A little hideaway in Kyoto
The Hanare room is very popular with guests who visit Kyoto for work and solo travelers staying for a long period. The room has a private toilet and bath room, so they have more private space for themselves compared to the other rooms.
We had a film director from NY who reserved the Hanare room for five nights. When I went in to clean the room one day while she was out, I was surprised to find how skillfully she had placed the small furnishings of the room so that it looked more like her own private room! She had created a little study space around the round chabudai table, separating it from the area where the futon was spread out with the bamboo folding screen.
I liked the way she had arranged it. I asked her permission to take photos of the room. She worked in the study in the morning and went out to enjoy the city in the afternoon.
The Hanare room is located at the back of the guest house, so it is secluded from the street in the front of the house and has a kind of hideaway atmosphere. I could well imagine her gazing into the small Japanese garden and feeling the sights, sounds, and smells of the season as she worked in her room.
She ended up staying two extra days, seven nights in total and left for Tokyo. From Tokyo, she said, she would continue her trip to the UK. I hope her stay at Shizuki helped her store up energy for the coming adventures of her trip.