Park Hyatt Tokyo

The lift from the ground floor of Shinjuku Park Tower stops at the 41st floor, where a bamboo garden under a glass pyramid roof opens on to the Peak Lounge and a view across the whole of western Tokyo to Mount Fuji. That arrival, repeated by every guest since June 1994, is the signature of Park Hyatt Tokyo, which occupies the top fourteen floors of the tower in Nishi-Shinjuku.

History

The tower was designed by Kenzo Tange and completed in 1994, with the hotel opening in June of that year. It was the first Park Hyatt in Japan and quickly became the brand's reference property. In 2003 Sofia Coppola shot much of Lost in Translation in the hotel, in the New York Bar, the pool and the guest rooms, and the film gave the house a following far beyond people who had stayed there. In May 2024 the hotel closed for a complete renovation of rooms and public areas, the first since it opened.

Architecture and design

Shinjuku Park Tower is three stepped blocks of granite and glass, 235 metres at its highest point, each crowned by a glass atrium. The hotel takes floors 39 to 52. The interiors were by John Morford, who worked in a restrained palette of wood, stone, black lacquer and fabric, with large-format art and a library of several thousand books on the 41st floor. The restraint is deliberate: the view does the decorating.

Rooms and suites

There are 177 rooms, among them 23 suites, which made them the largest standard hotel rooms in Tokyo when the hotel opened. Floor-to-ceiling windows face either the city or, on clear winter mornings, Mount Fuji. Bathrooms have deep soaking tubs and separate rain showers. The Tokyo Suite and the Presidential Suite sit on the upper floors.

Dining

The New York Grill on the 52nd floor is the best-known restaurant, an open-kitchen steak and seafood room with a live jazz trio in the adjoining New York Bar every evening. Kozue, on the 40th floor, serves Japanese cuisine with a Fuji view and tableware by Japanese craftsmen. Girandole, on the 41st, is the all-day European brasserie, and the Peak Lounge handles afternoon tea.

Wellness

Club on the Park occupies the 45th to 47th floors. The 20-metre pool on the 47th floor sits under a glass roof with the city on three sides, and the gym, aerobics studio and treatment rooms are beside it. Spa treatments draw on Japanese bathing traditions, with separate baths for men and women.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a ballroom and a set of smaller function rooms used for weddings, product launches and board meetings, with catering from the New York Grill and Kozue kitchens. Weddings are often held in the Peak Lounge garden or with dinner in a private dining room of the New York Grill. Exact capacities after the renovation have not been published.

Location

The hotel stands in Nishi-Shinjuku, the skyscraper district west of Shinjuku Station, next to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Shinjuku Station is about 12 minutes on foot, Tochomae Station on the Oedo line is closer, and a free shuttle bus runs to the station. Haneda Airport is about 40 minutes by car and Narita about 90. Among luxury hotels in Tokyo this is still the one guests choose for a view rather than a neighbourhood, and the long absence during the renovation has only sharpened the demand.