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It's a Bird...It's a Plane...Nope! It's the Shinkansen Seen from the Park Hotel Tokyo

Believe it or not, this shot of the Shinkansen—the Tokyo bullet train (versus a regular, slow train)—was taken from 33 stories above the tracks, from our room at the Park Hotel. We've already showed you all around inside the place, but the magic of the property isn't just its affordable rates (for Tokyo!) and up-and-coming location surrounding by the big media skyscrapers in Shiodome, but its views.

Looking down, it's this—the bullet train tracks and a reminder of that fact that this capital of Japan is always on the move. Looking up and out, it's this, a glittering still shot you otherwise only see on postcards.

Rooms at the Park Hotel average $250 per night, but a $12 upgrade scores you the prime views.

[Photo: HotelChatter]

Japan Hotels / Tokyo Hotels / Okura Hotels / → All Tags

A Valet for Each Car Door at the Hotel Okura Tokyo

Where: 2-10-4 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

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]

Capsule Hotels / OpenThread / Tokyo Hotels / Japan Hotels / → All Tags

What Tokyo Capsule Hotel Should We Choose?

Back in December of 2009, a new sort of hotel opened in Japan. It's a capsule hotel sure, but it's one unplagued by shochu-swigging salarymen who rent capsules by the month. It's called 9Hours Hotel and it prides itself on being technologically up-to-date, very clean, very design-aware and yet completely affordable.

We've got an upcoming trip to Japan and we were totally psyched at the idea of sleeping there, until we discovered that the 9Hours is not in Tokyo as we thought, but in Kyoto and it's the only one of its kind. Sad face!

Why is Tokyo lacking the 9Hours love? Perhaps it's because the city is already well-stocked with capsule hotels, skyscraper Western hotels and family-owned ryokans that the 9Hours crew decided to try their luck outside the most obvious metropolis.

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Hilton Hotels / Beijing Hotels / Poland Hotels / Japan Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags

Hilton Opens Three New Far-Flung Hotels

Hilton Hotels is adding more international properties to its brand than the Jolie-Pitts are adding kiddies to its clan. The company recently debuted three new hotels in far-flung locales like Japan, China and Poland.

Check after the jump for more on the new hotels.

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Capsule Hotels / Pod Hotels / Hotel Design / Hotel Hype / Hotel News / Japan Hotels / → All Tags

Another Day, Another Cute Capsule Hotel

Where: 588 Teianmaeno-cho, Shijo-sagaru, Teramachi-dori, Kyoto City, Japan, 600-8031

We’ve been on a bit of a Capsule Hotel roll lately, so why stop now? The latest itty-bitty hotel rooms to capture our attention are in—where else?—Japan, at the highly conceptualized 9 Hours Hotel. What makes this one so special is not just the lines of pods that makes us think of rows of washing machines, but the minimalist design that flows through the entire property.

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Japan Hotels / Capsule Hotels / Hotel Hell / Business Hotels / Recession Hotels / New York Times / → All Tags

Japan's Job-Seekers Find Home in Capsule Hotels, Just Don't Invite the Mistress

Hearing about businessmen who turn their hotel room into a home-away-from-home is no new phenomenon. There may even be a wife-away-from-home involved, but that's a different story altogether.

Also nothing new are those teeny, tiny capsule hotel "rooms"—if they can even be called that—common to Japan. They're cute and quirky to us Americans, sure, but these days they're serving a different purpose. With the economy having taken a turn for the worst in 2009, some of the country's unemployed have turned to dwelling at places like the Hotel Shinjuku as they search for new jobs, reports the New York Times.

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Hotel Deals / Japan Hotels / Tokyo Hotels / → All Tags

485 Hotels in Japan Are Half-Price For Spring

We usually expect Japanese hotels to be a bit on the pricey side, so it's nice to see a few good hotel deals going in the land of sushi. Major reservation website JAPANiCAN (it's an offshoot of the huge JTB) has got a big Spring Hotel Special sale going that makes Japan seem suddenly dirt cheap.

For hotel stays up until the end of June this year, there are special rates going at around 50% off the rack rate. With 485 different hotels across Japan included in the sale, it shouldn't be hard to find one whatever your destination. The sale also includes a few big name Tokyo hotels like the Keio Plaza Tokyo or the Hotel Monterey Ginza.

Starting rates for these specials get down as low as JPY 2,940 ($30) per person – which is cheaper than the hourly rate at some love hotels in Japan, although the rooms you book through JAPANiCAN probably won't have Hello Kitty S&M rooms. But you can't have everything.

[Photo: shagy6six6]

Killer View / Japan Hotels / → All Tags

Room With a Killer View :: Seek the Origin of Kobe Beef, Find Good Views Here

Where: 6-10-1 Nakamachi, Minatojima, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Japan, 650-0046

We are suckers for a room with a killer view.  We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.

Seemingly a staple in every high-end restaurant these days, Kobe beef actually originated in the city of Kobe, Japan. You can read more on this Japanese port city here but if you're interested in a hotel with great views of the harbor consider the Portopia Hotel.

