Floating world: serene stays and sacred space in Japan

Calm in the city, quietude in the countryside… [View in browser]( [Image](   [HOTELS]( [INSPIRATION]( [OFFERS]( You may expect sensory overload in Japan’s urban centres, but writer Jessica Burrell found her mind blown by a more meditative breeze on her visit to Tokyo and Kyoto. Read her story below, or discover our collection’s most zen-inducing Japanese outposts including an artful ryokan conceived by Tadao Ando, a holy hermitage surrounded by rice paddies in rural Toyama, and more soul-nourishing stays… [THIS WAY FOR MEDITATION IN MOTION]( TOKYO [K5 TOKYO]( Balancing serenity with slick styling, K5 Tokyo is right on the money. It's in a Twenties bank building across the road from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, now reborn as a knockout ‘Japandi’ hotel. The interiors are a blend of Zen minimalism and Nordic noir – think giant shoji lanterns, beds veiled by two-tone indigo curtains, and sculptural furniture conceived by a trio of Swedish designers. K5's ambitious owners have invested heavily in the culinary arts, too, with a portfolio that includes a Franco-Danish restaurant and the first Brooklyn Brewery bar outside the US. [VIEW HOTEL](   TOYAMA [RAKUDO-AN]( Rural retreat Rakudo-An is the green belt between Toyama and Kanazawa, offering a radical pace-change from city life. You’ll bed down in one of just three rooms at this farmhouse-turned-art-hotel, where the meditative interiors are offset with mingei (folk crafts), Tang and Yi Dynasty antiques, and specially commissioned artworks. The hotel’s founding principles involve nurturing the local land, culture and community, putting Toyama’s age-old traditions front and centre. [VIEW HOTEL](   KYOTO [THE SHINMONZEN]( Packed with wooden machiya homes and geisha tea houses, Kyoto's Gion district is a poster child for Japanese arts. It's the perfect location for the Shinmonzen, conceived by Pritzker-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando and hotelier Paddy McKillen, founder of art-filled sister hotel Villa la Coste. For their Kyoto stay, the duo replicated a Meiji-era ryokan using materials revered by Shinto architects: stone, bamboo, marble, and Hinoki cypress. Like its provençal sibling, it’s a stay graced by the work of luminaries, from artist Louise Bourgeois to legendary French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. [VIEW HOTEL](   NISEKO [ZABORIN]( They don't come more zen than Zaborin, a minimalist retreat amid the mountains, misty forests and lush meadows of Niseko, Hokkaido. Shrouded by silver birch trees in a stretch of Hanazono Forest, this is the sort of stay capable of banishing the outer world – which makes a lot of sense, given its name means ‘to sit in the woods and forget’. Each immaculate suite comes with an indoor and outdoor onsen bath fed by volcanic springs and the restaurant is helmed by award-winning Hokkaido chef Yoshihiro Seno, whose kita kaiseki tasting menus are an art of their own. [VIEW HOTEL](   HIROSHIMA [AZUMI SETODA]( Placid Ikuchijima Island is on the Seto Inland Sea, a once-bustling trade route that’s now essentially Japan’s Med. 140 years ago, wealthy salt barons the Horiuchi family built a ryokan there, fashioned by the finest craftsmen of their day. It's now boutique hideaway Azumi Setoda following an artful conversion by hotelier and Aman founder Adrian Zecha. The rooms are gloriously minimal but the leisure opportunities are anything but – go big on citrus soaks in the bathhouse, calming tea rituals, scenic bike rides, and trips to supersized works on the region's art islands. [VIEW HOTEL](     YOUR MEMBERSHIP LEVEL BlackSmith LOYALTY CREDIT $0   Why book with us? [Image]( BEST-PRICE GUARANTEE [Image]( SMITH EXTRAS ON ARRIVAL [Image]( NEW FINDS EVERY MONTH   [Instagram]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [YouTube]( [Spotify]( We only contact you with news and offers that we genuinely believe will be of interest and we will never sell your details to third parties. This email was sent to {EMAIL} by Mr & Mrs Smith. [Unsubscribe]( or [update]( your contact details. Registered office: 2nd Floor, Nucleus House, 2 Lower Mortlake Road, Richmond, TW9 2JA, United Kingdom Company registration no: 443 8845 VAT no: GB802561850