Bulgari Hotel Tokyo

The lift from the ground floor of Tokyo Midtown Yaesu rises forty storeys before the doors open on Bulgari Hotel Tokyo. From there, the hotel occupies the top six floors of the tower that stands over the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station, with the Imperial Palace gardens visible to the west and, on clear mornings, Mount Fuji beyond. It opened in April 2023, the second Bulgari in Japan after Osaka, which opened a month earlier, and the eighth in the group.

History

Bulgari Hotels and Resorts began in Milan in 2004, a partnership between the Roman jeweller, by then part of LVMH, and Marriott. Tokyo had been on the list for years; the brand had run a restaurant and bar in Ginza since 2007. The chance came with the redevelopment of the Yaesu district by Mitsui Fudosan, whose 45-storey Tokyo Midtown Yaesu tower, finished in 2022, included a bus terminal, offices and a school below. Bulgari took the top floors.

Architecture and design

ACPV Architects, the Milan practice of Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, has designed every Bulgari hotel and did this one too. The rooms carry the house vocabulary: black and gold, Italian marble, walnut and oak, fabrics from Italian mills, lamps by Flos, and in the Tokyo house a layer of Japanese craft, with washi paper, lacquer and ceramics commissioned from local workshops. The corridors hang with archive sketches of Bulgari jewels. The lobby on the fortieth floor is small by design; the point is the view.

Rooms and suites

There are 98 rooms and suites, the entry-level rooms starting at around 50 square metres, which is generous for Tokyo. Most face the palace or the bay. The Bulgari Suite, at the top of the scale, has a dining room, a private spa room and a corner view over the station tracks to the skyline. Bathrooms are in marble with deep tubs set against the glass.

Dining

Il Ristorante Niko Romito serves the Abruzzese chef's Italian menu as at the other Bulgari hotels, and received a Michelin star in its first year. Sushi Hoseki is an eight-seat counter run by the chef Kenji Gyoten, whose restaurant in Fukuoka holds three stars. The Bulgari Bar has a terrace on the 45th floor, open in fair weather; La Terrazza is the smaller lounge. Il Cioccolato and the Dolci pastry counter sell the house chocolates and cakes to go.

Wellness

The Bulgari Spa on the 40th floor has a 25-metre indoor pool with a mosaic in gold and a window wall over the city, eight treatment rooms, a hammam and a fitness room that stays open round the clock.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a ballroom on the 40th floor, with its own foyer and pre-function space, and a smaller boardroom. Weddings use the ballroom for the banquet and the terrace of the bar for photographs over the city; the chapel-style ceremony of Japanese hotel weddings is not part of the offer. Capacities are modest compared with the big Tokyo wedding hotels.

Location

Tokyo Midtown Yaesu stands at 2-2-1 Yaesu, Chuo-ku, with Tokyo Station's Yaesu exit directly beneath it and the Shinkansen platforms a few minutes on foot through the concourse. Ginza is one stop or a fifteen-minute walk south. Haneda Airport is about 30 minutes by car or by Keikyu line and Yamanote line; Narita is about an hour by Narita Express to Tokyo Station. Of the luxury hotels in Tokyo it is the one you can reach without stepping outside after leaving the train.