Daiwa Hotel Grande Kyoto Room Tour

Introduction to Daiwa Hotel Grande Kyoto

0:03 Good morning YouTube, we are here in Kyoto, Japan. We were here at my room at the Daiwa Hotel Grande Kyoto, and I thought I'd give you guys a room tour. So this hotel room is pretty nice, and I feel very fortunate to be staying here. I was able to book this from a Han lined chaise interface, and so why don't we go and get into it?

Closet and Shoe Care Amenities

0:40 So right here on the right, you may have seen it from my previous video at the Dojima Hotel, they have a sort of closet. And this closet is very nice. They've got a bottled air freshener there, I presume. Either that, or that bottle is for pressing your clothes. I guess that this is... oh no, it's an extra pillow. So I thought that that might be an iron and ironing board.

1:08 So these are some shoe care materials. That is a pair of slippers. They provide if you wear slippers in the hotel room as opposed to your shoes. I can certainly see you buy this for is at this beautiful flower print. This Japanese floral print, it looks really familiar to me because I was raised by my grandmother from Japan, and she was a seamstress as far as her profession goes. So she had all kinds of ornate decoration in the house, and yeah, it just it looks familiar to me.

Air Purifier, TV, and Storage Drawers

1:52 So what do we have here? So this looks like it might be an air purifier. A Sharp Plasmacluster Ion. So I think it is an air purifier. Okay, so they've got like a little luggage rack here. This is a bigger TV than the previous ones that I've experienced in my hotel room. This looks like a like a 42-inch, maybe a 47-inch Sharp television. I'm not, you know, a big TV watcher, but here in Japan, when I'm visiting this wonderful country, I want to see as much as possible. But certainly for those who are coming here maybe on business, so they have they're bringing children or something like that, wonderful TV here.

2:52 So let's just go ahead and check out these drawers. There's six drawers here in front of the TV. Oh, wow. So these look to be similar to some decorations I've seen at the Dotonbori Hotel. Try this one on the right here. Okay, after you. I presume the rest of these are and will see MMD like a Caesar for storing clothes you want to keep your clothes nicely folded, pressed, all that.

3:36 There you go. Oh, okay. So this is different than what I was expecting. So this is the safe king, and this is your room safe if you need to store any valuables. Typically, property crime and crime in general is pretty low here in Japan, but for those with extra desire for security, certainly this built-in safe will fulfill that need.

Thermostat, Bed, and Lighting Controls

4:00 I'm moving to the left before you move to the right. This is the Mitsubishi branded thermostat. And so as you know, here in Japan, they are on the metric system. So you can see that this is 22 degrees. That's not 22 degrees Fahrenheit, that's 22 degrees Celsius. Of course, an on and off button.

4:28 And here's the bed. Super comfortable, super, super comfortable bed. I really enjoy it. And I really like the print. It's got this black floral print.

5:06 And moving over here, I'll show you guys something that I like. So right here, they've got a USB port. They've got a plug, and they've got a few different knobs for the light fixtures. And I'm not sure what all they control, but maybe if you have more experience with these nice hotels, you'll be able to tell us what all you see. I presume that these control the lights up here.

5:49 One of the things that I failed to mention in my Go To Emporia Hotel video is that the lights of the room are actually right next to the beds. You don't have to get out of bed to turn the lights out, which is wonderful because a substantial amount of time in the United States, I fall asleep with the lights on reading or doing work. And it's partly because I don't want to get up and walk across the room to turn the lights out. So I thought that that was a really nice touch and one of those wonderful things about Japan that I appreciate so much is this attention and love for detail.

Artwork and Room Details

6:32 Yeah, they just they just standardized that personal care. So I love the artwork here. This artwork is absolutely gorgeous. Once again, this country reminds me of my childhood a lot, which had many challenges, but there was a lot, a lot to appreciate too, and a lot of its aesthetic beauty too to appreciate as well.

6:55 And if we've got a second one over here, similar to the one on the left. And of course, you know, it's a similar setup on the right for your partner, or if you're traveling with a friend, there's also a space for them to plug in a charger, and they have their own lamp. I'm traveling alone on this trip, so I just need the one, but something to consider.

