This hotel - and the town of Fukuoka - is something of a curiousity. Whilst it should "by rights" be a provincial back water, Fukuoka is a town with ideas above its station which actually manages to live up to its pretensions. The hotel can be loosely grouped within a series of modern developments along the river, culminating in Canal City south of the hotel.

Our room was large and fully featured. The hotel has a whole floor dedicated to, as to one half, weddings and, as to the other half, a health and fitness club. There is an entire chapel "in the sky" with its own extensive gardens on the wedding side of things, and an adjoining pool and spa for ensuring that wedded bliss is spent more in health than in sickness. Use of the pool is very expensive indeed (from what I remember, around £20/US$40 per person per visit for use of the pool and jacuzzi only).

I felt the atmosphere of the hotel was a little snooty. There is nothing specific I can point to to substantiate this - it is just my (possibly unfair) perception. At the end of the day, it only cost me £80 (US$160) for two to stay one night which is truely a bargain for a place of this high standard (and certainly not a level where one would expect snooty to be making an appearance).

Canal City is a true highlight of Fukuoka. Essentially an indoor/outdoor mall, when we went in mid-November it was decorated with the most impressive Christmas decorations I have yet seen. At its centre was a huge, suspended 3D "paper" snow crystal, with dancing fountains in the background.