22 Jun 2013

Hyatt Regency Kyoto


It cost 28,600yen for a night to stay at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto with breakfast thrown in.  With a bigger room, more interesting bathroom layout and better breakfast, I would have preferred to stay at Hyatt Kyoto for five nights instead.

Hyatt Kyoto is located in the Higashiyama ward, across the Kamogawa from the JR Kyoto Station and requires a little walking effort to the nearest Shichijio subway station.  It would be more of a hotel for tourists intending to explore Kyoto and have a good room to return to, rather than a hotel more catered for business travelers.  Hyatt Kyoto is literally surrounded on all four sides by remarkable Kyoto sights, which regrettably, I did not have the time to explore all of them.

Opposite the Hotel is the Kyoto National Museum which was unfortunately closed for renovation.  Beside the Hotel is the must-see Sanjusangendo, which I did not manage to squeeze time out to see from my previous two trips to Kyoto.  I managed to have a quick breakfast in order to get in just after the doors were opened at 8am, in order to beat the bus-loads of students out in force for their summer trips.  Still, the students do wake up really early and two buses showed up just as I was paying for my admission.  Across the road on the other side of the Hotel was the Chishaku shrine compounds, which I regrettably did not have time for.  South of the Hotel are more shrines and temples which I did not manage to visit.

The western-styled room was big, and there was plenty of space to prance about and may be do a cartwheel without slamming into any furniture.  One nice touch was the different types of Japanese teapacks in the room.  It really put me in a good mood sipping Japanese tea while checking out the Japanese-styled bathroom.  The toilet, bath area and wash-basin areas were separated.  The bath area is traditionally Japanese, with an area for washing before soaking in the tub.  The acoustics would be strange to someone not used to the Japanese sentos, as echos rebounded off the stone floors of the bathroom.  The stool is a very nice touch.  Finally, I could sit down and use the hair dryer.


 

Breakfast was good!  Had I stayed more nights, I would have been able to try everything from the buffet, especially from the bread basket.  There was ham, which the sous chef sliced and offered to grill for me.  And I could order just one poached egg, to make room for all the other niceties laid out on the buffet line.  When the freshly baked croissants came out, one of the staff came around to all the tables to distribute the pipping hot croissants, even changing the one I picked from the bread basket earlier but had not eaten.  A pipping hot buttery croissant is the right way to start a morning.  There was a nice Japanese-styled rock garden below the breakfast area, but I wasn’t early enough to snag a table by the window overlooking the garden, so I snapped a picture of it instead.

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