Overview
At Togetsutei, you stay beside the Oi River at the southern end of Togetsukyo Bridge, surrounded by the temples, bamboo paths, wooded hills, and seasonal beauty of Arashiyama. When you arrive, you enter a traditional Kyoto ryokan founded in 1897, where more than a century of history shapes the rooms, food, bathing, and warm welcome.
Spring brings cherry blossoms beside the river, summer fills the hills with deep green leaves, autumn covers Arashiyama in rich colour, and winter brings a quieter view of the mountains. You can explore the area on foot, then return for Kyoto kaiseki cuisine and a soak in the gentle water of Arashiyama Onsen.
Accommodation
You can choose from 21 rooms across Hekisenkaku, the riverside building, and Shuzankaku, the mountainside building. An underground passage connects the two, so you can reach the shared hot spring baths in Shuzankaku without going outside.
Hekisenkaku contains five special rooms overlooking the Oi River and the mountains around Saga-Arashiyama. Depending on your room, you may see Togetsukyo Bridge, Mt. Ogura, Mt. Atago, the Kitayama mountains, and the rooftops of Sagano.
Seiryo-no-Ma combines an eight-tatami room, a twin bedroom, a small tea room, and a semi-open-air hinoki cypress bath. The tatami comes from a local Saga workshop, while the low table and chairs were made by Tendo Mokko. Kitayama cedar adds a distinctly Kyoto character to the alcove. From the room, you can look across Togetsukyo Bridge, the river, and Mt. Atago. The tea room takes inspiration from Taian, the celebrated tea room associated with tea master Sen no Rikyu.
Narutaki-no-Ma gives you a semi-open bathing space and wide views across the river, Sagano, and the surrounding mountains. Rokuo-no-Ma and Horin-no-Ma include open-air Shigaraki-ware baths and indoor hinoki baths, allowing you to enjoy the scenery in the early morning or evening. Rokuo-no-Ma also gives you a spacious 14-tatami layout and a window-side veranda.
Shuzankaku contains 16 rooms with a more intimate mountainside atmosphere. Daikaku-no-Ma combines an eight-tatami room, twin bedroom, meditation room, indoor veranda, and semi-open-air hinoki bath. A round window, hand-crafted tatami, Tendo Mokko furniture, and Kitayama cedar details create a refined Japanese setting.
Kogo-no-Ma also combines tatami, twin beds, an indoor veranda, and a semi-open-air hinoki bath. Atago-no-Ma adds an outdoor terrace, giving you a comfortable place to enjoy the mountain air after bathing.
Arashiyama-no-Ma is the only room whose private bath uses natural Arashiyama Onsen water. You can relax in an aromatic hinoki bath beside a small Japanese garden with flowing water. The room combines eight-tatami and six-tatami areas, although it does not provide an open landscape view.
Nine Shuzankaku rooms include spacious indoor hinoki baths and tatami layouts measuring from six to ten mats. Details such as hand-crafted tatami, Kyoto karakami paper, and moon-shaped carvings add a local touch. These rooms include names connected with the Arashiyama and Sagano area, including Kiyotaki-no-Ma.
Apart from Arashiyama-no-Ma, private baths inside the rooms use heated water rather than natural hot spring water. Your room also includes a television, tea set, refrigerator, safe, air conditioning, toilet with bidet functions, towels, toiletries, hairdryer, and yukata.
Dining
Your dinner brings you seasonal Kyoto kaiseki cuisine prepared to highlight the natural taste, colour, and texture of each ingredient. Light seasoning allows the ingredients to remain at the centre of every dish, while the presentation reflects Kyoto’s close relationship with tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and the changing seasons.
The courses balance different colours, flavours, and cooking styles, with raw, grilled, simmered, steamed, and fried dishes appearing according to the menu. Warm dishes arrive warm and chilled dishes arrive at the right temperature, allowing you to enjoy each course as intended.
Dinner and breakfast are normally served in a banquet dining room. Your breakfast introduces you to the food culture of Arashiyama through yudofu made with tofu from Morika, a respected local tofu shop. On Wednesdays, when Morika closes, tofu from Mameshige is used instead.
