Japan Award Trip Report - Mostly Close in Hotels
Hotels - I will be honest, I found this part to be much harder than the actual flights that I booked close in. Park Hyatt Kyoto was the only property we had booked a long time ago. Everything else was booked AFTER the flight was booked. So anywhere from 2 days to 3 weeks ahead.
Hilton Tokyo - 5 Nights, Hilton Diamond. Booked basically last minute(the day before the flight) because we decided to have 4 extra days in Tokyo with no actual hotel booked. Thank god for OpenHotelAlert saving my bacon here. There was no availability for the base room but it opened up exactly for our dates and I had it locked in ASAP. 280k HH for 5 Nights with 5th night free. Conrad Tokyo was our first choice but the location of this seemed perfect for the first few days and it was significantly cheaper.
This was the surprise of the trip. Was “upgraded” to an Executive Room. This is typical of Hilton Diamond where Upgrades mean f all. However, the actual room was a really nice size and the bathroom was small but had it where it counts. The water pressure was top notch, full rain shower and full Japanese style Toto Toilet. We have a full Toto setup at home so this weirdly felt homey.
Concierge was able to get us a reservation at Udatsu - on very short notice and it basically ruined every other sushi for us, including Kyubey. The concierge team seemed very good but they looked overwhelmed with work the entire time we were there haha. If you need something definitely reach out before your actual trip.
Breakfast was, no other way to say it, the best we have had at any Hilton and we thought it was better than Andaz Maui. There was a huge variety of dishes from western, Chinese, Japanese etc and a lot of it changed everyday. We thought everything was delicious and I couldn’t get enough of the Shumai. I could have had that Shumai everyday and been happy with Japan. The spread was massive and even a picky eater like my wife had dishes she enjoyed. Do not miss the omelette station either. It was perfect everytime where the outside is just cooked but the curds where runny when you cut into it. The executive lounge was also quite good but it can turn into a bit of a zoo so unless you really want free food, I would skip it. Also do not get breakfast here because the spread is nothing compared to the regular restaurant breakfast.
Location was also fantastic. It was a 15 minute walk to Shinjuku but even better the Marunouchi line was a 7 minute walk from under the hotel! Basically connected us to all of Tokyo with ease. The perfect property to start your trip and orient yourself with Tokyo IMO. We really weren’t expecting much from this property and it really surprised us.
Park Hyatt Kyoto - 5 Nights. Hyatt Globalist. Booked Nov 2021 at 35k a night for a total of 175k Hyatt Points(mix of UR and Hyatt Biz card)
This was booked a little under a year ago when it was still 35k a night and Japan showed no signs of ever reopening. Thank god I did because these standard nights never showed up again since they continue to play games with award availability. We had to book 12 night in a row and cut that down by calling Globalist concierge to make this booking. It was an absolute farce that involved transferring 420k UR to Hyatt. On top of that I wanted to use my SUAs but of course no standard suite availability. I set up an alert on OpenHotelAlert for a “Park Suite”, their standard room. It didn’t ping for close to a year till a week before my stay. Called Gloablist Line immediately and got the suite upgrade confirmed.
All that work was absolutely worth it. Even pulling into Ninenzaka Street and the hotels driveway you know it’s going to be special. The service was impeccable from the beginning. They sat us down and gave us a welcome drink of champagne and informed us that we were further upgraded to the “Ninenzaka House”. How much of an upgrade this is over the Park Suite I do not know. The room was absolutely massive as you can see in the video here and even had a powder room. Heated floors, really soft towels and very comfortable bedding. This is one of the best Hyatts you can book and only really beaten by Canaves Oia Epitome and the Ventana. The location was just incredible and felt straight out of a movie set. It was a hop and a skip to Kyomizu Dera as well.
Breakfast was a bit lean in terms of choice. There was a set list of items and you can order as much as you want. It was all really good, especially the breads that gave Park Hyatt Paris a run for its money. I would splurge the $20 for the Japanese Breakfast for atleast one day. I really enjoyed it and it’s made by a Michelin Star restaurant if that matters to you. I ordered mine a day ahead and AFAIK that’s the SOP if you want it. My goto ended up being over easy eggs, bacon(which was really pork belly), mixed altogether with the noodles(which had shrimp and bonito flakes). It was delicious and I did not get bored of eating it everyday.
The whole property made you feel special and it really does live up to all the hype. They left us some sort of local gift everyday from the most delicious grapes I have ever tasted to Japanese sweets made by a bakery 100s of years old.
It’s not exactly convenient to get around Kyoto from the PH but I think that’s more of an issue with just Kyoto. We took a cab almost everyday either to the specific place we were going and it was worth it to us since we only had 5 days in Kyoto. Service was top notch here as well where they ensured the cab drivers knew exactly where we were going. We were averaging 27,000 steps a day so this hotel was the perfect place to just relax after that. They had a champagne hour every day from 5pm to 6pm and I couldn’t stop eating the spiced walnuts haha.
Conrad Osaka - 5 nights. 5th Night Free, 380k HH
This is a Reddit darling and I can see why. They nail all the basics quite well. The lobby was a sight to behold with a panoramic view of Osaka skyline. Service definitely felt like a downgrade over the PH but this was a much cheaper property in terms of just cash price. We were “upgraded” to a city view and it was a pretty sizeable room with floor to ceiling view of Osaka. The toilet was in the powder room and much further away from the bathroom than I expected. Everything felt top notch in terms of material quality and reminded me how much I love Conrads(both NYC Conrads are lovely).
