Hyatt Regency Kyoto

Here’s a hotel that forces you to dispense with a couple of easy generalizations. The first is the idea that the big chains guarantee a dull experience — not a bad rule of thumb but one with many, many exceptions. And the second is the idea that in Japan, Tokyo is the center of all that’s modern and forward-thinking while Kyoto remains frozen in the feudal past. Again, true enough, to a point — but as the Hyatt Regency Kyoto proves, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

It’s obviously pretty far from the image, conjured by the name, of the standard Western luxury hotel. And while it’s quite recognizably Japanese, it’s an exceedingly contemporary update of the traditional style — the design, by the superstar Japanese firm Super Potato, expresses its clean modern lines in old-school bamboo, shoji screens and tatami floors.

Surprising, yet nowhere near alienating, and intimately connected with its place in the world — in a nutshell that’s what hotel design should be. What’s best is that underneath it all it’s got no problem living up to the high standards of the Hyatt group’s international luxury offerings. Rooms are spacious and comfortable, the restaurants are first-class, and the spa and fitness center are state-of-the-art.