The Japanese breakfast may also include changing small dishes, grilled salmon, rolled omelette, fried Saga tofu, plum rice porridge, Kyoto pickles, seasoned seaweed, red miso soup, and a sweet finish. The exact menu may change according to the ingredients available.
Vegetarian and vegan meals are available when arranged at least three days before arrival. Gluten-free and Muslim meals cannot be prepared.
Onsen and Wellness
Arashiyama Onsen opened in 2004 and provides simple, hypotonic, alkaline hot spring water with a gentle feel. The water is often associated with smooth-feeling skin and gives you a warming place to rest after walking through Arashiyama and Sagano.
The large shared bath is located in Shuzankaku and uses natural Arashiyama Onsen water. Marble and granite shape the bathing area, creating a spacious setting where you can stretch out and enjoy a quiet soak. Separate facilities are provided for men and women.
The shared bath normally opens from 16:00 until midnight and again from 06:00 until 09:00. When you stay in Hekisenkaku, you can reach it through the underground passage connecting the buildings.
Tsukiyomi-no-Yu is a reservation-only private hot spring bath in Shuzankaku. You can reserve the space for 45 or 105 minutes and bathe without sharing the room. It normally opens from 16:00 until midnight and from 06:00 until 09:00, with the final reservation beginning one hour before each closing period.
The spring is traditionally associated with relief from fatigue, sensitivity to cold, neuralgia, muscle and joint discomfort, stiff shoulders, bruises, sprains, and stiffness after physical activity.
Guests with Tattoos
You cannot use the shared public hot spring bath if you have tattoos, even when they are small or covered. You can reserve Tsukiyomi-no-Yu for private use or choose Arashiyama-no-Ma, the only room with a private bath supplied by natural Arashiyama Onsen water.
Other rooms with open-air, semi-open-air, or hinoki baths also provide private bathing, but their baths use heated water rather than natural hot spring water.
Facilities
During your stay, you can use the bright Hekisenkaku lobby, the front desk, a shop selling Kyoto confectionery, pickles, and local gifts, and a selection of banquet and meeting rooms. The largest space, Saga-no-Ma, measures 135 tatami mats, while Umezu-no-Ma and Matsuo-no-Ma each provide a more intimate 50-tatami setting for meals, celebrations, meetings, and private events.
Shuzankaku contains a wood-lined lobby decorated with details inspired by the moon over Togetsukyo Bridge, along with the shared hot spring bath and Tsukiyomi-no-Yu private bath.
Shofukaku provides a separate dining setting overlooking Togetsukyo Bridge, Mt. Ogura, and the Oi River. You can enjoy meals centred on tofu and yuba, followed by coffee and Japanese sweets at TOGETSU CAFE. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout your stay.
Activities
Togetsukyo Bridge stands directly in front of you, making an early morning or evening riverside walk an easy part of your stay. The entrance to the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is around five minutes away on foot, while Tenryuji Temple and its celebrated garden are around eight minutes away.
Arashiyama Monkey Park and the boarding area for sightseeing houseboats are both within a short walk. A houseboat ride gives you a different view of the wooded riverbanks and carries on a boating tradition associated with Arashiyama since the Heian period.
The Sagano Scenic Railway is around 15 minutes away on foot. You can ride through the Hozugawa Valley to Kameoka, then return to Arashiyama on the Hozugawa River Cruise. The boat journey follows a 16-kilometre route through rocky gorges and seasonal scenery.
During summer, you can watch traditional cormorant fishing from a boat on the Oi River. Nonomiya Shrine, Jojakkoji Temple, Daikakuji Temple, Matsunoo Taisha Shrine, and other historic sites also give you many ways to explore western Kyoto.
Additional Features
Togetsutei has 21 rooms. Check-in is available from 16:00 to 19:00, and check-out is by 10:00. Complimentary Wi-Fi and parking are available, with parking provided on a first-come basis.
You can walk from Hankyu Arashiyama Station in around seven minutes or from JR Saga-Arashiyama Station in around 15 minutes. The drive from Kyoto Station normally takes approximately 25 minutes.
