Kamakura has less than 1,000 hotel rooms
Despite welcoming over 20 million annual tourists, Kamakura, a historic beachside city an hour by train from central Tokyo, has a surprisingly small number of hotel rooms. The mountain resort town of Hakone, also in Kanagawa Prefecture, has the same level of tourists but as many as 8,000 hotel rooms. Kamakura has just 980.
Nara soy-sauce brewery to become boutique hotel
Nara-based Nanto Bank has set up a 1.5 billion Yen (approx. US$14 million) fund that will restore historic kominkas and convert them into tourist accommodation. Nara Kominka Machitsukuri Partners will start operations next month. The first project is a soy sauce brewery founded in the Edo period. The former storehouse will be converted into overnight accommodation.
Onsen, retail and event space planned for Shimokitazawa Station area
Odakyu Electric Railway has released their development plan for the newly freed space above the underground section of railway that runs between Yoyogi Uehara and Umegaoka Stations.
Two art hotels to open in Okayama
To coincide with the triennial Okayama Art Summit 2019 which runs from September 27 to November 2, two new architect-designed boutique hotels have opened up in Okayama City. Both buildings were designed in collaboration between Japanese architects and foreign artists.
Odakyu opens new hot spring hotel in Hakone
On August 11, Odakyu Electric Railway Co. opened their latest hotel in Hakone. Hakone Yutowa was originally built during the bubble as a corporate retreat but has been fully refurbished and converted into a hot spring hotel. It sits in a prime position just across the street from Gora Kadan - a hotel on the grounds of a former Imperial Villa.
Kyoto hotel sells for US$42 million
Ichigo Hotel REIT has sold Hotel Vista Premio Kyoto to an undisclosed domestic buyer for 4.5 billion Yen (approx. 42 million USD). The 6-story, 84-room hotel has a total floor area of 3,867 sqm and was built in 2008.