JW Marriott, Nara
I purposefully searched out for an JW Marriott's in the Kansai region. It had been a while since I updated my global list (I have a thing for JW's and I purposefully look for them). I found that to the east in the original capital of the Japanese Empire, Nara, there is a newer JW. The JW Marriott, Nara.Arrival
I finished my planned stay in Kyoto and took the train to Nara. A straight shot, couple of stops, to the main station. Which was a bit father from the hotel than I liked, so I got a taxi because I didn't want to be a loud, rude, gaijin dragging my bags for blocks.It was about 5 minutes and dropped right off in front and all my bags taken from me (I used the hotel shuttle for the return trip to the station after my stay).
I was greeted, identified, and brought up to the executive lounge to check in.
The Room
While in the lounge, the manager of rooms was notified (I am guessing) because he showed up a couple minutes later, and they proceeded to get me into a corner suite as a free upgrade. Quite an excellent room which, well, you can explore yourself below.
3D interactive room tour, use your mouse or fingers to move around and navigate between the other rooms.
Biggest room on the floor, yeah!
I LOVE dressing rooms
And if I had a lot of makeup (I only have a little) this would be great for me
Managers making sure high status people are spoiled
Suites have all the things, endless toothbrushes for one
Mini bar little booze and menu
More drinks, with the lounge this is not needed
And again my favorite, nice glasses in the cupboard
I heavily used the expresso while working US hours
Executive Lounge
JW Marriott Executive Lounges have a legendary reputation in the East, and this one is probably why. It encompasses an entire floor in one of the towers, plus has kitchens on the floor below it to service the offerings.A complete and full breakfast buffet, a ridiculous evening "snacks" service, afternoon tea, and oh, yes, and an open bar in the evening.
The lounge, clean, elegant, but not super big
The meeting room that you can book for a couple hours
Evening service, nice snacks, and a lot of them
Fix yourself the drinks, as much as you can handle it seems
Deserts, which I came to rely upon a lot
Breakfast in the lounge
The pastries, and donuts (In 5 hotels I have only seen these donuts)
However would you like your eggs?
Dining
There are three places to dine here, not including the lounge should you have that access. Silk Road, the all day dining and encompassing food venue. Flying Stag, a quite stunning bar with great drinks and your expected Marriott upscale bar fare. And well, Azekura the Japanese with three distinct dining styles, which I feel I missed out on but I had stumbled upon a sushi on a conveyer belt restaurant and the executive lounge left me a bit out of appetite, but I regret that.
Amenities
There is a spa, a gym, a pool (which is a very Japanese experience) and some places to lounge about.
Mix of cardio and weights, but of course mostly machines
The pool, you start here after showering and changing
Then you go to hottub then go back to shower. When I came in all Japanese left
The restraunts garden (obviously not enough for the hotel but more demonstration)
Nice calm sitting area
So many smoke, but so many don't want to smell it
Summary
A damn good hotel. The only issue Rob had is the scheduling of times for evening and morning lounge service sometimes. This wasn't unique to this hotel though, I had this across Japan at a few hotels with lounges. When in Rome.Should you buy up to lounge if you don't already get it? That's not an easy question to answer. If you are alone, maybe not. If you are treating someone? Yes, you should.
