A Bookstore You Can Stay In? The Experiential Hotel "TUNE STAY KYOTO"

Recently, I've been enjoying "places you can stay in".

Previously, when I was excited by sheer spaciousness in hotels, I would stay at places like the Ritz-Carlton Suite (277㎡) in Kyoto or Nikko, or the "Orchid Suite" penthouse (294㎡) at Halekulani Okinawa, or I would tour classic hotels charmed by their age and history, but now, I find myself drawn to unique concepts~♪

Last week, I wrote an article about my stay at the "NAZUNA Kyoto Tsubaki-dori," a traditional Kyoto townhouse you can stay in.
This time, I will introduce "TUNE STAY KYOTO," which could be called a "bookstore you can stay in"!

⭐ The Exciting "Bookstore You Can Stay In" Grand Staircase

Just a 5-minute walk from Kyoto Station.

TUNE STAY KYOTO is a hotel in a prime location within walking distance of Kyoto Tower, the Kyoto Aquarium, and the World Heritage site Higashi Hongan-ji Temple.

Check-in 17:00–24:00
Check-out until 12:00

This is what came up when I searched for "bookstore you can stay in."

At this hotel, which brands itself as an "experiential hotel," I was able to have various exciting experiences.

First of all, what is absolutely wonderful is this wall-to-wall bookshelf and the grand staircase!

Actually, there is a bookstore attached to the hotel.
Over 2,500 books, including those related to Kyoto, are lined up.

This bookstore is produced by the creative team "NUMABOOKS," which focuses on books, and is operated by "VALUE BOOKS," which takes on various projects centered on the buying and selling of used books.

The grand staircase serves as a reading area, available for guests to use 24 hours a day.
The business hours for purchasing as a bookstore are 7:00–22:30.

In the back, there is a large sofa where you can relax, and there are also counter seats on the first floor above the stairs.

The view looking down from the first floor is also nice~♪
Check-in starts at 17:00.
I arrived a little early, so I took photos while no one was there.

Next to the front desk is an experiential bar specializing in gin.

A bar stocked with craft gins made using botanical ingredients such as herbs and spices derived from the land.

Since neither my friend nor I drink alcohol, and they didn't have things like coffee, I borrowed this photo from the official website.
Oh, how lovely.

At night, the bookstore space transforms into a theater with a huge 200-inch screen.

The grand staircase on the first floor becomes the audience seating, and a total of 4 short films of about 15 minutes each are screened daily in two parts.

⭐ An Adult Hideaway "HIDE OUT"

This time, I stayed in the Corner Suite (60㎡) of the annex, "Hideout".

After going through the door at the back of the main building, you step outside for a moment, and the annex is right there.

There is one king-size bed. From the window, you can see Kyoto Tower perfectly!

This was a girls' trip for two. Girls' trips are just the best, aren't they?

Suites often have just one bed—a double, king, or queen—rather than twins, but for two girls, you can easily sleep side-by-side. Though, occasionally there's some unconscious kicking (lol).

The living room is also spacious.

There is a dining table that seats four and a kitchen. The fridge is huge, too! Maximum occupancy: 2 people. Maximum capacity: 4 people (including overnight guests). Actually, if you book through the official website, you can invite people who aren't staying at the hotel into your room.

The bathroom is also very easy to use!

⭐ The Club Lounge is well-stocked! Nostalgic LP records

The Club Lounge in the annex is great!

They have records, games, and books that you can freely take to your room.

It looked like you could scan a QR code to learn how to play the games, but it was in English, so I didn't understand it. Well, Jenga is the best anyway! We played about three rounds of Jenga.

LP records—so nostalgic!

Actually, there is a record player in the room. We chose records by Madonna and Beyoncé and listened to their beautiful voices♪

Speaking of records! I once saw an interesting experiment on TV where they checked if Gen Z youth knew how to play a record. They put a record player in front of them and said, "Try playing this record," while handing them an LP and a single.

An LP is a large record with a 12-inch (30.48 cm) diameter, containing about 8 to 10 songs per side, for a total of 16 to 20 songs.

On the other hand, a single is 7 inches (17 cm) in diameter, with one song on each side for a total of two songs.

The young people were flustered, not knowing how to play them. First of all, they were touching the surface of the records with their bare hands!

The Showa generation was cringing, thinking, "Don't touch it like that!" Furthermore, they would drop the delicate diamond needle onto the record with a thud and a scratch, and the Showa generation would scream, "Ah! Stop it!" (lol).

Singles, often called "donut records," have a large hole in the center, so you have to set an EP adapter before placing the record, but if you try to place it without the adapter, it doesn't fit and just wobbles around.

That was really interesting and fascinating, wasn't it?

Besides that, even when looking at a dried bonito block before it's shaved, people say things like, "What is this? Is it wood?"

I suppose the number of things that young people don't know will just keep increasing like this.

By the way, it seems all young people know what a rotary phone is.
The reason is apparently, "Because we see them on Sazae-san."

⭐ No restaurant, but watch out for overeating!

"TUNE STAY KYOTO" does not have a restaurant.

Furthermore, check-in is from 17:00.
Perfect for a room-only stay!

In the annex, besides the aforementioned club lounge, the drink & snack corner was also super well-stocked, which got me so excited!

There were tons of snacks like nuts, chocolates, and cookies!

Coffee and tea are a given, and the contents of the refrigerator are all-you-can-drink too!
Only the wine was on a paid coin system.

Wow!
There are even Cup Noodles, aren't there!
Looks like late-night snacks are sorted.

Don't go taking a whole bunch home, though.
It said "up to 2 per person" as an amount you can finish during your stay.

My friend and I were perfectly matched in our love for food♪
We had so much fun squealing with excitement together.

⭐ Do you cook while traveling, or not?

At the back of the main building's library, there is a spacious shared kitchen!
Guests can use it freely.
Amazing!

During my two-day stay, every other guest I saw besides us was from overseas.
It looked like someone had just finished cooking in the kitchen, as there were dishes like frying pans and plates in the sink.

There was also a coin laundry and a private bath by reservation.
I recommend this hotel near Kyoto Station for those who want to use it as a base for sightseeing and stay for a long time.

It's convenient, with coin parking, restaurants, and convenience stores nearby!

By the way, I think there are people who cook while traveling and those who don't, but I'm the type who doesn't.

When I was a college student, I went to Hawaii with a friend.
We wanted to keep costs down, so we stayed in a condominium.

It was so far away that we had to take a bus just to get to Waikiki Beach.

We thought it would be cheaper to buy groceries at the supermarket and cook our own meals, but!

Even when we saw delicious-looking Hawaiian food or restaurants while out and about, we had to go back to the condo to use up the groceries we had bought.

In the end, we couldn't finish the ingredients or seasonings during our stay and wasted them...
I think it was a 2 or 3-night stay.

Above all, it felt like a waste to spend time cooking when we had gone all the way to Hawaii.

For foreigners who are visiting Japan for a long vacation, like a month, staying in a hotel with a kitchen seems like a great idea!


"TUNE STAY KYOTO" was a compact yet highly exciting and heart-fluttering hotel.

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