Kanazawa Kokusai Hotel — Restaurant in Kanazawa

Check in was quick and efficient with key and room number already allocated when we arrived. This are of Japan is famous for inserting gold leaf into their cosmetics to make your lady beautiful, with a sales display cabinet opposite to reception. For Japan the prices in the hotel looked quite cheap when compared to the shops.||||The hotel is 2 km from Nukajutaku-Mae Station. We went to visit Kanazawa Castle which was 25 minutes by a small taxi from the Ishikawa Taxi Association. The driver wore white gloves and had seat covers, more like a limousine driver. Do not forget to book the return journey or have the telephone number of the hotel to arrange this, the driver did not speak any English, there is a bus service if you wish to use this transport method. The hotel also arranged our trip to the Kenrokuen Gardens.||||The room was large with two quite wide twin beds, with pyjamas/bathrobe and slippers, settee and chair with table, tea making facilities and as usual in Japan no coffee in the room. ||||The toilet seat was heated when you sat on it with bidet/shower for the bidet with shavers, toothbrush, hairbrush and comb and body sponge.||||The buffet breakfast was in the "Farmers Kitchen Celery", with emphasis on vegetables and we found it to be “oishi” or delicious. The hotel workers were very friendly been from a rural area of Japan and even waved us “bye-bye”...

The hotel looked great in the pictures, but reality was very different. Everything felt worn and outdated – from the lobby to the rooms. Stained walls, old furniture, and an overall run-down impression.||The pool, which looked amazing online, was closed and filled with green water and leaves. There was no prior notice about this, which felt very dishonest.||The room was reasonably clean but old and dull, with interior well past its prime. It smelled musty, and the ventilation barely worked.||The location was another downside – 20 minutes by taxi from the city center, in an area that didn’t feel pleasant or safe.||The staff did their best, but it wasn’t enough. This hotel needs a complete renovation – and new, honest photos. I won’t be...

The rooms are enormous and well furnished, but everything is a little dated and there is a faint musty, tobacco-like funk around the place (although the hotel is non-smoking... now). There was, unfortunately, mould on the walls and ceiling of the bathroom.||The staff are very courteous, kind and helpful. The restaurant on the first floor is also pretty good and provides a ‘viking’ (all-you-can-eat) buffet for 2000 yen in the evening. Similarly, buffet breakfasts are available.||Weirdly, my room didn’t have any plug sockets, but did have USB chargers next to the bed. Inexplicably, there in a 1980s analogue telephone on the wall next to the toilet (just in case...