The Best Hotels Near da zero, by the Record
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Saijo sits at the foot of Mount Ishizuchi and the groundwater practically bubbles up through the pavement, which explains why a University of Tokyo eco-project chose it for Japan's first zero-energy hotel. The building is all angular rooflines and open-air walkways, rooms kept spare with blonde wood and pale green tile, beds on raised platforms. Shared coworking space, a café, and riverside gardens round things out for a hotel that takes its minimalism as seriously as its environmental brief.
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A lakeside ryokan in Kochi where the audiophile-grade sound system gets the same thoughtful attention as the natural hot spring onsen. Rooms are sparse and uncluttered, framing the greenery outside like a considered composition, and the kitchen runs on freshly harvested local ingredients. The whole place orbits a single idea about living naturally, taken more seriously here than that word usually warrants.
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The local pottery tradition lands on every table at this ten-room luxury inn near Matsuyama, where Tobe ceramics hold a French-Japanese kitchen's output. The architecture reads as almost Alpine beside its lake, and the spa runs European rather than onsen-style. Rooms are modern-minimalist and face the water. Japan's auberge tradition is younger than the ryokan but finding its footing, and this place is a good argument for it.
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Tadao Ando designed this mountaintop retreat in Ehime, and concrete here somehow reads as weightless. Seven suites run white on white, with the occasional blonde-wood chair allowed in on good behavior, and the floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Seto Inland Sea as the main event. The rock garden, the pool, the udon in the restaurant, all of it sustains the same considered quiet. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Key.
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The whole house, not a room. Kiya Ryokan, tucked into the quiet coastal city of Uwajima, rents as a single unit for up to eight guests, which makes it less a traditional inn than a private country house that happens to have tatami mats and shoji screens. A recent restoration folded in modern lighting and contemporary furniture without making a fuss about the contrast. The Michelin Guide has selected it, and the remoteness is, depending on your mood, the point.