Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo

The lift ride is the introduction. Guests enter at street level beside the 1929 Mitsui Main Building and are carried without stopping to the 38th floor, where Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo keeps its lobby. The windows wrap the room. Mount Fuji appears on clear winter mornings, Tokyo Skytree to the north-east, the bay to the south. The hotel opened on 2 December 2005 as part of the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower, a redevelopment by the Mitsui Fudosan group of its historic headquarters district in Chuo ward.

History

Nihonbashi is where the Edo-period highways began; the bridge of the same name was the zero point for distances across Japan, and the Mitsui family's trading house grew up beside it. The 1929 Mitsui Main Building, an Important Cultural Property, was kept and restored when the tower went up next to it, and the hotel's entrance borrows some of that stone solemnity. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, which runs the house, had opened in Hong Kong in 1963 and Tokyo became one of its most awarded properties within a few years. The hotel was renovated in stages from 2015, with the rooms, spa and restaurants redone in turn.

Architecture and design

César Pelli's tower rises 38 storeys with a glass skin and a lower podium that aligns with its 1929 neighbour. The hotel takes floors 30 to 38, with the public rooms at the top and the bedrooms below. Ryu Kosaka of A.N.D. designed the interiors around the theme of woods and water, drawing on Japanese textile patterns: the lobby carpets, the fabric panels in the corridors and the screens in the restaurants all use motifs from kimono and furoshiki design. The result reads as a tree, with the roots at ground level and the canopy at the top.

Rooms and suites

There are 179 rooms and suites, all on floors 30 to 36, all with floor-to-ceiling windows. Rooms face either the palace and Fuji side or the river and Skytree side. Bathrooms have deep tubs set against the glass. The suites on the higher floors include a Presidential Suite with views on two sides.

Dining

Few hotels in Japan carry as many Michelin stars under one roof. On the 37th floor, Signature serves French cooking and Sense serves Cantonese, both with the skyline as a backdrop. Sushi Sora and the Pizza Bar on 38th share the top floor, the latter seating eight guests at a single counter. The Tapas Molecular Bar runs a theatrical tasting menu for a handful of diners a night. K'shiki is the Italian room, the Oriental Lounge handles afternoon tea in the lobby, and the Mandarin Bar is the evening meeting point. The Gourmet Shop at ground level sells the hotel's pastries and bread.

Wellness

The spa occupies the 37th floor with nine treatment rooms, a vitality pool, steam and sauna, and a fitness centre. Treatments draw on Japanese bathing rituals. The hotel has no swimming pool.

Weddings and events

The hotel hosts weddings and corporate events. A wedding chapel on an upper floor looks out over the city, and the banquet rooms on the hotel's lower public floor serve receptions, product launches and board meetings. The group's Tokyo office is one of the busiest in its portfolio for financial-sector events because of the Nihonbashi location.

Location

The address is 2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuo-ku. Mitsukoshimae station on the Ginza and Hanzomon lines connects directly to the tower, and Mitsukoshi's Nihonbashi flagship store is across the street. Tokyo Station is one stop or a ten-minute walk; Ginza is two stops. Haneda Airport is around 30 minutes by car, Narita around an hour. As a luxury hotel in Tokyo it is the natural choice for anyone working in the financial district, and the view from the lobby does the rest.