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Luxury-hotel or a love place? Cotton mattress or duvet? Traditional or ultra-modern? Hotels of the capital of Japan are so varied, that they themselves can be a reason for travelling. "Tokyo - is a kind of insanity, in spite of the fact that we have never been there", - says Bill Kaulitz, Tokio Hotel band soloist.
Japanese capital looks marvellous (labyrinth of streets, rail-roads and
hieroglyphs), bright (glowing neon screens are everywhere), huge (12
million people), creative (because of the lack of space, they play golf
on the roofs of houses), and contradictory (here one can find mothers
in kimono and daughters in Gothic dresses). Insanity definitely! For those, who has never been in Tokyo, or has
been but is eager to come back, we describe a number of wonderful
hotels. For "Park Hyatt Tokyo" fans: the elevator moves only for 10
seconds and here you are - under the roof of glass in Peak Lounge in
the middle of the bamboo forest on the 41st floor above the Shinjuku
block. Music plays, fountains run, the air is cool, and if the weather
is good one can see Fuji, Japanese Saint Mountain.
Everything is like
in a movie. Like in the movie "Lost in Translation", which was filmed
here in 2002 by Sofia Coppola. This is a film about two Americans, who
came to Tokyo. Japanese culture stayed unrevealed for them, but they
explored this mysterious city and at the end found themselves in Park
Hyatt, which Coppola called a "floating island on the roof of the
chaotic city". The movie gave the world fame to this hotel, and many
fans of "Lost in Translation" still pilgrim to this hotel. Some of them
take pictures of each other in Peak Lounge, others order tables in New
York Grill on the 52nd floor, where not only drinks, but delightful
steak made of kobe-beef are served. True Coppola's fans spend nights in
Park Hyatt, where the area of every room is not less than 54 sq.m. with
a huge bath-room and windows with the city-sight. The rooms combine
Japanese design and western comfort. What really makes this place
attractive not only for movie-fans, but for everyone on vacation in
Tokyo, is that Park Hyatt is a real island of peace in the ocean of
insanity of a big city.
For thrifty people - Shinjuku Kuyakusyo
Capsule Hotel. The Japanese gave the world not only Walkman and
Tamagotchi, but the most compact hotel in the world - hotel-capsule.
One can find dozens of them all over Tokyo. They are economic, clean
and neat: you can see every corner of it. Standard capsule of 2x1x1
meter includes a mattress, a blanket, a pillow, a towel and is covered
with a curtain. These sleeping niches are set one to another; that is
why on the 54 sq.m. of Park Hyatt double room, here you can find up to
40 capsules. In Shinjuku Kuyakusyo Mae Capsule Hotel (this hotel is
recommended because staff speaks English a little) every capsule has a
TV-set, radio, an alarm clock, a lamp, a folding table and buttons for
staff or security call. In addition guests receive a kimono and a pair
of slippers for the shower, toilet or sauna. Shoes, luggage and
valuable things you can lock in special boxes and give them to the
cloak-room near the entrance. There is only one inconvenience - capsule
walls are not soundproof at all, that is why you will be given earplugs.
For
curious people - Ryokan Homeikan. Small houses are built in a row in
the narrow streets of the Hongo block. One of them is called Homeikan -
this is a 100 year old ryokan - traditional coaching inn with a garden,
wooden walls, sliding doors made of rice paper and floors made of rice
straw (tatami). Since this is Japan, everything follows the rules:
street shoes must be left by the entrance, place on special shelves and
put on beige home slippers. But if you want to go to the WC, you should
change your beige slippers to brown ones. Public bath facilities are
open from 5:00pm till 10:30pm, breakfast is served only for morning
persons and only in Japanese style (seaweed soup, soya tofu, omelette,
rice and pickled vegetables). A hostess - graceful Japanese woman aged
between 50 and 60 - looks after visitors to maintain the rules. It is
hard to find more Japanese spirit in Tokyo, than in this place.
For
the middle class - Royal Park Hotel. This hotel is ideally situated: in
the very centre of Tokyo and in the very centre of the price range.
Three stations of Tokyo subway system and aviation terminal Tokyo City
Air Terminal - where from you can take a bus to the airports Narita and
Haneda - are situated near the entrance to Royal Park Hotels. There are
may tiny shops and typical Japanese restaurants in this area. Recently
restored, the hotel has six restaurants, a garden on the roof and a
lamp in the form of the Milky Way in the lobby. Besides modern standard
rooms the hotel offers two Japanese-style apartments, full of
traditional varnished furniture, wooden bath and tatami, a TV-set and a
mini-bar - an ideal place for those, who want to combine Japanese way
of living with Western comfort.
For the experienced - The
Peninsula Tokyo. The newest five-stars hotel is situated between the
commercial street Ginza and the Emperors Palace. The Peninsula Tokyo
was opened in September. It represents a perfect combination of high
tech, traditions and design. 60 artists created more than 1000
masterpieces for the decoration of this hotel, turning it into a
museum. According to Tokyo Hotel slang, its rooms are really insane.
Even standard rooms have separate wardrobe (with a nail-drier on a
table). Bathroom is a centre of beauty and health with sitting shower,
waterfall and a toilet with 15 buttons - from water massage to warm air
drying. Design was created according to Japanese traditions, indirect
lightning tunes according to the time of the day. Every sitting room is
equipped with a coffee-machine; duvets seem to be the softest in Japan;
there is a convenient cubby hole for morning papers or washing, so that
you can forget about troublesome rings. One more comfortable thing: the
phone display shows the time your interlocutor time zone.5 restaurants
since the very beginning are considered to be one of the best in Tokyo.
You cannot get a table here without advanced reservation. The whole
city talks about the restaurant Peter that is on the 24 floor, where
modern European cuisine is served against a background of silk, steel,
wood and glass. On weekends popular DJs play their sets, so that after
dinner you can start your night life.
For loving couples - Love
Hotel. Along with noodle-pie and karaoke-bars they became a part of
Tokyo life - love hotels sometimes are called "hotels for an hour".
Usually love hotels are not dirty motels and places for prostitution,
but just a neat place for loving couples that doe not want to be
disturbed. That is why Tokyo became full of such hotels - Japanese
capital is a place, where it is pretty hard to find a calm place:
apartments here are small and narrow, walls are not soundproof and
often more that one generation lives in one apartment. That is why
loving couples visit love hotels. Privacy is of high respect here:
exits and entrances are separate, car identification numbers are
covered with a dashboards, booking process is anonymous - you should
enter the atrium, choose a picture of a free room, pay at the
blacked-out window and get your room number and keys. It is really easy
even for those who do not speak Japanese. Most such hotels look like
common hotels, but there are few of them with very unusual atmosphere.
For example, some of the rooms can look like Bavarian castle
Neuschwanstein, Mickey Mouse or space style with coach- or Venetian
gondola-shaped beds. Sometimes you can choose even the sound: from the
sea sound to the Beethoven's 9 Symphony. But there are no songs by
Tokyo Hotel.
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