Good views and the Portopia (an unoriginal name we have to say) seem to go hand-in-hand because even looking at the hotel itself makes a good snapshot--it's an interestingly-built ellipse-shaped building, built on a manmade island in the Kobe harbor.

Then once you're inside the hotel, your room might have a view over the Osaka Bay and Wakayama Peninsula or like this one, it might look back towards the city of Kobe and especially at night, this is spectacular.

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Design Hotels / Japan Hotels / Hotel Swag / → All Tags

Tokyo's Claska Hotel Packs in a lot For Just Nine Rooms

Where: 1-3-18 Chuo-cho, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan

How rare, we thought, arriving at the Claska Hotel website and seeing a button for "English." An independent Japanese hotel that has an English version of their site. Alas, it seems that the button labeled English is the only thing in that language, apart from a few other headings that also lead to tantalizingly interesting pages that we can't read, and you can't actually click through on "English"--we hope it's a "coming soon".

Apart from that problem, the Claska looks gorgeous. It's just been listed as one of the top five design hotels in Japan. It's small, just nine rooms, but also features an art gallery, bookshop, organic restaurant and apparently even a poodle parlor. There's even an online shop which sells lovely-looking Japanese stuff: tea sets, a fan, even a broom, all without ugly hotel logos.

A night at the Claska ain't cheap, with double starting at over 62,000 Yen (US$600). The website suggests the possibility of weekly residence rates too, but they probably don't get much cheaper. They might throw in a free broom, though.

International Hotel WiFi / Japan Hotels / → All Tags

International Hotel WiFi: Comfort Hotel Gets It Almost Right in Hiroshima

Where: 3-17 KOMACHI NAKA-KU, Hiroshima, Japan, 30-0041

Head for technology-rich Japan and you might be expecting that the hotel WiFi scenario improves a bit. Well it does, a bit, depending on where you stay. In beautiful Hiroshima, we've found that the Comfort Hotel Hiroshima does a good job on providing internet access.

The Comfort Hotel's website boasts all kinds of tech-based amenities, including a computer to use for free in the lobby, computer hook-ups and work desks in all rooms, and high-speed, FREE wireless internet access everywhere. Recent guests even confirm that this is true, with the following warning:

There appears to be a wireless access point on every floor! The instructions in the room compendium tell you how to connect in Japanese, but anyone used to using wireless connections should be able to get by. The compendium contains the WPA-PSK key you need and it is written in English. So worked great for connecting my notebook and PDA.

So like WiFi nearly the whole world over, it's not as straightforward as it should be, but it's there. As an added bonus, the Comfort Hotel Hiroshima is near Peace Park and the Hiroshima Castle too, so when you've finished surfing or working, the sightseeing is at your doorstep.

[Photo: kang_a_ji]

Japan Hotels / Boutique Hotels / → All Tags

Super Exclusive Boutique Hotel: Ginzan Hot Spring Fujiya Inn in Tokyo

Where: 443 Shinpata Oaza Ginzan Obanazawa, Yamagata, 999-4333

Most of the time when we talk about luxury or boutique hotels we are referring to a Ritz Carlton, or W Hotel, or one of the Morgan's Hotel Group's spectacularly designed locations - but the Ginzan Hot Spring Fujiya Inn near Tokyo has all of those places beat - for one, there are only 8 rooms - giving the hotel a total capacity of 16 guests.

Here's the story behind this 350 year old hotel, which was just fully renovated in mid-2006:

The owner, Jean Fuji, who is originally from San Francisco, began studying as a traditional Japanese okami in 1991. Those who are okami personally cook all the guests meals, serves the guests, does the housekeeping and tries to predict each and every guests want and need - before they want it. Hmm, I think okami should be a required class in all hotel management schools.

The best part?

The nightly rate is surprisingly on par with your typical big-city luxury hotel - the highest rate currently listed on their website comes out to about $472 per night, the lower room rates start at $325 - and that's not even including the discounts which are currently being offered for the winter months.

For those smoking guests out there, the hotel has a strict no-smoking policy, good thing because except for the nails holding the wood together - everything is flammable.

Anti-View / Japan Hotels / → All Tags

Room with an Anti-View: Beautiful Chunky Iron in Kagoshima

Where: Tenmonkan, Kagoshima, Japan

You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.

We've been told that the Japanese culture specializes in finding the beauty in any situation, no matter how small that beauty might be. We're interested in knowing exactly where the beauty is in this view from the New Nishino Hotel in Kagoshima, south-west Japan.

The city of Kagoshima isn't on every tourist's list, but it should be since some call it "the Naples of the Eastern World". Apparently the New Nishino is actually not a bad place to base yourself while exploring Kagoshima's aquarium, drinking its sweet potato alcohol and ferrying out to the active volcano (we love a steaming volcano). The photographer himself admits that this hotel "lacks a view" but promises that "its location makes up for it".

[Photo: Minamitane]

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