The breakfast that we had ordered yesterday during our check-in was
delivered directly to our chalet. The
staff member quickly set up in our living room and began to cook our breakfast
while we finished with our packing. The
breakfast was extremely delicious.
Having chosen the American (western) style option, I was served eggs,
sausage, and yogurt with fresh fruits toast, juice, and coffee. The Japanese breakfast consisted of
“Saga-dofu” (tofu cuisine) – a specialty of Kyoto, with grilled fish, rice,
pickles, a Japanese omelet and tea.
Having this served and cooked fresh in our room allowed us to watch the
snow fall on the river and mountains outside of our window. It was a wonderful experience.
After
breakfast, we walked to the main reception building and checked-out. We asked the staff to load our bags onto the
boat and informed them that we would walk back to the main district Arashiyama,
where he had first arrived yesterday.
The walk along the river took us about 30 minutes and we were able to
really enjoy the beauty of the surrounding area.
We arrived
back at the boat pier and were immediately met by a taxi that the staff at
Hoshinoya had arranged to meet us. We
boarded the taxi and quickly drove across Kyoto to our next destination, the
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kyoto.
The Hyatt
Regency Kyoto is a first-class hotel that offers it guest a wonderful base from
which to visit the main attractions of Tokyo.
The lobby has high ceilings and a beautiful leather seating area in the
center, with a small area for workstations where guests can use their laptops
utilizing the free Wifi available in the lobby.
At the far end of the main floor area is a restaurant called “The Grill”
which serves beautiful meals throughout the day. I will write more on this restaurant on Day 4
as we enjoyed breakfast here. In front of “The Grill” and to your left from the
front entrance is a grand wooden spiral staircase that leads to the Italian
restaurant, “Trattoria Sette”, where we would be enjoying dinner a little later
in the evening. Completing the lobby is
a marvelous long white reception desk that is fully staffed and not once did we
have to wait for service during our visit.
Our room
was Western style with a large king sized bed, a desk area, large closet space
and a large window that overlooked a beautiful Japanese garden that is
meticulously maintained. The bathroom
was fantastic with the separated room for the toilet, once again with the
Japanese control panel on the wall and heated toilet seat. The shower/bath area was clean and spacious
and the area was capped off by a vanity a sink area.
We were
given a wonderful tour of the hotel by the Sales Manager, which
included visits to many of the other rooms that are available for guests to
enjoy. These rooms included large
spacious accommodations such as their Deluxe Corner Twin room which with its
spectacular layout can allow for up to four guests with the Hyatt Regency being
able to provide two extra beds. If you
are looking for a room that can best serve four guests, you may be best off to
book their Regency Suite as it has four beds already designed into the
room. Another room that we viewed was
designed with a more traditional Japanese flair, but also incorporated a few
western style amenities to provide a wonderful blend of old and new.
The best
options for families is there Deluxe Balcony Twin room, with the ability to
have the parents or children in an adjoining room that has an interconnecting
door that when open causes the two rooms to function as a large suite. The Deluxe Balcony Twin is a large room that
boasts two large beds, a gorgeous seating area with beautiful couches and a
very large balcony that runs the entire length of the room with a beautiful
view. The bathroom is impressively large
offering two modern sinks and ample counter space. What I was really taken by was the fantastic
cedar bathtub that was nestled in an area next to the large windows overlooking
the balcony. You could have a luxurious
bath in natural light while looking over the trees and view of Kyoto, all
arranged to also provide you with privacy from the outside world.
One nice feature
of the rooms at the Hyatt Regency is the cushioned backboards behind all of the
beds. The material is made from the same
fabric that Japanese Kimonos are made from and each room has multiple fabrics
used to create a nice backdrop and design for the room.
After our
tour of the hotel, we boarded a bus from a stop located right outside of the
hotel to go to Kyoto Station where we would then take a short train ride to
Fushimi Inari Shrine.
Fushimi
Inari Shrine is a very historic and ancient site in Kyoto that predates the
move of the capital to Kyoto in 794. This shrine is dedicated to Inari, the
Shinto God of Rice, and his messengers are thought to be foxes, and for this
reason you will encounter many fox statues situated throughout the grounds of
the shrine. The buildings of this shrine
are wonderful to explore, however many people will come here to explore the
grounds and hike the trails on the mountain.
The walk to the top of Inari Mountain can take 2 to 3 hours to walk to
the summit and back. The views from the
top are amazing and definitely worth taking in if you have the time and the
energy. Even if you choose not to go all
the way to the top, there are many sights to see while visiting this
shrine. Most notably are the thousands
of vermillion gates that you walk through while traversing the many trails.
After
exploring the Shrine we returned to the Hyatt Regency for a short rest and to
prepare for dinner. We walked up the
wooden spiral staircase in the lobby to “Trattoria Sette” where we were joined
by Joseph for dinner. This Italian
restaurant is just simply amazing. The
menu offers a wide variety of dishes to meet anyone’s taste, and we chose to
order multiple appetizers and main dishes to share so that we could all
experience different dishes. The
atmosphere of the restaurant is quite open and provides wonderful natural light
from the large windows surrounding the seating area. The kitchen is also semi-open and you can
watch the chefs prepare the various meals for the diners. All of this is complimented by a service
staff that was very professional and attentive to our needs, not once did we
need to search for a waiter, nor did we ever feel pressured in rushing through
our meal. It was a completely relaxing
and enjoyable evening where we enjoyed wonderful conversation and spectacular
food.
We
returned to our room completely satisfied and settled into our bed for a good
night’s sleep. The bed proved to me
extremely comfortable and sleep came quite easily.
Contact Izumi through her website to plan your vacation to Japan!
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