Park Hyatt Tokyo Hotel Review

If you've seen the movie Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson then you'll already be familiar with the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel in Shinjuku. The film features many scenes set in the rooms of the hotel and also in its New York Bar. It's one of those films that people either seem to love or hate. Personally, I love it. Therefore, when I was planning my first trip back to Japan for 5 years in March/April 2010, I decided that a stay at the Park Hyatt was a must. Unfortunately, since my trip was going to involve moving between Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, I could only really manage one night in the Park Hyatt but I hopefully managed to capture a decent representation of the hotel in these photos and article.

When I woke up in my Shibuya hotel room on the morning of Thursday 25th March 2010, I was in a bit of a panic. I'd arranged to meet my Japanese friend Aya in Shinjuku at around noon but, on arrival at Narita airport, I'd realised that my BlackBerry wouldn't work in Japan, despite my phone provider assuring me that it would. I now had no way to contact Aya once I left my hotel room. Not an ideal situation when trying to meet somebody for the very first time in one of the busiest cities on Earth.

My intial plan was to attempt to buy a cheap pre-paid phone on the way from Shibuya to Shinjuku but then I discovered that the Park Hyatt rented out mobile phones to guests. I decided to email the Park Hyatt to ask if it was okay to come at about 10am to drop my bags off and also to rent a phone. I was relieved to get an email back from the concierge saying that I could drop my bags off and that they'd have a phone waiting for me to collect.

It was absolutely pouring with rain that morning but since I still had a headache from the flight, I decided to walk from Shibuya to the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku rather than getting the train. By the time I got to Shinjuku, I was absolutely soaked. The towers that house the Park Hyatt are pretty tall so once I got to Shinjuku Station, I used them as a visual reference to know which direction to walk in. However, the entrance I took into the tower complex was not the right one so I then struggled for a few minutes amongst elevators leading to offices trying to find out how to get to the hotel itself. Eventually, I remembered reading on the internet that the entrance to the hotel is through a delicatessen store and up a small flight of stairs. Finally, I found my way to the hotel entrance and realised that if I'd come into the building on the right side then the hotel does have its own proper entrance with vehicle access.

Despite having found my way to the hotel entrance, I still had to find my way to the reception, which was located somewhere around the 34th floor. Luckily, a hotel employee spotted my confusion and after saying "Ah, are you Mr Webb?" took my large travel bag off me and escorted me up to the reception. It was very reassuring that the door staff had been informed that I was on my way and, since this was my first day in Tokyo, made me feel a bit more relaxed. It was lucky that he did escort me up to reception as the reception area is still quite a walk from the lifts through a seating area and a library. Eventually, we made it to the reception area and another member of staff invited me to sit down at a large wooden table that made it feel more like I was signing a declaration of peace than checking into a hotel.

As promised, they had a mobile phone all charged up and waiting for me to rent for 2500 yen (around £18) for the day. Although I had a bit of difficulty getting the sim card out of my BlackBerry, getting the hotel phone up and running was pretty painless. At that point, I was all set to head back out into the rain to meet Aya so I asked them if it would be okay if I came back at around 5pm to check in. Surprisingly, they said that since I'd told them I was coming early, they'd already got my room ready so that I could go straight up and get changed before my meeting in town. That was great news as I was still dripping wet and really needed a sit down before tackling the rain again.

I knew that some rooms of the Park Hyatt Tokyo offered views of either Mount Fuji or Yoyogi Park depending on which side of the building they're situated on so I was interested to see what view I had. I hadn't gone for the cheapest room but instead had gone for the Park Deluxe King for a total of 55871 yen (around £400) including taxes so I hoped that my view would be good. However, when I got to my room on the 44th floor and looked out of the window, I realised that I was almost above the cloud level and therefore couldn't see much at all!

I really couldn't fault the quality of the room itself though. The bed was big and comfortable and the desk area offered a LAN internet connection for my laptop as well as the Wi-Fi that was available in the room.

The entertainment area was also very nice with a large flat-screen TV and DVD player, complete with a selection of DVDs and CDs. When I'd entered the room, I found that the TV had been left on the ambient channel that played mellow music whilst showing scenes of both sunny and snowy landscapes. I can imagine that if you arrived here straight from the airport or station then this would be a nice touch to help you relax and unwind.

Another nice touch in the room was the collection of books. I didn't get time to read up on the art of East Asia but I can see how the Japanese-English dictionary could be of use. Even without reading the books, they added a touch of class to the room.

Upon entering the room, I'd initially missed what was tucked away to the left of the entrance. As it turned out, the bathroom, walk-in wardrobe, and lobby area complete with dressing table took up almost as much floor area as the main part of the room itself.

A few minutes after I entered the room, a porter knocked at the door with my bag that had been taken off me in the ground floor lobby area. After placing my bag in the walk-in wardrobe, he left (remember, don't tip staff in Japan). Unfortunately, my travel bag that seemed so big as I walked from Shibuya to Shinjuku was practically lost in the vast space of the wardrobe. For reference, that bag measures 710mm (28 inches) in length.

All the Japanese hotels I'd stayed in before (and some English ones) had bathrooms that were compact and purely functional so it was nice to see the lovely bathroom that the Park Hyatt offered with art on the wall and marble-style tiles all around. The bathroom offered a proper deep bath as well as a shower in a separate cubicle.

