One of the friends I was traveling with is a travel agent, and he insisted on staying at Hoshinoya, since it's somewhere he has sent clients to before and he wanted to check it out. It's intended to be a contemporary twist on a traditional Japanese ryokan, so I didn't mind either. The place is…
Continue reading: Lost in Translation: Hoshinoya Kyoto
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Not sure how the breakfast tasted (I'm guessing it was good), but the presentation alone seems worth the 20 minutes prep time...
About 10 years ago, we spent a couple of nights at a Ryokan in Kyoto. The property featured by Ben is in the top 1% (a guestimate) of ryokans. Back then, we paid $250. That was considered mid-range then, where $700 per night was high end. The cheap, dare I say authentic ryokans were closer to $100. Read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_(Japanese_inn)
You'll sleep on a tatami http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami
Besides the thrill of sleeping on the floor, the best part is enjoying your meals. We treated ourselves to a kaiseki dinner (expensive) . Our host just keeps bringing out food as Ben showed in his breakfast pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiseki
We didn't know what some of the food items were, but if the Japanese have been eating it for thousands of years, it was good enough for us.
When you do venture out of your room to partake in this activity, you're expected to come down in your komono. They're so much nicer than the robes you find in chain hotels.
If and when there's a next time, we'll step it up a notch or two.
thats pretty lame, you goto kyoto to have an american breakfast that you can get at dennys?
Yeah, interesting. It doesn't look like you got much of a royokan experience to me. Furniture? Beds?
The most glaring omission I see is where the heck is the bathing portion of your visit? Getting a bath in Japan is a process and just about the best thing going there. A few hours soaking in the hot tub is equivalent to a good workout. Does that place not have some fantastic outdoor bathing area? Hard to believe.
As for the food, I can't blame you for taking the western breakfast. I lived in Japan for 3 years and never acquired the taste for what is served in the AM. Bleh.
Royokan is more a state of mind and it definately does not translate into the modern, western world. The way more fun experience is to visit a larger but more downscale mountain royokan where companies are known to take retreats. Prepare to spend the whole night up drinking soju with crazy japanese businessmen/women!
It looks like it falls into the gap between trying to be a ryokan but also enough like a hotel to not freak out the wealthy foreigners who are presumably it's target market - and fails on both counts.
I think if you're going to try and experience the culture like that you need to jump in with both feet - sleep on the tatami, eat kaiseki and hell yes have a proper bath.
Kyoto is overrun with expensive ryokans, but I've stayed at this one which was convenient for getting into town: http://www.yuzuyaryokan.com/eng/index.html
A couple of other things I'd add - often the high price of fancy ryokans includes an elaborate dinner (kaiseki) that would be pretty expensive if you were to have it in a restaurant. And you also only really need to spend one night at a fancy ryokan - stay somewhere cheaper for the rest of your stay.
As a Japanese person, I second what Ciaran says. The experience you had was for well off foreigners that want a "Japanese", or what they think is Japanese, experience but not out of their comfort zone.
@ David -- I can't get their website to work and my friend put the charge on his card, though I want to say it was somewhere around $700 per night.
It's a shame that you are too young to understand that a romantic couple does not want anything to do. That is the whole point.
However, if you want cultural experiences, they have them galore, but you have to pay for them -- zen temple experience, acupuncture, incense ceremony. They even have seaonal packages, such as private visits to the Fushimi sake brewery in winter or a soba-making class. Also, there IS a traditional Japanese tub in the room. It's just that Kyoto does not have natural hotspring water, so there are no natural hotspring baths. Other HOSHINOYA properties, like Karuizawa, have the most amazing hot spring spa facilities, but that is the local specialty. In Kyoto, the local specialty is the culture.
Well, if you would expect more accssible location to the centre of Kyoto, there should be other options...(I don't really know my way around Kyoto. I'm one of the very RARE Japanese people who never been to there.)
I like the modern ryokan concepts...and which is like a fusion of Japanese and Western food (such as NOBU) and still tastes good. Looking forward to your post on sightseeing in Kyoto. (I am thinking of having my wedding ceremony in Kyoto.)
Oh by the way, you may have heard thoug, Hoshinoya has a resort in Nagano (a mountainous area close to Tokyo) and Okinawa..they look GORGEOUS and I've heard some good reviews about one in Nagano.
Two beds?! =P
Lucky, did the rate include any dinner service or discount to the Japanese cuisine? And did you try any at the hotel, in any case?
That's about the most awesome room service breakfast I've ever seen!
Sounds like a great place to escape from everything, even better if there is no TV and Wifi. Of course, you have to appreciate books...
The four hosts at the dock, makes me think of a more highfalutin version of "Battle Royale." Still, tatami and futon symbolize a peaceful sleep in my book, as long as they haven't forgotten a pillow filled with buckwheat.
The western breakfast totally kill this hotel report. However, from what you ate on various trip reports on different asian airlines were still always steak or pasta instead of local entree, I totally expect that is going to happen here.
Most here have missed the point. Hoshinoya is never meant to be a traditional ryokan and has never pretended to be one. It markets itself as a ryokan with a modern twist. And no, that's not because it wants to cater to the foreigner. Kyoto has a huge domestic tourist market. Not every Japanese is running to get the traditional ryokan experience that the foreigner is wishing for. And not every foreign visitor is a first timer and craving for only the traditional ryokan experience. Rather, some would like a little modern touch, and style. And there's a difference between an onsen and bath. Kyoto has no significant onsen that's worthy to mention. So for those who think he should have chosen a ryokan with an onsen, well, that wouldn't be in Kyoto.
Lucky, I will be staying at this resort during a summer trip. How would you recommend getting from the resort to/from the city for sightseeing? How about getting to/from KIX?