BnA Alter Museum

If you’ve ever had an urge to spend the night in a gallery, this ultra-hip boutique hotel several blocks south of busy Shijo-dori can scratch that itch.

A self-proclaimed ‘art hotel’, created by Tokyo-based contemporary art collective BnA, the 31 rooms here are all different – some pop-arty, others abstract, many hard to pin down with a single label.

The vibe continues beyond the rooms, with communal areas in the 10-story building functioning as a vertical gallery. Not surprisingly, the laidback bar here has become something of an artist’s hangout – a good place to plug into Kyoto’s creative scene.

And as well as immersing yourself in art by staying here, you’d be supporting the arts too – the artists receive a slice of the revenue from every stay in the rooms they created.

BnA in Kyoto is about a five-minute walk to Gion and just south of Kawaramachi, which is good for bars and restaurants. Kanra is about 7-8 mins north of Kyoto Station, which gives fairly decent train/bus access to all sorts of places, though the immediate surrounding area itself isn’t the most exciting.