‘You can see Mount Fuji this morning,’ a waiter remarks as I look out the window during breakfast on a particularly clear-skied Saturday.
Such views come as standard at Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo At Otemachi.
Designed like a love letter to the Tokyo skyline, the 656ft- (200m) high hotel offers a new perspective on the biggest city in the world through its floor-to-ceiling windows.
It’s not the tallest hotel in Tokyo, but it is a towering presence with a 66ft (20m) swimming pool, a Michelin-starred restaurant and one of the best cocktail bars in the world – each with panoramic windows that capitalise on the captivating cityscape.
It occupies the uppermost floors (34-39) of the Otemachi One tower in Tokyo’s gleaming Otemachi financial district.
Ailbhe MacMahon checked in to Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo At Otemachi. Above, panoramic city views from a Premier Studio
The 190-room hotel’s interior was headed by designer Jean-Michel Gathy, who sought to fuse Japan ’s past and present in the project. Above, the reception
The hotel, which opened in 2020, overlooks the East Gardens of the Emperor of Japan’s Imperial Palace, a verdant vista you’re greeted by once the lift doors open to the panoramic 39th-floor lobby.
The 190-room hotel’s interior was headed by designer Jean-Michel Gathy, who sought to fuse Japan’s past and present in the project, starting with a vermillion-walled entrance inspired by the ‘torii’ gates of Shinto shrines.
Guests can take guided tours of the hotel’s private art collection – Yukiko Oshima’s rock installation in a shallow pond, reminiscent of Japanese Zen gardens, welcomes you in the reception, along with ink art by Nobuko Kawahara and elaborate works of Ikebana, Japan’s time-honoured art of flower arranging.
For those keen to study more blooms, the hotel runs a shuttle to cherry blossom hotspots in the springtime and can decorate bedrooms with fresh ‘sakura’ branches for 30,000JPY (£158/$199).
Not that rooms need more embellishment.
Ailbhe’s Deluxe Room – Imperial Garden View, features a ‘dreamlike’ print of fabric in motion
Above – a rock installation by artist Yukiko Oshima in the lobby area
The hotel’s entrance area where guests take the lift to the lobby located on the 39th floor
The hotel occupies floors 34-39 of the Otemachi One tower
An exercise in elegance, my Deluxe Room is adorned with Japanese ‘washi paper’ light fixtures and a dreamlike print of fabric in motion by photographer Namiko Kitaura.
Blinds on the vast windows automatically open when you unlock the door, creating more theatre around the hotel’s smash-hit views.
This urban panorama similarly takes centre stage in the Pigneto restaurant.
It has a soaring outdoor terrace and a lunch and dinner menu that celebrates a different Italian region each month.
Breakfast is also served here, with a menu spanning from pillowy pancakes to a Japanese breakfast of rice, miso soup and fish (6,700JPY/£35/$44 with buffet included).
But the gastronomic gem in the hotel’s crown is Michelin-starred Est, where French chef Guillaume Bracaval crafts clever French fare using Japan’s rich larder – 95 per cent of his ingredients are sustainably sourced from the island nation’s land and seas.
Pigneto restaurant, above, has a soaring outdoor terrace and a menu that celebrates an Italian region each month
The Michelin-starred Est, where Ailbhe enjoyed a 10-course tasting menu of ‘masterful dishes’
Ailbhe enjoyed a cloud-shaped meringue dessert at Est, left, as well as the Jerusalem artichoke and caviar dish seen on the right
Inspired by Europe’s 19th-century ‘Japonisme’ movement, the space shines with gold leaf accents, while a glass wall frames chefs at work in the kitchen.
There they prepare masterful dish after dish as part of the 10-course tasting menu (30,000JPY/£157/$199) – smoky abalone cooked with butter and layered with cabbage leaves; palate-cleansing slices of Kombu; nutty Jerusalem artichoke, pan-roasted and topped with caviar and a dashi broth.
Desserts are by chef Michele Abbatemarco, who borrows from nature and the art world for his confections: cloud-shaped meringue, followed by flower-like petit fours made from untreated Japanese honey.
Sommelier Yuji Uesugi fills me in on the booming Japanese wine scene as he pours Minaki sparkling saké and Tamba Sauvignon Blanc from Kyoto (25,000JPY/£131/$166 per wine pairing).
More unique libations await at the sultry, Art Deco-style Virtù cocktail bar, officially Asia’s 20th best bar.
Upon recommendation, I try one of the bar’s most popular drinks, a smooth and sweet ‘Yuzu Nagi’ with yuzu gin (3,500JPY/£18/$23).
The Art Deco-style Virtù cocktail bar, pictured, is officially Asia’s 20th best bar
The hotel’s spa features a sleek mirror-bottomed pool
Later, charismatic bartender Graham Kimura, who has tattoos of his favourite liquors, presents a stellar list of recommended bars in Tokyo, giving an insider’s window into the city’s world-renowned late-night scene.
Detoxification comes via the hotel’s spa, with its soothing ‘ofuro’ bath [a high sided, small tub built for full body immersion and relaxation], steam room and sleek mirror-bottomed pool.
In a treatment room with yet more panoramic views, I relax into a ‘Yakusugi’ [Japanese cedar] massage, which promises to offer the ‘serenity of forest bathing’ and help with jet lag.
When the treatment comes to an end, I can see the sun setting over the city. Anchored by distant Mount Fuji, Tokyo’s skyline is a contender for the finest in the world – and it’s hard to think of a finer spot from which to admire it than this.
