Westin Hotels in Japan
 

Hi, I am a Starwood member and have noticed that there are numerous Westins and Sheraton in Japan (Tokyo,Kyoto,Osaka etc..) Has anyone stayed at any of these? Any pros and cons would be greatly appreciated.

i can only speak to the Westin in Tokyo. although i haven't stayed here, i lived about a 5 min walk from the Westin in Ebisu. wow, an unbelievably beautiful hotel, spectacular lobby area, and i can only assume fantastic views. it is located in a relatively quiet part of town (as opposed to staying in Shibuya, Shinjuku, or Roppongi), but is VERY conveniently located nonetheless. the hotel sits in an area called Ebisu Garden Place (http://www.gardenplace.co.jp/english/ will give you all the details), which has a movie theater (offering maybe only 2 independent style films), the Mitsukoshi department stores (excellent for sampling marvelous japanese food in their basement food market!!), many other stores, restaurants, office building housing many foreign companies including morgan stanley, museum of photography, overprice french restaurant, Tsutaya video store, rental apartments, Yebisu beer museum/brewery (my favorite beer!!), and and excellent variety of restaurants located on the top 2 floors of the office building i think on the 38 and 39th floors offering great views of Tokyo - there are excellent restaurants specializing in indian, sushi, shabu shabu, sukiyaki, yakitori, yaki niku, chinese, french, Okonomiyaki & Teppanyaki.
I can talk forever about this area! It's really an unbelievable area to stay in!
It's about a 5 minute walk to both the Ebisu JR station, where you can take the JR Yamanote line (above ground train) and go to places such as Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Akihabara, and Tokyo station), and the Ebisu subway stop on the Hibiya Line which can take you to such places as Hiroo (an expat/foreigner hotbed) and Roppongi, and Tokyo station area, and Tsukiji fish market.
Any more questions??
Enjoy, you'll love it!

We are staying at the Westin in June and are pleased to hear about it. Are the restaurants at the top of the nearby building open all week or just at office hours? Are they expensive or is it like a food court? Thanks. Also for the firsty poster, if you have any starwood points you can use 1,000 and get 50% off the rack rate of the Westin hotels. We are doing that in Tokyo and also in Kyoto.

all the restaurants at the top of the office building (i think it's referred to as the Yebisu Garden Place Tower) are open for both lunch and dinner. they probably close somewhere around 10pm - midnight. but you should check since the restaurant you want to go to may close on the early side of that range.
these restaurants are on the average tokyo prices side actually - no bargains here.
but then i actually forgot to mention, there are actually quite a few restaurants on the top floor of the Ebisu JR train station. There's a shopping mall at the train station called Atre, and on the top floor are many good restaurants that would be slightly cheaper than those at the Yebisu Garden Place Tower.

The Westin in Ebisu/Tokyo is really nice! I just think that the hotel is a little bit far to the station, comparing to other hotels in Tokyo. But still OK! Ebisu itself is not very convenient...a little outside of the center. But anyway I can recommend it! It is a lovely hotel! New Otani in Akasaka is also nice, I think! Anyway, about the restaurants in the Westin: They are pricy but very, very good! I went there for dinner on my wedding day with my husband and we loved it! We went to the restaurant VICTORS and also to the TEPPANYAKI restaurant. They are both pricy but really a recommondation! Enjoy your stay in Tokyo!!!!

I stayed the Westin in Kyoto last August. Very nice hotel on the east side of town. It was a quick walk to the Gion district and just outside the door was the Nanzen-ji Temple complex. The hotel had a free shuttle bus from the train station, it is near the subway, it has 6/7 restaurants, an indoor and outdoor pool. Very nice service and surroundings, plus their website had some deals. I enjoyed the stay at the Westin and would recommend it to anyone.

I used to stay Westin Osaka for my business trip. It's a little bit far from JR Osaka station(about 10 min. walk), but shuttle bus service is available.

I love to have buffet breakfast at the coffee shop on the ground floor. It's very comfortable. This coffee shop has high ceiling covered with glasses (like green house), so you can enjoy sunshine. On a window seat, you can see fishes in the pond.

All the staffs are well trained, and rooms are spacious. Some rooms have 2 sink bowls in their bathroom, and all room have separated bathtub and shower booth.

You can see good view of Osaka city and air planes heading for Itami airport through the room windows.

Every room has emergency radder outside the window, so you can get out in case of fire near the door of your room.

Compared to other famous hotels (such as Rits Carlton Osaka), the room rates aren not praicy.

This hotel may have no discriminating feature, but I like to stay there.