7:30 Okay, so moving on, we're gonna go ahead and get back to this facade over here next to the television and the drawers I showed you. So here they've got actually roasted tea, and they've got packets, and they've got a nice set. I'll just go ahead and open this guy up. Wow.

7:47 So this is really interesting down here. They've got, put it, you put ice there for your mixed beverages. They've got right here, they've got a hot water maker. You pour water in, and then you use that to keep the water hot for your tea. That's a Tiger brand, I presume it's a Japanese brand. It looks Japanese.

Tea Set and Refrigerator Contents

8:20 We should say the characters look like Kanji, but anyway, wow. So these beautiful plates and glasses here are made in Switzerland. So that's really interesting. That's an interesting touch. Now I will grab one of these back here, kind of hard to see. I suspected that this cup was made in Japan. It looks very similar to the styles that I'm familiar with. It looks similar to the styles that I've seen in various Japanese growers in the United States.

9:04 Gorgeous cups. I'm actually going to leave one of these out, and I made myself a cup after this video. So we're gonna go ahead and pull one of these packets out.

9:28 So these, these look like candies or cookies, tea cookies. And if you can read the characters, I do not have that ability unfortunately, but feel free to let us know what these cookies say. I presume they're matcha based, but yeah, let us know.

9:53 I'm gonna pull these out, set them up here. All right, so go ahead and move on to the refrigerator here. So they actually, they've got a vending machine. I'm surprised they have a vending machine in the hotel. I've seen them outside the hotel, for example, in Japan, but anyway, you can kind of see what I've been munching on purchased the last couple of days. I got these grapes, so these special Japanese grapes. I'm a big fan of being thrifty, so I got them on sale. I think they're probably marked down half priced from like $7.99 to $3.99.

10:45 And they're the Gross Coleman branded grapes, and they're big and juicy. Tastes really good. So this is the fridge. Got a little freezer component up here. Oh, no light. So you can see if you, you know, starting the day, if you don't want to turn the light on, you just press that button right there.

Nespresso Machine and 7-Eleven Snacks

11:11 Okay, so it's a Toshiba brand. It's a Toshiba brand fridge. And these are a couple of goodies that I picked up from 7-Eleven, a chicken cutlet sandwich and then also a beef short rib on the gittery. And yeah, so I'll probably munch on those for breakfast if I have some breakfast along with my tea.

11:38 Um, there's a trash can. So for people that are in the espresso, they do have a Nespresso machine here. I don't know how to use it. I've never used one before. They do have instructions here, they've provided how to use it. An espresso machine, you're in the Japanese written language here, and in the English written language.

12:15 Yeah, so for people that are a big fan of coffee, I might try to figure out how you use it. I'm always a fan of taking advantage of freebies provided by the hotel. So even though it might be a little complicated and take me like 10 minutes, I'll probably take a look at it. I like coffee. So not only will I probably try some of this coffee, but I'll probably buy some more from 7-Eleven.

12:38 7-Eleven, one of the wonderful things about 7-Eleven Japan is that not only do they have a cold drink area, they also have these heated tank sort of machines for the hot drinks. And this tends to be tea and coffee. So if you want a hot tea or a hot coffee, many 7-Elevens will actually have a heating sort of unit designed to keep these things hot and warm. And it's really nice on cold days like today in January. It's not too cold for me, having lived in Denver, Colorado, but certainly it's cold for people from warm tropical countries, even probably cold by Japan standards.

Room View and Kyoto Surroundings

13:24 So yeah, let's keep it rolling. So over here, we've got a statistics, my laptop in a nice full box tile lamp. You try not to blind you guys and gals, but I don't want to show you the view from this Daiwa Hotel Grand Kyoto.

14:07 It's so peaceful and quiet. I feel so at ease here. I tend to be a bit sensitive to loud noises, and I just have this amazing sense of relief being here in Japan. It's just so peaceful, the people are so quiet and respectful. For those who can't see, there's a 7-Eleven down there that's probably going to be the 7-Eleven I go to. I've already been here twice and last day, but it's just so hard not to pass up. So convenient.