Breakfast was a good spread but didn’t match the Hilton Tokyo. They had roast beef freshly cut daily and that was fantastic. Also had a generous amount of Shumai and shrimp dumplings which were also delicious. Wife had her matcha latte everyday and couldn’t get enough of it. She would have one for breakfast and get another one to go.
People have been raving about the executive lounge for a long time so we had to check it out. It had a nice view of the city and plenty of seating. We really only used it once because Osaka just has so much to discover in terms of food that it didn’t make much sense to load up at the lounge. It’s perfect if you are craving a light snack but I wouldn’t make it a main source of food in Osaka. Easily the best lounge during our entire trip.
Kozantei Ubuya - 2 nights, $650/night including food. Paid cash.
Another hyped property on Reddit and elsewhere. It was not cheap at all and using their website was an absolute pain. They typically cater towards people staying just one night so booking 2 nights was complicated. We had to move rooms for the second day but they did move our stuff from the first room. Why 2 nights? Fuji is famously fickle and cannot be seen at all depending on the weather. We wanted to double our chances and we were thankful that we did. The first night had some of the worst weather we have had in Japan, it was rain mixed with fog and we couldn’t even tell where the mountain was.
During breakfast the next day we saw the queen slowly coming out of the clouds and my god it was breathtaking. The view is THE REASON to book this property and we got it in spades. Throughout the day the clouds slowly dispersed till we had nothing obscuring Fuji. These 2 days were our forced relaxation day and what a way to spend it. We enjoyed our time in Kawaguchiko massively just relaxing in the hot tub and admiring the mountain.
And another one
Our experience with food at the property was mixed. We had Shabu-Shabu one night and the beef was some of the best we have had all trip but then it was followed up by dessert which can best be described as custard laced with poison. Whatever sauce they used was incredibly bitter to the point of being inedible and kind of ruined the entire meal. Had similar experiences with the Kaiseki course too where a few dishes really knocked it out of the park and others should not be served to humans. You are bit of a captive since it’s a tourist town and everything was basically shut by 7pm. Service was fine but can’t really be compared to Hilton or Hyatt. The plumbing was pretty rough with turning on one thing affected the pressure of the other. The pillows, as far as we understood, were made of buckwheat and easily some of the worst pillows I have ever used.
If I did this again, I would stay at a much cheaper place with better food and just goto different viewpoints. We are not adventurous people and climbing the mountain is not something we are interested in at all.
Andaz Tokyo - 3 Nights at 30K/night for a total of 90k Hyatt Points(all from UR).
We were coming from Tokyo Station so this Hotel was really easy to get to. It was a sub 10 minute cab ride. Check in was fairly quick where they sit down with you in “the lounge” and go over Globalist perks. Once again, not much of an upgrade other than a “Park View” room. The room was basically encased in wood and has not aged well IMO. The wood is starting to show marks and dings and it doesn’t seem like the best material for bathrooms. The room itself was a decent size but felt devoid of any character when compared to something like the Conrad Osaka.
I am still not sure what the hype is about with this property. Everything felt decidedly average compared to even Andazs in North America. There was nothing special about the service either. We actually really liked the location however since Toranomon Hills station can easily be accessed from underneath the hotel. Lots of great food and bar options nearby as well.
“The lounge” was basically a table with a water dispenser and a few snacks. The packaged rice snacks were delicious though and we did steal some for our flight back home. Breakfast was a combination of a buffet and several dishes you can order off a menu. The buffet did not change at all outside of the fruit selection. Nothing really stood out to us in terms of taste but the coffee was great to get the day started.
Park Hyatt Tokyo - 1 Night. 30k/night(all UR)
This was a mistake. Since I booked late, I couldn’t find 4 nights at the Andaz and decided to book the PH mostly due to Lost in Translation. Absolute waste of points. Service was basically non existent where we had to get out of the cab and go inside to find somebody to help with our bags. Did not have that happen anywhere during our trip. It only got worse from there. Finding the check in desk was complicated with no actual signage or people to ask any questions to. I have no idea how they are running this place with a skeleton crew. I finally found an area with a rep and asked if this is check in area and they said “yes, please sit and wait here”. After like 15 minutes another rep came over and asked “are you being helped?”. We said no and he asked us to wait. Another 10 minutes later, he was free. To be clear we were the only guests in the area and this was at 4:30PM.
While check in was going on I inquired about the room and about Globalist Upgrade(I hate doing this) and they had no idea that we were Globalist. He said he had to talk to his manager and returned 10 minutes later saying we can upgrade you to City View Room but we have to wait an hour for the room. I said fine and asked them to move all of our stuff to the new room(we had send ahead 4-5 bags). Just an overall mess of a property.
The room was a corner room and it would have been amazing in the early 2000s I guess. The bathroom hardware was yellowed and gross. The TVs were tiny. I am really struggling to think of anything good about this property. The location was awful since it was basically middle of nowhere in Nishi-Shinjuku and we actually walked to the Hilton Tokyo to take a train.
I deeply regretted not being able to find another night at the Andaz Tokyo. It was our last night in Tokyo and I wish it was better.
I apologize for the ridiculously long post and I am happy to answer any questions. Total damage was
660K Hilton, 295k Hyatt, $1300 cash via UR cashout at 1.5cpp