Kyoto’s Maja Hotel blends Nordic and Japanese design, putting a Finnish spin on the country’s capsule rooms thanks to designer Harri Koskinen.
Tourists itching to spend the night in a pod can pull down the Marimekko blinds, fall asleep beneath pale wood panelling, and wake up to open sandwiches and cinnamon rolls inside the capsule hotel.
Maja Hotel is a serene take on Japan’s low cost, noisy capsule hotels. Pods are shaped to resemble houses with pitched roofs and are accessed via short wooden ladders.
Inside, copper hangers offer space to store a few bits and pieces, and there’s a reading light for browsing the guide book. If that’s a little claustrophobic for some, there are also slightly larger rooms on offer.
The Kyoto hotel – which is located in Kawaramachi, not far from Nishiki Market – is filled with pieces designed by Koskinen, including tables made from a tree that once grew in the nearby courtyard. Design lovers can spot Alvar Aalto reproductions in the hotel cafe as well.
92 Tsuchiyacho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan
