DESIGN
Deluxe maisonette quad room
SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE The guestrooms retain simple , Japanese-style aesthetics but with contemporary palettes , interesting wallcoverings and of course , WiFi .
“ Mixing Japanese sensibilities with Western conveniences is a game we ’ ve become quite good at ,” says Astrid Klein , co-founder along with Mark Dytham of KDa . Born in Italy to German parents , schooled in France and educated in Britain , she has lived and worked in Japan since 1988 . Britishborn Dytham first came to Japan with Klein , both working for a spell with renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito until they founded KDa in 1991 . “ We ’ ve been here over 30 years , more than half our lives , so we ’ ve become half-Japanese ,” Klein says .
While they didn ’ t include overtly Japanese symbols in their design , they did have fun sneaking in eggplant motifs , as its Japanese name , “ nasu ,” is phonetically similar to the resort ’ s locale — although the characters used for their spellings are completely different . It also plays into the agritourism theme , since the ryokan is all about fresh produce .
Poko Poko has Books & Café , where guests can read about agritourism .
32 hotelsmag . com May 2020