Park Hyatt Tokyo

Every time you think that something couldn’t possibly be more perfect, the Japanese will prove you wrong. This is, after all, the country that gave us the flawless three-hundred-dollar cantaloupe. So when Tokyo takes on the boutique hotel, you can bet that it’ll be spectacular — and all the more so when it’s a Park Hyatt hotel set fifty-odd stories above Shinjuku, the most high-tech neighborhood in town. The views, needless to say, are ultra-Nippon cool. Best of all is the one from the tub, with its floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall window. As you soak in a bath that’s practically the size of a Tokyo apartment, you’re treated to a Godzilla’s eye view of the Blade Runner panorama below, with Mount Fuji hovering behind for good measure.

Of course there are the floating bamboo gardens, the bars lit with fifty dashi lanterns, the elevator that starts out dark and brightens as you go up, the black lacquer goodie basket filled with sweet bean paste cakes and rice wafers.

There’s the 22,000-square-foot fitness and spa center, that provides, among other things, a foot rub that is paradise for the pressure points of your sole. All this for a hotel with less than 200 rooms. There’s also the oh-so-conscientious, oh-so-discreet staff, who will have you paged at the Hamburg airport if there’s a vacant room, and find you those extra-long trousers at midnight. They’ve even taken your jet lag into consideration. Immaculately packaged aromatherapy products and a massage await the exhausted jet-setter at check in. And what is perhaps the biggest luxury in this spatially stingy city: the palatial size of the rooms.

Wallpaper likes the New York Bar best — an enormous glass pyramid fifty-two stories in the sky, with live jazz and beautiful Tokyo shopaholics sipping whiskey and snacking on buttery Kobe beef seared steakhouse style. You’ll love the beds — among the biggest in Japan and fitted with the nicest Egyptian cotton sheets. Personally, however, our favorite is the venomous Fugu fish sashimi provided by room service. As long as you survive, there’s a bonus hour of shiatsu to follow.

Please note: This hotel offers both smoking and non-smoking rooms. If you have a preference, please indicate it in the special requests section during the booking process.