This article is based on a visit made on Saturday, 12 May 2018.
Previously on Sekai Ichi, I wrapped up a long day in
Hakone and moved on to Kyoto for a few nights. The place we stayed at was the Hotel Gracery Kyoto Sanjo (ホテルグレイスリー京都三条,
Hoteru Gureisurī Kyōto Sanjo), located in Kyoto's centre-city area.
Hotel Gracery Kyoto Sanjo consists of the North and South towers, the South annex having been opened only in May 2017. The entrance hallway to the South lobby has a Kabuki theme, and I will explain why in a minute.
I've seen these helper robots
elsewhere in Japan; this one was stationed in front of the breakfast restaurant. When you check in, be sure of which annex, North or South, you'll be staying at, and check in at the appropriate one. The staff will point you to the correct one if you try to check in at the other, but knowing ahead saves time, if nothing else. As a hint, the South tower has most of the twin rooms.
So, what attracted me to Hotel Gracery in the first place? That would be their concept rooms: the two vivid Kabuki Rooms and the subtly refined Kyoto Room. I checked into the twin Kabuki room, also known as the Matsu-no-Ma (松の間, lit. 'pine room'). They also have a double Kabuki room called the Sakura-no-Ma (桜の間, lit. 'cherry blossom room'). The twin Kabuki room was inspired by the play
Kanadehon Chūshingura (仮名手本忠臣蔵, lit. 'Treasury of Loyal Retainers'). This story, adapted into bunraku and kabuki productions, was in turn inspired by the
Akō incident of 1703, where a band of forty-seven
rōnin tracked down and murdered the man who made their old master commit suicide. This room sticks to the more pleasant details, with a major inspiration being the (real-life) Kyoto teahouse from act 7, and patterns on the ceiling and bedsheets are based on costumes from the play.
The fun starts as soon as you insert your keycard into the holder by the front door. The lights turn on, as expected, but then a sound cue plays: a series of woodblock-drum hits, and an announcer calling out some name or command which eludes my memory. The curtain in front of the mirror has the same black-red-green striped pattern as is used in kabuki theatres nationwide. When you start to pull it aside, a hidden motor triggers to pull it the rest of the way automatically, and another sound cue plays.
The beds lie on a raised, tatami-laden section of the room, so do be careful not to stub your foot on the ledge, or to leave your shoes on the mats. The bedside console has the usual array of unmarked light switches, plus a pair of unmarked buttons, one on each side. Press it, and another sound cue plays. Quite the surprise if you press it at night, and you'll be tempted to because these buttons are lit, and there's no way to turn them off. If even small lights are enough to keep you awake, I suggest bringing a mask or something else to cover your eyes with.
The bathroom arrangement is similar to that of most modern Japanese homes, except that the door and shower walls are decorated with examples of Kabuki actors' face-paint patterns. In addition to the toilet being in a separate room, the bath room itself has two separate faucets, one for filling the tub, and one outside for washing yourself,
similar to an onsen. I tried to take a bath once, but the faucet didn't fill the tub very quickly, perhaps due to it being on the upper floor, so I was fine with just using the shower.
The hotel's surroundings are densely urban, but since the Kabuki rooms are on the hotel's top (9th) floor, there are a nice selection of roofs to look down upon.
Hotel Gracery stands along a covered shopping arcade named Teramachi-dori (寺町通, lit. 'temple-town street'). You could call this place a mini-
Akihabara, since it has branches of the dojinshi comic stores Toranoana, Melonbooks, and Lashinbang, plus a movie theatre and a game centre. There are also restaurants serving everything from churros to crepes.
There's even a branch of the crab restaurant Kani Doraku, with a scaled-down version of the famous crab sign from
its Osaka store.
Staying in the Kabuki Twin room cost us an average of US$250 a night, over par for twin rooms in Japan, but not by too much. For some reason, this and the other concept rooms at the Hotel Gracery cannot be booked through their own website, but are instead available from third-party booking sites like Orbitz, Priceline, or Booking.com. For all its quirks, or despite some of them, staying at the Kabuki room was an enjoyable, whimsical experience. I can think of more convenient locations if you'll be going in and out of Kyoto Station a lot, but the neighbourhood is a nice one to get lost in. Find out where I'll be using this place as a base to travel to, next time on Sekai Ichi!
Hotel Gracery Kyoto Sanjo South
Address: 420 Rokkaku-dōri, Sakuranochō, Nagakyō-ku, Kyōto-shi, Kyōto-fu 〒604-8035
Access: From Kyoto Station, take bus #4, 5, 17, or 205 to Kawaramachi Sanjo (15 minutes, ¥230). Bus 104 is faster (12 minutes), but runs more frequently on weekends & holidays (4 per hour) than weekdays (1 per hour). Alternately, take the Karasuma
(K) subway line to Karasuma Oike (K08, 5 minutes), then the Tozai
(T) line to Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae (T12, 2 minutes, ¥260).
Directions: From the Kawaramachi Sanjo bus stop, head south down Kawaramachi-dori, and turn right at the traffic light, onto Rokkaku-dori. The hotel is 2 minutes ahead, just before the end of the road, with the North tower on the right and the South tower on the left.
From Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae station, take exit 1 and turn around. Cross the street, turn right at Kawaramachi-dori, and continue to the second traffic light in 4 minutes. Turn right onto Rokkaku-dori as above.
Alternately, when you emerge from the station, stay on Oike-dori, find the entrance to the Teramachi covered shopping arcade (it has signs in Japanese and English), and head down it. Walk down for two blocks, bear right at the fork in the road, and turn left at the next block after that. It is next-door to the Tully's Coffee on the corner.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
