Candace T.
Yelp
I'm shocked at the high ratings this hotel has received. It was below average.
Proximity to the local train station is great, and definitely a plus.. it's why we booked here to begin with.
You can enter in from one of two streets on a slope, which is a little odd for bringing in luggage, but it is what it is.. the main entry door is a huge wood door that pivots from the middle.. it's really pretty actually, but what's odd about it is that you can be trying to push on one end and once it's partially open, if someone starts pulling on the other end, it starts closing your side.. quite odd, and I didn't care for going through this door bc it didn't feel safe, though it was pretty.
Once in the lobby it's nothing special, there's no sense of arrival at all.. especially if you come in from the non-main entrance, you're like.. umm where do I go? The people were fine, not particularly nice or helpful, but not rude either, just doing their jobs, nothing more nothing less.
The hallways were dark, and the design aesthetic was retro, weird and cheapy. Doors and colors were not all the same. The space photographs much better than it actually is in person.
The rooms themselves are very small and cramped.. the designer did a good job of maximizing the space though, to allow for a place to put your suitcase, and still have a desk, bench, etc, but it's very tight. We had a small table and 2 chairs, and a little desk, but you have to rearrange stuff just to try and sit in them bc everything was shoved together to allow you to walk around the bed. No view here, other than into other people's spaces - the exterior wall is fully curtain, but less than half is actually window. The carpet is gross. The wall to the tiny bathroom is glass starting at halfway, and it's yellow.. bright yellow film, which is just awful, with a retro and cheap look. Because of how many buildings around can see directly into your room (and you into theirs), theres a curtain in the bathroom to close the view for when you need to use the restroom. The bathroom is so cramped I guess they felt they needed the glass so the space would feel larger. What is nice, as with all the places we stayed in Japan, is that the bathroom has all the toiletries you'd need, with razor, brush, etc.
Breakfast was included.. normally this would be a plus, but the breakfast was awful. It was by far the worst meal we had in Japan, but it was bad even to American standards, like cheap cafeteria food.. you have a couple options, so I guess the continental breakfast would have been the better bet; I believe ours was called La Dining.