102. Sydney, Australia Nov '03

Took a business trip to Sydney for a few days. Both Somchai and I had been to Sydney several times so weren't particularly excited about this trip, but it was the first time we had come together. Actually, Somchai was in Melbourne and met me in Sydney on Thursday morning.

We stayed at the Park Hyatt, probably the best hotel in Sydney, but that isn't saying much. For such a fun city that tries hard to be individual and sophisticated, it fails miserably in the hotel department. The usual suspects are all here, but there are very few options outside the big chain hotels. The Park Hyatt wins over the others partly because it's smaller so feels a bit less institutional, and also its great location along Circular Quay, across from the Opera House. It's in the area of Sydney called the Rocks, which is fun and atmospheric, and just a few minutes from the business district. Service is very good, which I have to admit is a surprising strong suit among the otherwise undistinguished Sydney hotel circuit. On the down side, the rooms are a decent size, but really boringly decorated with furniture best described as functional. Actually the furniture was terrible when we were there, but has since been renovated (as per the above picture). So it's upgraded from terrible to boring, not sure why they couldn't have actually hired the Park Hyatt Tokyo decorating team instead. Room: 5, Facilities: 7, Service: 7, overall: 6.

27. Nikko

We finally left moved our base from Kyoto to Tokyo, checking in at the Century Hyatt. The Park Hyatt is one of my five favorite hotels in the world, and where I usually stay in Tokyo. Unfortunately, it was full and on this trip we ended up at the Century Hyatt, something like the Park Hyatt's ugly stepsister. The only thing the Century Hyatt shares with the Park Hyatt apart from its last name is its inconvenient location in Shinjuku. The area around Shinjuku train station is a very lively shopping and nightlife zone, but apart from that, it's mostly government skyscrapers that hold little tourist appeal, and both Hyatts are stuck in that area. But the Century Hyatt is probably ten times bigger than the Park Hyatt, and does nothing to dispel the feeling that you're in a huge bland factory of a hotel. Like our hotel in Kyoto, it's not horrible, just boringly bland, and from my blog's perspective that's the worst because I can't even write anything interesting about its faults. I'll talk about the Park Hyatt later, but I can also recommend a dozen other hotels over the Century Hyatt.

We stayed in Tokyo for about a week and also took several day trips. It's a bit confusing to go chronologically since Tokyo is interspersed among the day trips, so I'm going to put off Tokyo to the end and dive into the day trips. The first, and most impressive, was Nikko, a huge complex North of Tokyo, the gate to which is pictured above.