Osaka Business Trip Journal Part 2: Kyoto Brighton Hotel

A hotel report for Kyoto despite being on a business trip to Osaka. I wonder if this place has been around for a long time. I didn't know about it. It might be a hidden gem. I don't want to keep saying how cheap it is, but the value for money is incredible. Especially the Ikkyu Diamond member benefits, which are on another level—or maybe that's an exaggeration.

Unfortunately, it's not near the station, but there is a shuttle bus that runs every 20 minutes from Karasuma Oike Station. I thought there wouldn't be any buses left since I was arriving around 9 PM, but there were.

However, setting aside the fact that the hotel shuttle can't stop at regular city bus stops, there were no signs or anything at the designated bus boarding area, so I stood there for a while wondering if I was in the right place. I suppose they aren't allowed to put anything there by law. In the end, I was able to board without any issues.

The location is in front of the 7-Eleven Kyoto Oike-dori Ryugaike-cho store. The location that comes up when you Google 'Brighton Hotel Shuttle Bus' on Google Maps feels a bit off, though...

Arrival

When I arrived, several hotel staff members approached me. When I got off the bus, they reached out to help me with my luggage. This is the hospitality of a luxury hotel.

Check-in. Thanks to the Ikkyu Diamond member benefits, they gave me a Kyoto souvenir, and on top of that, all the drinks in the refrigerator were free! Normally, there would have been a late check-out option too, but it seems that's not available on weekends. Well, that's fine.

Room tour

Around the bathroom area

Various bath additives as well. There are other relaxation goods too.

This is nice!

It's like a cooling patch that doesn't smell. I wonder which is better, this or Lion's Kyusoku Jikan. I'll have to compare them.

Drinks

I peeked in the fridge and there are various drinks and even alcohol (!). It seems these are free to drink too. But I can't drink beer right now. I already had a little bit. What a waste. I'll take them home.

There are various other options available as well. The selection of drinks is fantastic. This is essentially a club lounge without light meals.

The room is spacious and the quality is high. This is a huge win. I wish I could have stayed from an earlier time. I'll make this my regular hotel from now on.

Breakfast

You can choose between Japanese or Western style. I was torn, but I realized I hadn't eaten any rice yesterday, so I headed to the Japanese restaurant. I was hungry, and since Japanese set meals often allow for rice refills, I was hoping for that too.

Looking at the photos on the hotel website, the Western breakfast looks like a set meal. I'll probably have Western food at the hotel tomorrow anyway. But when I checked later, it turned out the Western breakfast was a buffet...

Read properly next time. ↓ I'll choose this one next time.

For the Japanese breakfast, you can choose between rice and porridge. I always wonder if I can have both (like having porridge for the first half and rice for the second), but I can never bring myself to ask (¯―¯٥).

And the simmered dish in the set meal they brought was also hot! I almost burned my mouth putting the whole piece of daikon radish in.

Usually, these breakfast set meals are prepared in advance and the simmered dishes are often cold, and I never really complained about that, but this was impressive.

I ended up getting a rice refill even though it'll make me gain weight.

🍚🍚🍚

After breakfast, check-out is at 12:00, so I lounged around in the room until then (there's no fitness center or anything). I also tried the Gion Tsujiri matcha. I've whisked matcha a few times before, but getting it to foam is actually quite difficult. It requires high-speed wrist strokes.

I really enjoyed it. There was a self-reporting slip for drinks, so I casually left it blank to highlight that it was a Diamond member benefit.

The sense of superiority when the front desk staff started to say 'The items in the refrigerator...' and then stopped and said, 'Oh, excuse me.'

I thought this when checking in, but they don't charge an accommodation tax here, do they? Is it included? No, if that were the case, everywhere would do that. Does Kyoto not charge it? Or was the amount not high enough? I wonder what the threshold is.

I'll definitely come back again!