Kyoto charm, Ritz flair

I LOVE the smell of hinoki in the morning. Never mind Robert Duvall's apocalyptic preference for napalm - the Japanese cypress wood really does smell like springtime. This piece of luxury is just a standard offering in the guest bathrooms of the freshly-minted Ritz-Carlton Kyoto - step into the elegant stencilled ceramic-walled shower stall

and the scent of the cypress floor immediately brings back memories of soaking in steaming hot baths way out in onsen country.

The hotel cuts an understated, yet elegant figure on the banks of the famous Kamogawa river that runs through the anc…