The toilet was also in its own little cubicle with a door and had the extra luxury of its own phone for those important business calls that just can't wait.

Another luxury in the bathroom was the television. It came with its own remote control so that you could browse channels whilst soaking in the bath. There was also a volume control on the front of the washbasin so that, if you prefer, you could play the sound from the main room TV in the bathroom. This is ideal if listening to a CD as you don't have to have the main TV blasting out in order to hear it in the bathroom.

The fridge in the room contained a little bit more than the usual hotel mini-bars. There was no Pocari Sweat in there but there was a certain bottle that, on examination of the price list, I discovered would have set me back £65 if I'd been tempted to drink it when arriving back from town with a few drinks inside me already. One of the cupboards also contained a selection of snacks from crisps to chocolate bon-bons but, again, these were rather expensive for what they were, though not for a £400 a night room I suppose.

As well as the refrigerated mini-bar, there was also this neat cupboard containing a selection of miniature bottles of spirits. Luckily, I resisted the temptation once again.

When I arrived back from my day in town with Aya at around 11:30pm, I made a mistake and got in the wrong lift. Rather than taking me to the 44th floor were my room was, this lift only went to the 53rd floor. As there was already another man in the lift on his way to that floor, I could do nothing but wait. When the lift doors opened on the 53rd floor though, I was stunned. Mellow jazz music filled the air and I was staring out at he most fabulous night-time view of Tokyo.

Where I'd ended up was the jazz bar that was featured in Lost in Translation. As an added bonus though, the rain clouds had lifted and I now had an amazing view of the city below. The bar itself was rather busy and I had to be up early the next morning to catch the train to Yokohama so I didn't stay for a drink. However, I did take the opportunity to photograph the amazing view before heading back down to the reception to locate the correct lift to take me to my room.

When I got back to my room, I decided to try a little bit more photography. I'd bought a small Gorillapod folding tripod with me so I set my camera up on the windowsill and tried some different exposure times to see which one got the best results. The one you see above is a 15 second exposure with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 camera. Coincidentally, my room looked out exactly the same side of the building as the windows I looked out of in the jazz bar so I captured the same buildings but just from nine floors lower down.

One thing I also noticed upon returning to my room was that while I was out in Shinjuku, a member of the Park Hyatt staff must have come into my room, closed the curtains, and set the alarm clock out on the bedside shelf. I was slightly embarrassed by this as I'd just left all my stuff scattered about before I went out. They must have thought I was a right scruffy urchin.

The next morning, I opened the electric curtains with the switch conveniently located next to the bed and was greeted by a lovely clear sky. Finally, I'd get to see what sort of view I had from my room. Would it be Yoyogi Park or Mount Fuji?

Looking down on the street, it was nice to see residents of the World's busiest city on their Friday morning journey to work and not be part of it. The combination of the height of the room and the good quality windows of the Park Hyatt mean that the bustling city is practically silent as you stare out upon it. It's a strangely relaxing experience.

As for the view, I could see netiher Yoyogi Park or Mount Fuji. As it happened, my room was looking almost due North so rather than looking into the centre of Tokyo, I was looking out towards Nakano and the suburbs. It may not have been the picturesque view that I was hoping for but it was still quite spectacular and gave an idea of just how far outside of Central Tokyo the population build-up stretches. There were buildings as far as the eye could see.

The check-out time for the Park Hyatt Tokyo wasn't until noon so I decided to get my money's worth by sitting and writing for a few hours whilst I looked out over the city. When check-out time came though, I still found it hard to get used to the 5-star service. When I arrived at the check-out desk, a member of staff took my bag off me and offered to take it down to the exit for me. To be honest, I'd humped that bag on foot all the way from Shibuya to Shinjuku in the rain, so carrying it down to the lobby didn't exactly bother me. He gave me a receipt card for my bag but then when I got down to the lobby, I didn't actually know where I was supposed to go to get it. I approached a girl at a desk but was quickly nabbed by a member of staff who led me out the front door to where my bag was waiting on a trolley. He then proceeded to carry it to the shuttle bus and loaded it on for me.

I'd only found out about the Park Hyatt shuttle bus the day before when Aya phoned me up and told me that I could use it to get from the hotel to Shinjuku Station for our meeting. Personally, I didn't really consider it that far to walk, probably about 10-15 minutes, but since I had my travel bag with me and thought I was going to have a long trip to Yokohama, I decided to use the bus. The bus leaves every 20 minutes and only takes about 5 minutes to do the journey so it's pretty convenient.

So, what's my final opinion of the Park Hyatt Tokyo then? It's definitely the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in and has the most helpful and efficient staff. However, I'm an independent person so I'm not used to the 5-star service. I appreciate that the staff are willing to take my bag off me and carry it for me but I'm not the sort of person who'd be offended or outraged if I had to carry my own bag. Honestly, I don't think that one night is long enough to really appreciate the Park Hyatt. I never got to explore its facilities properly and never really had the chance to feel at home there. I used the shower but I never got to try out the bath. It'd be lovely to spend a week or two there though. Maybe next time...