This inn has two baths. One is an indoor bath wrapped in black slate. Sink into the cypress water and look out through the large window at a garden of boulders and stone lanterns. The other is an outdoor bath beneath the garden eaves. Soak in the green glazed ceramic tub, with trees overhead, white river stones underfoot, and the glow of a stone lantern close by. Which bath will you choose tonight? Even the moment of deciding is part of the pleasure of staying here.

Sit on the veranda, and in the pond between moss covered rocks, scarlet koi drift lazily by. A weathered stone lantern, an ivy covered stone wall, flowers of the season. And this garden is one you can actually step into. Soak in the outdoor bath beneath the eaves, and you yourself become part of the scenery. Greet the koi in the morning, and rest by lantern light at night. Enjoy a Kyoto stay lived alongside its garden.

Transoms carved with pine and mountain landscapes, amber colored lattice, a wood paneled ceiling. In a tatami room that keeps the original design of an old Kyoto townhouse, indigo cushions and a low black wood table have been placed. Sit in a chair on the veranda, and before you are the garden's pine tree and koi pond, a view that quietly echoes the pine carved into the transom. After bathing, rest for a while beneath a brass lotus shaped lamp, before moving on to the bedroom or the tatami room with its futon. The best of the old, alongside two baths. A whole house rental that feels like a hot spring inn.