Hoshinoya Tokyo

The Hoshinoya name is highly regarded around Japan because of the brand’s reputation for impeccably crafted, exceedingly relaxing ryokan-style luxury hotels. With Hoshinoya Tokyo, the question is whether this approach can survive the transplant from the forests of rural Japan to a skyscraper alongside Tokyo Station. Feel free to read on for details, but if you’re pressed for time, the answer is yes.

Where there’s a ryokan, there’s an onsen, a spring-fed bath — and even here, in central Tokyo, there’s a hot spring, one whose waters emerge from nearly a mile underground. The hotel’s ground-floor entry bears a convincing resemblance to a Zen garden, and by the time you’re inside, it’s clear that this is a hotel unlike any other: a ryokan in both form and function, but one that’s contemporary in style and imposing in scale, as befits its unusual location.

Each floor of the hotel functions as a self-contained unit, with an ochanoma — a living room stocked with refreshments — for every six rooms. As for the rooms themselves, they’re among the city’s most luxurious, and their style, a seamless blend of contemporary design and ryokan tradition, is absolutely unique. Equally luxe is chef Noriyuki Hamada’s basement restaurant, with its hyper-local fine-dining menu, and the 17th-floor spa, which combines onsen tradition with modern treatments. Most luxurious of all, however, is something that’s harder to quantify — this might be the quietest, most peaceful place outside of the Imperial Palace.