We stayed a pretty basic hotel on the East side of Kyoto called Heian No Mori Hotel. A 70's affair and friendly staff, it was more than adequate. The only problem was it was 10 minutes away from the nearest Subway station. Therefore, we had to rely on either taxi or minibus to get us around.
My room was simple but neat. Fairly big after hearing stories from my colleagues who had been to Japan before, mainly about how small the hotel rooms were. I had a couple of beds, with ample room to move around. The bathroom was also more than big enough with a strong, hot shower. But no English TV channels though. Definitely no football. It didn't appear that football was big in this place despite hosting the World Cup only 10 years ago.
The main lobbyThe room came with breakfast each morning, served at the diner by the lobby. Although the items were al Japanese, I do not mind as they were seafood and vegetables selection aplenty. In fact, the miso soup was among the most delicious I had ever tasted.
For a place to stay short term while attending a conference, I certainly have no complaints. Although honestly, I would've preferred a central, more connected place. But with the company I was with, I was pretty happy. One of my colleague said that there were plenty to see and photographs if I was willing to walk around the hotels. There were a couple of shrines and if we walked a couple of blocks down, you would reach the the famed "Philosopher's Route". 15 minutes on the other direction would have taken us to the edge of Gion district, where the Geishas stayed. But I didn't have much time to explore the area unfortunately.
More on the Kyoto trip here.
