This is the best city hotel in southwestern Japan. Its outstanding attributes include superb modern design, a lively central location and rates for standard double rooms that are less than its competitors.
Though the striped 10-story facade is interesting enough, it does little to prepare guests for the lobby, which extends out as a gallery overlooking the glass-clad atrium facing the futuristic Canal City shopping, dining and entertainment complex. The hotel is linked to this shopper's paradise by elevated walkways, on which pedestrians dodge cannon blasts of water shooting up from the canal. In the chic second-story lobby, highly polished patterned marble gleams under subtle cove lighting, and winding stairways connect four levels of dining, lounging and meeting space, all overlooking the waterway and courtyard.
Good and varied dining
is a strong point. Adjoining the lobby are the contemporary Cantonese Chi-na room (its dim sum luncheon is a specialty) and the Aroma's cafe, where moderately priced Western buffets are laid out thrice daily in addition to an a la carte menu. A terrace lounge for tea takes up the center of the lobby, and the hotel's main bar, appropriately named Martini's, serves a variety of martinis and cocktails off the lobby. Down on canal level is Foor Plaza, a conglomeration of small nibbleries, all with rustic decor and intimate dimensions. Swathes of marble, glass and water flow among the informally partitioned restaurants, which include Japanese, Mongolian and Italian areas, as well as a French pastry nook and a waterside lounge with nightly entertainment. A branch of the renowned Nadaman, serving varied Japanese delights and a sushi bar, is on the fifth floor facing the Japanese garden.
A state-of-the-art spa and fitness center offer a variety 
of treatments along with the health club featuring a glass-covered, 25-m indoor lap pool, exercise room, whirlpools and sauna. Japan's largest cinema complex, more than 150 shops and restaurants, a performing-arts center and a high-tech video arcade stack up along the curving terraces of the adjacent retail complex.
Meeting space on two dedicated floors can handle high-tech get-togethers of up to 1,500 people for a reception in the largest ballroom. A unique drawing room hosts smaller meetings and parties. The 1,300-slot garage charges fees.
Guest rooms, the largest and most stylish in town, compare well against Tokyo's best. Bone and ivory decor, light wood paneling, recessed lighting, built-in shelves and gigantic mirrors provide a welcome sense of space. This simplicity is given an organic twist with beige Berber rugs, crisp cotton duvets 
and decorative touches of glass and polished slabs of granite. Only the 32-inch TVs, plopped starkly on dressers, look out of place. Minibars, data ports (offering free connections) and safes round out the appointments. Paper screens allow sunlight to flood posh granite baths appointed with glass basins, wide mirrors, scales, hair dryers, deep tubs next to extra-large shower stalls, and bidet toilets. Grand Club rooms offer separate reception, access to a private lounge overlooking a Japanese garden, free breakfast and free access to the health club. Room service is available from 6:30 am to midnight (to 2 am on weekends).
The staff here has a better grasp of English than one finds at other area hotels. Given the stylishness and all the entertainment options available, this hotel makes its competition look both dated and dormant.
