When it comes to Leading Hotels of the World, you can’t get more iconic than The Okura Tokyo. So much so that the property features prominently in the company’s recently published book, Design, by Spencer Bailey, with a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger. It’s the first in an annual series highlighting the globe’s most noteworthy and singular hotels. The Okura was first founded in 1962, but its new building opened in 2019 with its stunning lobby exactingly restored. Among the highlights of this most illustrious space are: Okura lanterns that resemble ornaments from the Kofun period; lacquered colored tables and chairs meant to resemble a plum blossom and its petals when seen from above; a Wisteria-shaped chandelier designed by French architect Lina Ghotmeh, and the welcoming sight of seasonal flowers by the Sekiso School of Ikebana, firmly planted in a hexagonal vase.
The indoor pool
When it comes to sleeping, visitors can choose from two wings—the 368 rooms in the 41-story Prestige Tower, featuring a gym, banquet halls and a particularly terrific club level lounge, and the more traditional 140 rooms in the 17-story Heritage Wing. The Okura’s restaurant options are especially chic, including the Nouvelle Epoque, which you should reserve for breakfast at least one morning. For dinner or lunch, try a private Omakase experience at Yamazato, which features sushi, tempura, and even special tea ceremonies. In every way, you’ll find yourself in meditative bliss and treated with the utmost care. Feel more than free to decompress in your room’s personal steam sauna after a day exploring the latest exhibition from teamLab or hunting down a box of gummy pretzels, one of Japan’s most recent viral trends.
DuJour spoke with the hotel’s general manager, Mr. Takayanagi, to learn more about the property.
A Heritage View Bath King Balcony room
What are the most requested rooms at the property?
The Prestige Tower corner rooms and the Heritage rooms with balconies on the lower floors
What makes them so special?
The Prestige Tower corner rooms offer a two-sided panoramic view. The Prestige Tower is located on a hill, so you can look down on the surrounding high-rise buildings. The charm of the Heritage rooms with balconies is that they are located on a lower floor and overlook the Okura Garden from the balcony. You can enjoy a quiet time in the heart of Tokyo.
What’s the nightly rate for this room?
Prestige corner rooms rates start at $1,082 USD while Heritage rooms are $1,400 USD
The lobby at The Okura Tokyo
What’s your favorite design element on property?
The Okura lanterns that light up the main lobby, inherited from the old building, and purple chandelier with wisteria motif that decorates the atrium space of the Heritage Building’s lobby, giving it a sense of pure elegance.
What special perk or amenity do you offer that no one knows about?
The two kinds of breakfast served at Heritage Wing’s French fine dining restaurant Nouvelle Epoque and Japanese fine dining Yamazato are distinctive and give the feeling of staying at a luxury Japanese hotel. At either breakfast, you can enjoy the pleasant morning sun, look out over the Okura Garden and enjoy a full-service breakfast menu made with carefully selected ingredients that are hard to find at other hotels in Tokyo.
What’s an interesting tidbit about the hotel that speaks to its status as an icon?
Our hotel’s iconic, vast main lobby, inherited from the old building, is still available to guests as a free space, therefore, it is beloved by a lot of customers who have chosen and it proves that the hotel is in a safe location.
Star Light Lounge