cursory glance at my phone tells me it's only been 37 minutes since my car rolled to a stop at the grand entrance of Roku Kyoto, but my heart already feels like I've been here a day and a half. The last rays of light are quickly fading as I sit quietly in the hotel's expansive tea house and watch the sky transform from a gorgeous burnt orange to deep shades of blue. Then, darkness falls and yellow beams of light twinkle in the walkways outside, bouncing delicately off their pitched roofs. I concede this might be my most transportive hotel experience yet—at this point, I