14:43 And then there's a discount retailer I found at Kyoto Station that has groceries and snacks and things like that. I'm probably going to hit them up as well. So, kind of in the distance, you can see the Kyoto hills. I think in this direction, you can't see behind the buildings, but one of the things that I want to check out while I'm here for the next several days is I want to check out Lake Biwa. It's one of the beautiful lakes in Japan. I think it's one of the larger lakes here in Japan. There are various cruises you can take on the lake. Of course, it's very beautiful to look at. So I'm gonna check that out, probably try to find a bus up there later.

15:42 So for those who don't know, in Japan, opposite the United States, Japan is one of the names for Japan is the Land of the Rising Sun. And the sun here rises opposite of the way it does in the West. So if I'm not mistaken, here it rises in the East and sets in the West. Correct me on that if I'm wrong. I'm fairly certain.

Business Amenities and Peaceful Atmosphere

16:20 I will say that the sunrises and sunsets here are gorgeous. Okay, cool. So in this hotel, they have these really convenient chairs for people who are looking to do business.

Bathroom Tour and Amenities

16:54 I decided to take a second to take it all in. It's so beautiful. So for the final part of our tour, we're gonna check out the bathroom. So up here.

17:18 Gonna check out the bathroom. So up here, we've got our towels and hand towels, and a hairdryer. And then these nice little goodies they provided, like a shower cap, wash rag, toothbrush, toothpaste set, and a tissue box. And then here, we have the special Japanese toilet seat instructions with the bidet. And I know that you can't feel it right now, but this seat is warm. A really, really nice touch, and I do not sit down and be shocked by a cold toilet seat.

18:05 There are many things I love about Japan, though. Things that I'm really enjoying so far is sitting down on a toilet and it being warm. Of course, this is not typical from what I could tell in some of the more public bathrooms, where they might worry about it being damaged or other reasons. But definitely here at some of these hotels that I've been staying at, it's a really nice touch.

18:29 Maybe we got foam soap here. Oh, it's similar to the Dotonbori Hotel. They have these reusable bottles that I really like, that minimize the single-use shampoos and soaps. Nice little knick-knacks, you know. Obviously, being thrifty, I'm going to take some of these things to reuse at home. Not these things, I'm not going to be taking these, but in this case, it's much more environmentally friendly to have these reusable containers. And so, me and many other guests can enjoy these before they need to be refilled.

19:26 And if they're taken care of, like I would hope everyone visiting Japan does by being gentle on them, they may not even have to replace the larger bottle. But if they do, you know that each of these bottles will serve many more customers than just a single-use one. So I'm kind of curious about how this one's gonna work. That's going to be interesting later.

20:09 Very different from my chair in the United States. Oh, and a glass for water. And for my understanding, here in Japan, the water is safe to drink. I've been in Cambodia and the Philippines, where I would not be drinking the tap water, just because of potential bacteria or other things. Do leaving it warnings in some of these places from hotel staff or in the bathroom, don't drink the tap water. But here in Japan, Japan takes care of its water supply from what I can tell, and I've had no issue from drinking the tap water here.

Hotel Service and Eco-Friendly Practices

20:50 Anyway, thank you guys for joining me. My voice is a little scratchy. I turned in early last night and then woke up early this morning. I've just kind of been standing up, working on different stuff, but I was able to get back to sleep for a while. And yeah, so thank you for watching.

21:14 For those who don't know, my name is Alex Connelly. We're here at the Daiwa Hotel Grande Tojo in Kyoto, Japan. And I can't say enough positive things. The service was impeccable downstairs. They held onto my backpack as I arrived around 12:30 PM, and their check-in is at 2 PM. So they held onto my bag for me free of charge while I explored the neighborhood on foot for about an hour and a half. And then I came back and got my bag and checked in.

21:49 They gave me all the instructions. This hotel is trying to be eco-friendly. So if you're someone who does not need room service basically every day, for each day that you reject room service, then you will get one free drink ticket. So something to keep in mind.

22:17 I won't be able to take them up on that today because I have some trash I need to get rid of, but perhaps tomorrow and the day after, I will be able to do that. So yeah, thank you for watching. If you enjoy this video, like, subscribe, leave comments down below about what you think about this hotel room. Leave comments down below if you're considering staying here or if you stayed here before. And I appreciate you watching, and I will talk to you guys soon.