The hotel is not located close to the city, so if you want to be in the urban area better not select this one.
It is located close to the Parks and temples area, which means that you can go walking to most of the places. This is what we did. Initially it looked like everything was very far away and we thought on riding on buses, but we started walking to the nearest place we could see and then following some signals and we ended up visiting most of the surrounding areas. The day was one of those heavy rain/now it stopped, which meant that it was not a hot day.
It took us all morning (which means 2 hours walking plus some time queuing and photographing and lunch and so on) but at a different location it would probably be impossible.
Additional to the location, in an amazing surrounding area that it is worth visiting even if you are not hosted there, the hotel itself is like a glimpse of the past. Huge rooms (when I say huge I'm not meaning compared to other places in Japan, also to many other places like Europe) with plenty of space for room and sitting, reading ... With fantastic views through the window. The hotel is more than 100 years old, which you can feel in the details and decoration. But it only adds more interest to the place, rather than being annoying.
The breakfast is very nice, two options, Japanese and American. We took the American and was very tasty.
The staff treats you as if you were really some important person, which is good, for a chance.