Tokyo Travel Guide
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Where to Score a Royal View in Tokyo
A quick tip for a stay at the ridiculously well located Peninsula Tokyo: pay the extra to secure a Deluxe Park View, because that "Park" bit actually means Imperial Palace gardens. They may be out of focus in the photo above, but can you blame us for being far more focused on a large Japanese breakfast spread at the moment?
Rooms on the park side of the hotel have commanding views of the Imperial Palace and its acres—bring mini binoculars to watch the processions, full of pomp, without having to even venture outside and join the throng of photo-snapping tourists.
At night the view is just as pleasant, since having all of these private gardens next door means it's one of the only areas in the metropolis to get truly dark—a luxury on its own.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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A Valet for Each Car Door at the Hotel Okura Tokyo
Before you can step into the preserved 1960s modernist environment that is the grand lobby of the Hotel Okura Tokyo, you first must arrive. For many that means being driven up and around to the hotel's off-the-street- entrance, where there'll be one valet for each door that needs opening, and more still to whisk away your bags.
Anyone who has experienced classic 5-star service at a Japanese hotel can tell you that this is par for the course; the need to touch anything mundane—doors, luggage, room keys—can be erased completely by some attentive hotel staffs, and if you chose to stay at the Okura then you likely already know this.
This attention to detail, which starts at the arrival of your car, continues all the way through to the teacakes served at the hotel's patisserie. Essentially it's the art of perfection at practice.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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How a Downtown Tokyo Hotel Handled the Earthquake
It's been a trying weekend for Japan, and the situation still remains dire with entire towns wiped out and massive rescue efforts under way. In Tokyo, life is attempting to return to normal, but limited public transportation schedules and the threat of electricity blackouts has stunted business. True to Japan's culture, however, the hotels of the city seem to be handling the crisis as gracefully as possible.
Last night, while routinely reading Twitter, we noticed that @thebaghag was relating her friend's story of being a tourist in Tokyo during the earthquake. It happened while he was staying at the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, a popular hotel with amazing views, located in a Shibuya high-rise.
Naturally guests were evacuated, but hotel staff went above and beyond to pack for guests with departing flights:
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For the Sake of Hotel Art: The Park Hotel Tokyo's Tree of Life
Is the WiFi free? Does the gym have good machines? All these things get noticed when checking into a hotel, but what about the atmosphere of the place—specifically the art on the walls or on the floor? We're highlighting properties around the world that do their artwork right, and the specific pieces you should stare long and hard at when next you drop by.
Today: The The Park Hotel Tokyo's atrium piece by Kaïdin-Monique Le Houelleur.
Perhaps it's no surprise that, in a city so full of modern skyscrapers and buzzing technology, the artwork in Tokyo's hotels leans toward the organic. It can be a reminder of nature that re-center the guests. This is the way at the Park Hotel, where you reach the lobby half-way up the Shiodome Media Tower by traveling in an elevator with a view outside to the city quickly falling away beneath you.
The largest piece at the hotel is the handmade tree, by the self-taught French-Vietnamese artist Le Houelleur. She has done all of the art for the hotels, from the rooms straight down to little pieces near the elevators at the Park Hotel. Regardless, it's this patchwork tree that commands attention—a bit like the "tree of life" in The Lion King.
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The Last Bit of Frank Lloyd Wright's Tokyo Hotel is the Old Imperial Bar
Just as we promised, here is a look at the last remaining bits of Frank Lloyd Wright's grand 1915 design of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel.
This is the Old Imperial Bar, a smallish, tavern-like dining venue in the hotel, but totally tucked back on the mezzanine floor so that it's not some tourist-filled hotspot. Instead it's quiet and dark, the ideal place to order up the "Mt. Fuji," a cocktail recipe that's been in place at the hotel since the 1920s. We went out of our way to drop in on our own, and we don't regret the detour.
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What If Frank Lloyd Wright Designed a Hotel?
What if famous architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright designed a hotel? Well, it's too bad he's deceased and it's even just as sad that he already did design a hotel, and it too is deceased. The pillar above is pretty much all that's left of the place that's visible, as a new hotel sits on the old location of Wright's grand Imperial Hotel Tokyo.
The Imperial Tokyo has had something of a tragic life, which, along with its reputation with luxury and superior service, has helped to make the Imperial into something of a legendary hotel. You see, the Imperial first opened in 1890, only to burn down. Then Frank Lloyd Wright received the commission to rebuild it, and the second Imperial opened with his design in 1915.
In 1923, an 8.3-magnitude earthquake damaged the hotel greatly and after many more years of use, it was demolished with its more decorative pieces—the entrance hall, most famously— carted off for display at the Meiji Mura Museum.
