The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo

Forty-five floors above Roppongi, the lift opens onto the lobby of The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo, and through the glass on a clear winter morning the cone of Mount Fuji stands on the western horizon. The hotel opened in March 2007 at the top of Midtown Tower, then the tallest building in Tokyo, as part of the Tokyo Midtown complex in Minato-ku.

History

Tokyo Midtown rose on land with a long institutional past. In the Edo period part of the site belonged to the Mori lords of the Choshu domain, whose residence garden survives as Hinokicho Park beside the complex. In the twentieth century the land served military purposes, and it later held the Japan Defense Agency, which moved to Ichigaya in 2000. A consortium led by Mitsui Fudosan bought the site and redeveloped it, and Tokyo Midtown opened in March 2007 with offices, apartments, shops, museums and the hotel.

The Ritz-Carlton had come to Japan ten years earlier with its Osaka hotel in 1997. The Tokyo house gave the brand a luxury hotel in Tokyo and an address in the capital at a moment when the city was seeing a wave of openings by international groups, most of them, like this one, in the top floors of new towers.

Architecture and design

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed Midtown Tower, a 248-metre shaft of glass and stone with 54 storeys above ground. It held the title of the city's tallest building until Toranomon Hills overtook it in 2014. The hotel fills the top of the tower, with the lobby on the 45th floor and the rooms above it, while the banquet and meeting rooms are on lower floors of the complex. Around the base, Midtown's lawns and planted walks run into Hinokicho Park, so the tower stands in more green space than most in central Tokyo.

Rooms and suites

Rooms are large by central Tokyo standards, and every one sits high in the tower, so the view sets the tone. Tokyo Tower and the bay lie to the south-east. The skyscrapers of Shinjuku rise to the north-west, and on clear days the profile of Mount Fuji appears to the west. Club Level rooms have use of a lounge with food and drink through the day, and The Ritz-Carlton Suite sits near the top of the building.

Dining

Azure 45, named after its floor, is the French restaurant. Hinokizaka, named after the slope that runs beside the old Mori garden, gathers several Japanese kitchens under one roof, with separate counters and rooms for sushi, tempura, teppanyaki and kaiseki. Towers serves international and grilled dishes, and The Lobby Lounge & Bar, under the high ceiling of the 45th floor, takes afternoon tea and evening drinks with the city spread below. At street level, The Ritz-Carlton Café & Deli sells pastries and sandwiches inside the Midtown complex.

Wellness

The Ritz-Carlton Spa occupies the 46th floor, with treatment rooms, a fitness centre and an indoor pool facing out over the city. Few swimming pools in Tokyo sit this high.

Weddings and events

The hotel holds weddings, receptions and corporate events in a ballroom and a set of smaller function rooms. Meeting rooms serve the companies based in Midtown and the offices of Akasaka and Roppongi, and private rooms within the restaurants take smaller dinners.

Location

Roppongi Station, on the Hibiya and Oedo lines, connects underground to Tokyo Midtown, and Nogizaka on the Chiyoda line is close to the north side. The complex contains the Suntory Museum of Art and 21_21 Design Sight, the design gallery by Tadao Ando, while the National Art Center, Tokyo, designed by Kisho Kurokawa, is a short walk west. Roppongi Hills, with the Mori Art Museum, lies a little further south-west. Haneda Airport is roughly 30 to 40 minutes by car. Narita is well over an hour.