Kyoto Hotel Guide: Hyatt Regency Kyoto

Located 1.2 km east of Kyoto Station in an area known for its many temples, important cultural sites and museums and on one of Kyoto's major bus routes, this gem of a boutique-hotel offers respite as soon as guests enter its towering bamboo forest at its entrance and continues inside with a stunning interior created by Super Potato, a well-known international design firm based in Tokyo.

Opened in 2006 after a complete transformation of an existing hotel, the five-story structure boasts Japanese art and materials, mostly from Kyoto, throughout the hotel, combining traditional Japanese elements with contemporary styles, evident in such unique architectural details as the ceiling in the lobby, fashioned from kimono patterns to create a lattice and backlit by changing colors for appropriate day/night ambience. Occupying the former residence of Emperor Goshirakawa (which explains why all the statues in the famous next-door Sanjusangendo Temple face the hotel), the hotel is graced with a beautiful 850-year-old garden, complete with a waterfall and pond, dating from his reign and visible from restaurants and rooms.

One such restaurant taking advantage of garden views is The Grill with its contemporary setting, located at one end of the lobby and specializing in grilled meats and seafood seared to perfection in wood-fired ovens and prepared in an open kitchen. Japanese restaurant Touzan is modeled after a traditional Kyoto house but sports such fun, innovative twists as glass dividers filled with plates and shards of pottery and an adjoining bar with washi (Japanese paper) walls imprinted with reliefs from a street, including a manhole, pebbles and a squashed can. It offers charcoal-grilled foods, sushi and premium sake. The casual Trattoria Sette serves Italian home-style cooking from an open kitchen and pizzas cooked in an oven imported from Naples. A pastry boutique and 24-hour room service round out the food-and-beverage outlets.

In addition to the latest high-tech equipment in the gym (which hotel guests can use free of charge), there's a spa that offers more Asian treatments than any other hotel spa, including acupuncture, moxibustion and shiatsu, in addition to the usual aromatherapy, massage, steam rooms and sauna. For other diversions, a shop displays unique Japanese crafts, and the largest of several high-tech banquet facilities can accommodate up to 500. Wireless service is available in all public areas and banquet facilities.

Rooms, too, combine Japanese aesthetics with high-tech know-how. Employing natural colors, white oak and kimono fabric (all the headboards feature antique kimono from the Edo to Taisho eras), rooms have such local touches as elegant Kyoto-made tea services yet also come with modern conveniences such as a safe capable of recharging laptops, satellite flat-screen TV with DVD player (and free DVDs from the library), three phones, and large desks with Internet access. Spacious granite baths have deep tubs and splash areas just like in traditional Japanese bathhouses where patrons rinse off before entering the bath, as well as separate sink and toilet areas. Eight deluxe balcony rooms offer warm tones of walnut, sunken kotatsu tables, tatami areas, two sinks in the bath, and floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors opening to balconies with views of the garden or Kyoto National Museum (deep wooden tubs placed inside next to the glass sliding doors almost seem like they're outside). Nonsmokers enjoy 80% of the rooms, and two rooms are dedicated for the handicapped.

Arresting designs, a Japanese garden, comfortable and elegant rooms, a multilingual staff and a good location in historic Higashiyama-ku assure a steady stream of customers, nearly 50% of whom are foreigners. Its only true competitor is the Westin Miyako, also surrounded by temples and museums in a historic district, but the Hyatt is more conveniently located and offers more gorgeous rooms. Those who wish to be nearer nightlife may be happier at the Hotel Okura Kyoto, but otherwise it is difficult to think of a reason not to stay here.