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For the Sake of Hotel Art: The Peninsula Tokyo's 'Void'
Is the WiFi free? Does the gym have good machines? All these things get noticed when checking into a hotel, but what about the atmosphere of the place—specifically the art on the walls or on the floor? We're highlighting properties around the world that do their artwork right, and the specific pieces you should stare long and hard at when next you drop by.
Today: The The Peninsula Tokyo's "Void" by Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu.
You've just checked in to The Peninsula and you head up in the elevator to your room floor, and the first thing that greets you when the elevator doors open are several windows that look out into....nothingness. You've just discovered one of the many artworks tucked around the Peninsula, but this is a major guest favorite. It's called "The Void" and it's literally the center of the hotel, the space they couldn't develop but could turn into an area for suspended sculpture.
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120 Years of Glory and Tragedy, and Tokyo's Imperial Hotel Still Has a Zen Garden
We'll give you three guesses as to where we took this photo of a perfectly serene little zen garden. Is it at a monastery in Japan? Noooo. Is it in the Karate Kid's backyard? Nope. Is it at a hotel in Tokyo? Bingo!
This zen garden is one of the first things that guests see when they arrive to the legendary Imperial Hotel. Long a favorite of diplomats, royalty and big-time businessmen, the Imperial has quite the history. In fact, it just celebrated its 120th Anniversary this month, on November 3. An abbreviated version of the hotel's stratospheric high times and tragic low moments (epic fires destruction!) can be found over on Wikipedia, but nothing beats being in the building yourself.
The Zen Garden can be overlooked if you rush into the energy of the luxurious lobby, but we think it's the perfect place to stop for a moment, get your bearings, and reflect on the history of the city in which you're standing. Good ol' Tokyo.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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Inside the Park Hotel Tokyo
If you take the Tokyo subway to the Yurikamome station, you will be confronted with three hotel choices from the moment you exit the turnstiles. To one side, the The Conrad and the Villa Fontaine, and to the other, the Park Hotel. As something of a happy coincidence, we knew people staying in both the Conrad and the Villa Fontaine at the time we were in the Park Hotel, and when they came to meet us in the lobby of the Park Hotel, both were like, "wow, this is a nice place!"
Really it's nothing but nice in the Shiodome/Shimbashi area, considering that the hotels are at the tops of skyscrapers, which contain major international companies on the lower floors. Shiseido and ANA Airways are next door, and the Kyodo Media organization is underneath the Park Hotel. Thankfully, the area isn't overrun with skyscrapers and big biz, so views like this one of Tokyo Tower are still easily available. Just be sure to ask for one for only $12 more.
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A Killer View of Tokyo Tower from the Park Hotel's Skyscraping Rooms
If you're in Tokyo and hoping for a view of the city from up high, there are several hotels in skyscrapers that can make that happen. We visited what is probably the most moderately priced of the options, the Park Hotel Tokyo, which occupies the top 10 stories of the Shiodome Media Tower in a newer, shinier quarter of the city.
Rooms at the Park Hotel begin around $250 per night, and it's a member of the Design Hotels group, which means it flaunts its architectural and design features just as much as the ridiculously awesome views rooms have. The hotel has three sides, but opting for a room with on the coveted Tokyo Tower view side costs only 1,000 Yen ($12) more, and yeah—it's totally worth it, as you can see from our view above.
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The Lobby of the Hotel Okura Tokyo: A Time Capsule of 1960s Modern Design
If ever an episode of Mad Men needs to be shot in Tokyo for some reason, like say...Don Draper takes a business trip to gain a major international account, then this is where they would film that episode. It is the iconic lobby of the Hotel Okura, the Tokyo flagship of a chain that includes other luxury properties like the Okura Amsterdam and The Halekulani Honolulu.
We stopped by here specificially to photograph this beauty, but also to eat some of the Okura's flawless confections we showed you yesterday.
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The Hotel Okura's Impeccable Design Even Includes Their Teacakes
A raspberry perfectly dusted with powdered sugar, plus flawless macarons, in addition to delicate layers of cake to create this confection at Tokyo's Hotel Okura. Trust us, this one is just the tip of the perfect desserts iceberg, and it's all a bit of a delicious secret. Hotel Okura is one of the famous traditional hotels in Tokyo, where the halls are full of quiet Japanese diplomats on their way to important meetings, while their impeccably coiffed wives head to the hotel's patisserie for tea and cakes.
And if you think this treat is pure eye candy, just wait until you see the rest of the hotel. Tomorrow, we'll bring you a look inside one of the design jewels of Tokyo: the Hotel Okura's lobby.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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