How do you choose where to stay in Kyoto?
A traditional ryokan or a machiya is one way to take in the city, but repeat visitors and anyone watching the budget often prefer a straightforward hotel.
For anyone who wants the hours at the hotel to count as well, here are three hotels with manga and games.
All three start under 10,000 yen per person and are close to a station, so they suit anyone weighing both cost and time.
They are worth a look if you like Japanese subculture.
Kyoto Pleasant Hotel: Games and Manga After a Renovation
Kyoto Pleasant Hotel has enough to do that you may end up spending longer inside than you planned.
It is well equipped with games, manga and private rooms.
Game Corner: From Current Titles to Retro Cabinets
The Pop Culture Park, open to guests only, holds more than 3,000 games.
They run from two-player titles such as Mario Kart, The House of the Dead and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3DX to older machines such as Dragon Ball Z and Wani Wani Panic.
The one to try is Candy 25, a single cabinet holding 2,821 games from the Showa and Heisei eras. Even people who rarely play end up at it.
Manga and Board Games, in Several Languages
The Pop Culture Park also has a manga corner with 3,000 volumes, including Demon Slayer, Slam Dunk, Dragon Ball and One Piece.
They are stocked in Japanese, English and Chinese, so you can read what you have been meaning to.
The same area holds more than 100 board games.
Disney Villainous and Jujutsu Kaisen are among them, which works with friends, family or a partner.
Noodle Tours: Ramen from Around Japan
There is also Noodle Tours, a frozen ramen vending machine stocked with bowls from well-known ramen shops around Japan.
You boil the noodles yourself and cook them as firm as you like, which helps when you want something at midnight.
Bario for jiro-style, Ramen Hayashida for chicken broth, Tsukemen Tsujita for seafood broth.
If you have room, compare a few.
Rental Rooms for Streaming
Kyoto Pleasant Hotel also has rental rooms for esports and YouTube streaming.
The photo studio keeps cosplay props, for photos with friends or for streaming on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
There is a gaming room with current PCs and a fast connection, along with a kids’ room.
The rental rooms are booked without a time limit, so you can stream while you play.
Rooms: Concept Rooms for Anime and Art
Rooms range from standard to family.
The concept rooms, limited in number, suit anyone who likes anime and art.
Illustrations by young artists from the character design department of Kyoto University of the Arts cover the walls.
Anyone who would make time for the Kyoto International Manga Museum will enjoy them.
One more thing worth knowing
The hotel website carries its own guidebook to nearby cafes and izakaya, along with shrines and temples.
Every entry has been seen and eaten by the staff themselves. Copies are handed out at the hotel, and the site is below.
https://kyoto-pleasanthotel.com/service/guidebook/
Sights nearby
| Kyoto Pleasant Hotel Address: 857 Kitafunabashi-cho, Horikawa-dori Imadegawa-agaru, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto Tel：075-366-6711 Mail：info@kyoto-pleasanthotel.com HP：https://kyoto-pleasanthotel.com/ Rates (official site): from 5,500 yen per person |
Umekoji Potel Kyoto: Kyoto Crafts with Books, Music and Games
In Umekoji Park, a place the people of Kyoto are fond of, stands a hotel built on the idea of connecting people through books, music and games.
Awai no Ma: Books, Music and Board Games
Awai no Ma holds books, music and board games.
The shelves carry books across a range of subjects, chosen by a book sommelier who runs the Kyoto bookshop Seikosha, and the racks hold records that feel both old and new.
The game corner has board games that hold the attention of children and adults alike.
Guests who did not know each other end up playing together. It is worth a visit if you like any of the three.
Umekoji Sento Potenyu: A Bathhouse That Keeps Its Inconveniences
Not a large communal bath but a sento.
It keeps the inconveniences of an old public bath on purpose: a little cramped, with fixed showers.
Baths in Japan used to be compact, which is how people fell into conversation with whoever was next to them, or showed a child how to use the shower.
Some locals come back for exactly that. Trying an old Japanese habit is part of the stay.
Rooms: The aeru room and Kyoto Crafts
Umekoji Potel has several room types, and the one to choose is the aeru room.
Each is built around silk, foil, wood or bamboo, using the Kyoto crafts of Tango chirimen, gold leaf, Kitayama cedar and Kyo-meichiku bamboo.
It is a room where you spend the night inside the crafts of the city.
One more thing worth knowing
Source: https://www.potel.jp/kyoto/stay/stay_style/18/
Moku on the fifth floor has a Po-MAP wall where word of mouth collects: sticky notes from guests naming restaurants they liked and quieter places they found.
The hotel also runs Po-magazine, which gathers that material and is updated regularly. It reads like wandering the back lanes rather than a guidebook.
https://www.potel.jp/kyoto/cityguide/
Sights nearby
| Umekoji Potel Kyoto Address: 15 Kankiji-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto Tel：075-284-1100 HP：https://www.potel.jp/kyoto/ Rates: from 9,500 yen per person Booking: https://go-jrhotel-m.reservation.jp/ja/hotels/potel-kyoto/searchInput |
The Hedistar Hotel Kyoto Nijo: For Manga Readers
The Hedistar Hotel Kyoto Nijo is the one for anyone who reads manga.
It has a library of 10,000 volumes.
MANGA LIBRARY: New Releases and Older Titles
The MANGA LIBRARY carries Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, One Piece, Kingdom and Detective Conan, along with older titles such as Honey Lemon Soda.
Guests read free and without limit from check-in to check-out.
Most are in Japanese, with some English editions, so there is a good chance of finding what you are after.
MANGA LIBRARY ONLINE: Order from the Online Stock
If you want to know what is on the shelves, the catalogue can be searched here.
If a title is not there, order it ahead and it will be waiting in the room. The online stock runs to 700,000 volumes.
There is a fee for ordering, but it is worth it for a title you have been meaning to read.
Sights nearby
| The Hedistar Hotel Kyoto Nijo Address: 508 Anenishi Horikawa-cho, Nishi Horikawa-dori Aneyakoji-sagaru, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto Tel：075-468-8877 HP：https://hedistarhotel.com/kyoto-nijo/ Rates: from 7,200 yen per person |
Summary
This article has covered three hotels in Kyoto where you can read manga and play games.
A hotel does not have to be only somewhere to sleep.
These suit anyone who wants the hotel to add to the trip.
All three are easy to reach from the center of Kyoto and close to the sights.
They are worth a look if you like Japanese manga and games.
