of a mammoth buffet loaded with traditional Japanese options (they all change on a daily basis) and American staples from pancakes to granola bowls and eggs cooked any way off the à la carte menu.

If there’s one table to score, make sure it’s an afternoon tea experience at Fuju, the cutesy little teahouse on the pond. Perched atop the 12th-century Shakusui-en pond garden we’ve been screaming about, it’s worth the extra cash splash to gorge on crafted local sweets and matcha tea, and come the evening, a few glasses of Kyoto sake.

DO

The good news is that you are in a great spot for exploring Kyoto’s lesser-known marvels. Sanjusangendo is well worth a gawp to see a collection of exactly 1001 carved wood Buddhist deities. Nearby, you’ll also find Yogen-in. Look up as that’s where the main attraction lurks: a ceiling smeared with the bloody palm prints of warriors slain some 400-years ago.

Post explorations, hit the spa for dips in the huge subterranean swimming pool lined with wooden cabanas. Treatments are quintessentially Japanese and use tanba salt scrubs. The massages and gold-leaf facials are a real treat, too.