I always like traveling with my wife because she won't settle for a hole in the wall hotel like I will. The hotel she picked is called Hotel Global View. The hotel used to be a Ramada, but was taken over recently and given a makeover, at least the lobby and restaurants, not the rooms though.
Global View is located in front of Niigata station at the beginning of the night life district called Benten, named after the goddess Benzaiten who is the Japanese version of the Hindu goddess Saraswati.
I am always amazed at the amount of design that goes into every business here. It's one of the reasons I am glad I moved my children to Japan during their schooling so they would still have time in their youth to learn that creativity.
This is the coffee bar just past the entry.
I love the masonry work on the wall. It consists of different roof tiles and bricks to form a masculine mosaic.
Opposite the coffee bar is the lounge. Grab a coffee, take a seat, and blog on HIVE in a relaxing environment.
Next to the work lounge is another nice, relaxing looking lounge.
We haven't made it up to the in house restaurant yet, but it looks very enticing.
Even the elevator hall was made to look awesome by showcasing Niigata's history of rice farming.
Back to the entrance lobby, there was a sculpture that really spoke to me.
It's a copper ribbon that instantly got my attention.
I can imagine the artist twisting and bending it over and over until they got the perfect shape according to their vision.
As I mentioned, the rooms weren't much to talk about.
Having said that, when I travel the only time I usually spend in my room is sleeping & showering so a comfortable bed and a functioning shower suffice. Those are sometimes hard things to come by in the USA these days.
The views weren't all that bad.
I'll end by saying, if you are visiting Niigata, you want to stay in or very near to Benten. It is the densest part of Niigata and near everything. If you are outside of Benten everything becomes much more spread out and you will need a car or a taxi to get around.
The Hotel Global View is probably a 3 star hotel. Everything was clean, the lobby was very nice and they have a Japanese style communal hot spring. The Global View costs us about $70 a night for 3 people. You can stay there cheaper if you are alone or you can get cheaper hotels in the same area, but this one was perfect for us.
Their website is here: https://www.rio-hotels.co.jp/niigata/en/
I've got a few more Niigata stories coming up as well as meeting up with some old HIVE friends.
