View from the Room: Rihga Gran, Kyoto
From the sign next to the little towels in the lobby inviting us to dry ourselves of the rain, the doorbells on our front door to the traditional tea set in our room, the Japanese quality at Rihga Gran elevated in Kyoto.
I immediately put the kettle on to embrace the tea experience and immediately fell in love with the thin pouring sprout. We have had a water dispenser rather than a kettle at home for years but this makes me want one of these elegant pouring vessels just to make more of an occasion for making tea. And I’m a coffee drinker.
There wasn’t much rain on us anyway as this hotel is just a few minutes walk from the mighty Kyoto station. As so often in major train stations, most of the walking is just getting out of the station.
It’s a modern hotel that opened in 2020, and as is often the case when space is at a premium, the street-level entrance is small. However, the doors automatically slide open, and we are greeted by a long, invitingly lit escalator that takes us directly to the lobby. Subsequently, the ground floor lifts take us straight to our floor.
Once we open the door, we are greeted straight away by that stunning tea set opposite which sets the tone for the comfort level of this room. The traditional sliding Japanese paper doors, the PJs on the bed and the basket filled with extra amenities confirm my deep love of Japan.
There is a small sofa, coffee, table and twin beds with a table in between. I mind twin beds less these days as I know they result in better sleep. The window opens for fresh air, even if the view looks internally.
There is an empty basket which we later learn is to transport our laundry to the mini laundrette on our our floor. We later learn that there are laundry facilities on other floors and that we can access their activity from our TV screen to save we know where there is one free. This is some effort to aid our comfort levels. As you know, we pick hotels that have laundry facilities so we can halve the amount of clothes we pack. And this hotel gave us several extra layers of convenience in this matter. The machines are inexpensive to use and automatically dispense laundry detergent. They are coin operated although staff can change notes. On the one occasion a machine wouldn’t start, we popped down and they came up straight away to fix it; the error was because we hadn’t shut the door firmly.
Oh and on my return, I went straight to Muji and picked up a couple of fold-up baskets to use for laundry. Living in a one-floor dwelling, I didn’t think I’d ever need one but it has made such a difference to laundry days and it reminds me of this glorious hotel each time I use it.
Amenities
Laundrette (along the corridor)
Humidifier (‘Humidified air cleaner’)
PJs
Slippers
Safe
Bathroom basket: toothbrush, face cloth, hairbrush, skincare pack, body lotion sachet, razor, and cotton buds.
Tissues
Hairdryer
Fridge
Luggage rack
And there is ample lighting controlled only by the bedside.
Bathroom
Japanese toilet
Good size bathtub with a handheld shower on the side
Luxurious bath, hand and face towels plus an absorbent bath mat
Foam soap
Two additional glasses (I generally use these for storage)
The towel rail beside the sink and on the bathtub door.
Storage
Wardrobe at the entrance
The cupboard above the tea area
Lots of little shelves around
Shelving in bathroom
No drawers so we used 2 of the little baskets for our underwear (the bigger one is used for laundry)
Refreshments
Japanese teapot, kettle, and two exquisite teas
Two cups
Two bottles of water
Ice bucket
Two glasses
There’s a complimentary hot drinks machine in the lobby lounge, which I used once or twice, given the fantastic tea facilities in our room. We took full advantage of the dinner credit we each had on our last evening. We had what equated to a fine dining dinner, which was inexpensive anyway, but with our generous credit, it cost us just a few pounds. This is another example of how much cheaper Japan seemed to us this time around.
A fabulous and well-located hotel that I would love to return to.
January 2025
