Do You Know Bentencho?
Back When It Was Called ORC200 (pronounced “Oak 200”)
This is Bentencho in Osaka, home to a station served by the green Chuo subway line and the JR Loop Line. It’s also very close to Nishikujo, where many people transfer on the way to USJ.
In Bentencho, there’s an area that opened in 1993 as part of a large-scale 3-hectare redevelopment project. That place is ORC200. At its center stands a huge 51-story tower, with the hotel inside.
It’s hardly unusual for massive redevelopment projects from Japan’s late-1980s to early-1990s boom years not to have gone quite as planned, and this one has since been renamed OSAKA BAY TOWER and is being updated in various ways as part of its revival. Here, I’d like to introduce the complex, including its days as ORC200.
Feeling the Late-1980s to Early-1990s Boom-Era Vibe
ORC200 was directly connected to the station. Even this logo had such an early-’90s feel to it.
You can’t see it anymore now that the name has changed. Apparently, ORC stands for OSAKA RESORT CITY, and 200 refers to the tower’s height. It’s just the right amount of cheesy. I love it.
Then there was this wonderfully baffling bit of design sense: “Amusement Yokocho.” And what on earth was with that giant octopus?
Those strange ceiling decorations are another classic feature of architecture from Japan’s late-1980s to early-1990s boom years. It had such an uncanny atmosphere. I’m into it, cheesiness and all.
Anyway, on to the hotel. Before the renovation, the lobby had a chandelier like this. (This photo was taken from the second floor, looking down into the lobby atrium.)
It’s hard to see, but in an area people couldn’t enter—above the door—there was a self-playing piano, and for some reason there was a Saizeriya beyond it.
A Saizeriya where you could listen to a self-playing piano might have existed nowhere else in the world… (lol)
Before the renovation, the rooms looked like this—nothing especially new, but more or less what you’d expect from a standard hotel.
The top floor was a bar, where you could sip a martini while taking in the spectacular view.
These were the onion rings I ordered as a snack. There were so many of them, lol.
For breakfast, you could choose between a buffet and a Japanese restaurant, and at the Japanese restaurant you could have a set meal like this.
Hotel Osaka Bay Tower really was the ultimate value-for-money hotel: it had city-hotel-level facilities, including the top-floor bar and a Japanese restaurant, but because the location was a bit underwhelming and the building was aging, you could stay there for business-hotel-level prices…
Renovated into ART HOTEL Osaka Bay Tower
It Became a Hotel Mystays Property!
Hotel Osaka Bay Tower, once my ultimate bargain hotel, changed management to Hotel Mystays and reopened as ART HOTEL Osaka Bay Tower. I think that was in 2018.
The entrance was completely transformed into something much more chic. And there was even a FamilyMart built across from it!
The glittering chandelier-wrapped columns were replaced by black-and-gold ones. It was a pretty major renovation. The self-playing piano is gone.
How exactly does one round column become two rectangular pillars? It’s kind of amazing, honestly.
It felt like something frozen in the 1990s had suddenly been brought fully up to date.
What Changes, and What Doesn’t
I checked in, surprised by how much more updated everything was than I’d expected, and headed to my room… Then I stepped into the elevator—and the elevator hadn’t changed from its old late-1980s to early-1990s boom-era look at all!!!!!!!!
Just look at this extravagantly overfunded decoration.
They clearly put a lot of effort into renovating the front desk area and the rooms, but apparently they didn’t go so far as to replace the elevator cars themselves. So this one part feels like it exists in another dimension. It makes me grin every time I ride it.
After the renovation, most of the room was replaced apart from the bathroom area. (That said, it seems to vary by room, and some may not have changed much at all.)
And the truly wonderful part is the view from the room. This isn’t a luxury hotel, and yet you get a view like this. There are two possible room orientations, so which one you get is part of the fun.
This one below was taken when I had the Umeda-facing view.
And this one below was taken when I had the Tempozan-side view.
If you sleep with the curtains open, you can wake up to a view like this at daybreak. Isn’t that absurdly luxurious?
It really does make you understand why people want to live in a high-rise tower apartment…
And as you can see, the Umeda-side view is pure cityscape. Urban, in the best way.
Breakfast Comes with a Spectacular View Too!
At ART HOTEL Osaka Bay Tower, breakfast is served as a buffet on the 51st floor. You don’t see that very often—a breakfast buffet on the very top floor!
I do wonder a bit about the accessibility, but there’s a fairly large level difference inside the restaurant, which means the view can be enjoyed from every seat, and that’s a real plus.
And here’s a little side note: right after the hotel was renovated into ART HOTEL Osaka Bay Tower, breakfast at the second-floor café, CAFE & BRASSERIE O10, was also an option. It was a steak breakfast.
The space that used to be Saizeriya was turned into a place like this.
The main dish was steak, with salad and side dishes served buffet-style.
The buffet upstairs was more popular, so this one was nice because it felt more relaxed, but it seems they no longer offer it as part of the hotel’s breakfast-included plans. (The restaurant still serves breakfast.)
Keep Bentencho in Mind
Even after the renovation, the prices haven’t gone up that much, so if you ever get the chance to visit Osaka, I really think ART HOTEL Osaka Bay Tower in Bentencho is worth keeping on your shortlist of places to stay. I recommend it. Hotels with views like this are hard to come by.
It’s also quite close to USJ and directly connected to the station. It may seem like a low-key area since it’s neither Kita nor Minami, but Osaka is actually very compact as a city, so it’s still a convenient base for sightseeing.
And with that, that’s the end.
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