Hotel Room Tour and Review - Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia Gai - Tokyo, Japan

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Hotel Room Tour and Review - Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia Gai - Tokyo, Japan

The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan has been increasing these year. Now, Japan has a problem with a shortage of hotel rooms in major cities. That's why accommodation fee is more expensive than before even though there are so many hotels in Tokyo area.

My husband and I traveled Tokyo from December 28 through January 2. We had visited Tokyo so many times while we were living in Japan, but it's been many years since we traveled Tokyo together last time. (He has gone on a business trip to Tokyo almost every year though.) This time, we booked our hotel two months in advance. For the first three nights (12/28 thorough 12/31), we decided to stay in Mitsui Garden Hotel Shiodome Italia Gai (三井ガーデンホテル汐留イタリア街).

It took us 10 minutes to the hotel from JR Hamamatsucho station (JR浜松町駅) by walk. The hotel had very clean and modern look.

The Room (Moderate Single Room)

We booked the Moderate Single room which had a semi-double bed (140 x 205cm), which is smaller than an US queen-sized bed but large enough for two people. The room was nice and clean.

It had a compact refrigerator, and they served two bottles of water a day for free. There were two servings of green tea, black tea and Japanese drip coffee bags, KEY Coffee Drip-On. You can check out my previous entry, Japanese Drip Coffee Bags - UCC & KEY COFFEE, for Japanese drip coffee bags.

The room had a large writing desk and a comfortable chair. We were impressed that there was a smartphone which you can access internet inside and outside of the hotel for free. It was very useful for our travel because we were able to access Google Map with the smartphone the hotel provided. :) I believe that this free smartphone rental service was just released in Japan about six months ago, and now some Japanese hotels also provide this service.

The bathroom was also nice and clean. Although we didn't use this bathtub and shower since this hotel has a large public bath. :)

There were Reana shampoo, conditioner and body soap. Reana is a professional brand of Kao. Reana products can be found in some Japanese hotels. You cannot find this brand at drugstores.

There was a bottle of foam of facial cleanser / hand soap of Kao.

Their free toiletries included toothbrushes, toothpaste, shower caps, cotton pads, hair brushes, hair ties, Q-tips and razors. At first, they only provided one serving of toiletries and towels by mistake, so we asked a front desk about it, and a staff brought them in our room in a few minutes. :)

Free Public Bath
I loved their free public bath so much! It's located on the 13th Floor and opens from 3 p.m. through 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. through 9 a.m. It had a large bathtub and 9 showers. There were DHC shampoo, conditioner and body soap. I was excited that there was DHC oil makeup remover! :) The facial cleansing foam was from Kao. In the dressing room, they also had keshosui and nyueki from Kao, and Panasonic Ionity hair dryers. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I didn't need much skincare products during this travel because the hotel provided plenty of skincare products. I only used my own eye cream and body lotion. Although I used my own Panasonic Nano Care hair dryer because it's better than Panasonic Ionity.

DHC

On the first day (12/28), I went to the public bath around 6 p.m., and there wasn't crowded at all. I saw only few people there. It was like a private bath sometimes. ;) On the second day and third day (12/29 and 12/30), I went to there at 9 p.m., and it was more crowded. The dressing room was specious enough, but I needed to wait a minute to take my clothing from the locker, but it also happens in any public bath in Japan during busy hours. During traveling Japan, I wanted to go to hot springs (温泉) or sento (銭湯), but I didn't go there. I enjoyed the public bath of Mitsui Garden hotel for free for three nights. :)

Italian Buffet Restaurant (LA MAREA)
This hotel has an Italian buffet restaurant, LA MAREA, on the first floor. I found that it's a pretty popular restaurant in this area. Even if you don't stay in this hotel, you can still enjoy this restaurant. We didn't go there this time, but we hope that we will enjoy their foods next time. :)