Best Hotels
Kieo Plaza Hotel Tokyo Four Seasons New York City
AGOOD HOTEL offers more than service. It offers culture. When the Keio Plaza Hotel was erected in 1971, it was Tokyo’s tallest building. Since then it has made great strides to stay on top of trends. For family travelers there are suites with four beds in the room, a comfortable nursing room, and a child care service. Universal designs and services are accessible for wheel chairs and hearing impairment. There are on-site medical clinics. There are even special toilets for guide dogs. A convenience store and a shopping floor cater to every need. Each hotel room is equipped with a complimentary smart phone service. Sign up for it, and keep it with you for wifi, phone and text capabilities around Tokyo. There is a reason why 36, 000 couples have celebrated their weddings here. In addition to its central location adjacent to Shinjuku Station, there are thirty eight banquet rooms, fifteen restaurants, including chefs like Yosuke Nakane, winner of the La Maison Cointruae Japan 2018, and Hirochika Midorikawa, the first Japanese-french cuisine chef to be awarded in Paris for contribution to French cuisine in Japan; and three bars, helmed by legendary Kazuya Watanabe, the first Japanese bartender to get a yellow medal from the emperor for his contribution to bartending. Take a private limousine tour to a sake brewery, or indulge in an Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea. The Japanese style Tea Room appeals to all five senses and imparts Japanese manner and history as well as culture. Guests can also sign up for a kimono experience, either in a photo shoot or to walk around outside in Shinjuku. In the lobby there are exhibitions from Kabuki to No performances, from Geiko and Maiko to flower arranging workshops. The gallery showcases pottery, woodblock prints and paintings. The garden is immaculate, and I sit here remembering my first night in Japan at the Keio Plaza Hotel back in 1997, when I phoned home to my parents to let them know everything was going to be just fine. www.keioplaza.com