This hybrid ryokan-hotel, a series of low buildings inspired by traditional Japanese houses, clings to the banks above the Hozugawa River in the Arashiyama district and is accessed by a boat ride in a hinoki vessel. It's 25 elegant rooms are also redolent of cedar, and although they don’t have TVs, they do have heated wooden floors, hand-blocked wallpaper, shoji-inspired sliding glass doors and picture windows and deep cedar soaking tubs. From the iron lanterns that light the moss-traced stone walkways to the lashed bamboo fences, every detail has been well considered. Hoshinoya is a retreat not only from town but from modernity. At night, after you’ve eaten an excellent Japanese or French meal and changed into the provided lounging clothes you can sit in the Zen rock garden, look up at the star-smeared sky, and forget what century you’re in.