HOTEL MASTAY jingumichi — Hotel in Kyoto

Such a gem hotel. We went with our 18 months baby. I think I want my future dream home to have some of the features in this hotel room. Here are all the great details we liked about the hotel: 1. Washer-dryer machine. We used it almost everyday and are so happy that we have very little dirty laundry to do when we return home after traveling 2. Spacious shower and bathtub that doesn’t take toooo long to fill the water 3. Drying rod for hanging towel and clothes inside the bathroom and Great ventilation fan in the bathroom to dry water on the floor, sink and wet towels 4. Sink is separate from the bathroom but in the same space as the washer-dryer 5. Motion sensor light above the sink and free toothbrush, tooth paste, hair brush, and tons of storage behind the mirror, AND a small tray over the sink that’s super handy for putting products it it doesn’t affect using the sink 6. Toilet is away from the bathroom and near the door- super convenient for using toilet when baby’s asleep. And the features on the bidet is more than average! I can hear my husband experiment with it (because of the small beep sound) at night hahaha 7. Baby crib has mesh wall! Not wood! And is very spacious for our 85cm baby. The crib can also be lowered to the lowest level easily and we don’t worry about the baby climbing out. 8. A small study area where I can hang more clothes to dry and put my luggage. 9. Air filter and humidifier 10. Big kitchen sink. 11. Fridge to store milk since our baby drink 2 cups of cow milk daily 12. Pots, pans and stove which we mainly used to sanitize baby bottles by boiling water 13. Huge kitchen vent and some basic bowls which we didn’t use but seems great if you want to cook 14. Daily dirty towel exchange basket. We just put dirty towels in the basket and outside the room in the morning and when we come back at night we get a basket of clean towels. 15. the economy twin room was big enough for us (2 adults plus a 18 months baby that likes to walk around and explore). 16. Very quiet but our window does face away from the streets. 17. Very walkable to the subway station nearby and some bus station nearby. 18. Lawson right next door for us to grab milk for the baby and simple sandwiches and drinks for the road. 19. Very walkable to (within 20 mins) our favorite destinations in Kyoto. We like that we don’t have to take public transit because sometimes when the baby naps in the stroller, it’s easier for us to walk and relax. 20. A trash bin just for baby dirty diapers!

Things I didn’t like (very nitpicking) 1. the corner of the tv station is dangerous and just about one inch above my baby’s head. It got on my nerve the first couple times she walked by and it seemed she would bump into it. If I were to book a stay there again, I would bring further corner padding to protect the baby head. 2. The dryer doesn’t dry the clothes completely but it can dry up to 80%. Sometimes we just do a wash and hang the clothes overnight to dry which works as a humidifier for the room since the room tends to get dry with AC. 3. I would appreciate having hand soap in the toilet room but there is none. No big deal because I used the sink next to the bathroom or kitchen...

Such a gem hotel. We went with our 18 months baby. I think I want my future dream home to have some of the features in this hotel room. Here are all the great details we liked about the hotel: 1. Washer-dryer machine. We used it almost everyday and are so happy that we have very little dirty laundry to do when we return home after traveling 2. Spacious shower and bathtub that doesn’t take toooo long to fill the water 3. Drying rod for hanging towel and clothes inside the bathroom and Great ventilation fan in the bathroom to dry water on the floor, sink and wet towels 4. Sink is separate from the bathroom but in the same space as the washer-dryer 5. Motion sensor light above the sink and free toothbrush, tooth paste, hair brush, and tons of storage behind the mirror, AND a small tray over the sink that’s super handy for putting products it it doesn’t affect using the sink 6. Toilet is away from the bathroom and near the door- super convenient for using toilet when baby’s asleep. And the features on the bidet is more than average! I can hear my husband experiment with it (because of the small beep sound) at night hahaha 7. Baby crib has mesh wall! Not wood! And is very spacious for our 85cm baby. The crib can also be lowered to the lowest level easily and we don’t worry about the baby climbing out. 8. A small study area where I can hang more clothes to dry and put my luggage. 9. Air filter and humidifier 10. Big kitchen sink. 11. Fridge to store milk since our baby drink 2 cups of cow milk daily 12. Pots, pans and stove which we mainly used to sanitize baby bottles by boiling water 13. Huge kitchen vent and some basic bowls which we didn’t use but seems great if you want to cook 14. Daily dirty towel exchange basket. We just put dirty towels in the basket and outside the room in the morning and when we come back at night we get a basket of clean towels. 15. the economy twin room was big enough for us (2 adults plus a 18 months baby that likes to walk around and explore). 16. Very quiet but our window does face away from the streets. 17. Very walkable to the subway station nearby and some bus station nearby. 18. Lawson right next door for us to grab milk for the baby and simple sandwiches and drinks for the road. 19. Very walkable to (within 20 mins) our favorite destinations in Kyoto. We like that we don’t have to take public transit because sometimes when the baby naps in the stroller, it’s easier for us to walk and relax. ||Things I didn’t like (very nitpicking) 1. the corner of the tv station is dangerous and just about one inch above my baby’s head. It got on my nerve the first couple times she walked by and it seemed she would bump into it. If I were to book a stay there again, I would bring further corner padding to protect the baby head. 2. The dryer doesn’t dry the clothes completely but it can dry up to 80%. Sometimes we just do a wash and hang the clothes overnight to dry which works as a humidifier for the room since the room tends to get dry with AC. 3. I would appreciate having hand soap in the toilet room but there is none. No big deal because I used the sink next to the bathroom or kitchen...

This hotel has easily exceeded our expectations. This has been one of those rare instances where the photos don't do justice to the actual room. We stayed for 4 nights in a Large Twin Room and it was great.

The positives:

From a location perspective, everything is amazing. The hotel is located in a very quiet neighborhood, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. You can get here from Kyoto Station in about 30 minutes with either the bus or the subway. Our recommendation would be to take the subway, especially if you have luggage, since the buses can get quite packed at peak times. The closest subway station (Higashiyama) is a 4 minute walk away from the hotel. You can reach most popular tourist attractions fairly quick (under an hour). There are multiple restaurants in the area and there's even a fairly big konbini right next to the hotel.

Check in was quick and in our limited interactions with the staff, they were all very polite. After checking out, they were kind enough to store our luggage for free until later in the day.

There's a ton of space in the room. For Japan standards, it can be considered huge and frankly, everything's perfect. The room was very clean and felt "new". You have pretty much everything that you would need in terms of amenities, towels, slippers, hair dryer, pajamas etc. . You really don't have to bring anything with you. When we arrived, we found water bottles in the room (which were restocked when the room was cleaned up).

The beds were huge and extremely comfortable. I wouldn't call them too soft or too hard.

The negatives:

Unfortunately the washing machine did not have English instructions (or at least we were unable to find them anywhere), so we had to wash our stuff by hand. Would be great if the hotel would include these instructions for future guests. Also, there's no Iron available.

Another negative is that the hotel is located right next to a crosswalk, and for those of you who don't know, in Japan, these make continuous sounds for both green and red lights. From what we were able to tell, these are active between 7AM and 9PM. Unfortunately the sound isolation was not perfect so even if we closed all the windows, we could still clearly hear those beeping sounds pretty loudly. If you're a sensitive type of person and you like to go to sleep early or wake up after 7AM, you might find it's quite difficult to do that. The hotel is by no means at fault for this, however, I felt it is important mentioning it since it could be a...