Mitsui Garden Hotel Ginza Premier

Tokyo has one of the most dramatic modern city skylines in the world. The brightly lit skyscrapers, shopping malls and neon advertising hoardings are separated by crisscrossing busy roads, which at night come alive with thousands of car lights — take it all in from the Mitsui Garden hotel, one of the only tall buildings in Ginza.

Each room contains a large window from which you can enjoy this view, and should the mood take you, 45 of the rooms feature an equally panoramic one in the bathroom, through which you can gaze down on the streets from the comfort of your bath. All rooms are minimalist in style, and are sensibly named — most hotels’ “superior” rooms are actually inferior, but these Superior rooms are a shade bigger than the humble Moderates, and smaller than the Premiums and 40-square-meter Executives.

The splendid view of the city is once again used in the Karin Lounge and Bar on the 16th floor of the Mitsui Garden Hotel. Cool and stylish, the bar itself is actually hewn from a single piece of 600-year old Karin tree wood. Also on the 16th floor is the Sky restaurant, where an Italian menu is served in the evening and the choice of Japanese or continental breakfasts in the morning.

The Mitsui Garden Hotel is close to the Shinjuku business area of Tokyo and is within a short train journey of both the International Forum and International Exhibition Centres, making it ideally situated for anyone visiting the city on business. The business base theme continues in the hotel with each room having a high-speed internet connection available at no extra charge. And though the hotel seems to be primarily aimed at the business traveller, it’s perfectly suitable for the casual explorer of Tokyo to use as a comfortable and stylish home. Ginza has many upmarket shops, and the famous “electric town” of Akihabara, where gadget and technology fans will load up their credit cards in moments, is only an eight-minute train journey away, and the international area of Roppongi and the Mitsui Memorial Museum are just a little farther.