Hotel Halftime - Nara, Japan 

This Western Style hotel is typical of business hotels throughout Japan. It is right near the station (not on the JR Nara line) and one stop away from the private Nara station which has bus connections to all the historic sites. The room itself was clean and comfortable and a decent size. There was the inclusive breakfast which offered Japanese style and you could request toast (for my teenage son) which was great for a hearty start to the day, as you tend to do a lot of walking around Nara. There are a few soba restaurants a few minutes walk away, the better eating options tend to be in Nara itself. I made the mistake of getting some clothes laundered at the hotel and paid dearly, so that is just a lesson in travel I will not make again. My only negative memory of the hotel was that although we requested a non-smoking room, there were rooms surrounding that were smoking so by the time you got to the lift you could smell the smoke oozing out of the nearby rooms. I would have thought that the whole floor would either be smoking or non-smoking.