With over 100 years of history behind it, the Tokyo Station Hotel stretches all across the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. It spans just four floors, but as a member of the hotel staff was guiding us to our room, she said that the length of the hotel is greater than the height of Tokyo Tower. The third floor, where we were staying, is essentially one long hall that wraps around the inside of both the North and South Dome. You could get as much exercise as a mall walker going up and down the hall, from one side of the building to the other.
Train passengers are constantly coming and going from the ticket gates on the first floor of each dome in Tokyo Station, and many people gather in the promenade out in front of the station to take pictures of its stately akarenga (red brick) façade. However, some of them may not even realize that the station building doubles as a hotel, with its windows looking out from 150 rooms and suites.
Ringing in the New Year
I had booked our room at the Tokyo Station Hotel at the last minute through Hotels.com before we took the bullet train back from our New Year’s trip to Fujinomiya. Though we live in Tokyo’s western suburbs, we had talked about staying at this hotel before as sort of a midtown luxury getaway.
I wasn’t expecting there to be any rooms available since it was a public holiday, and it also happened to be the first New Year’s in three years when the Japanese imperial family was making a public appearance to greet well-wishers down the street at the Imperial Palace. They traditionally only open the inner palace grounds and do two greetings like this per year. (The other one is on the Emperor’s Birthday in February.)
The hotel staff member told us the imperial family’s greeting would usually draw about 60,000 people. We had attended it back in 2014 when Tokyo Station was celebrating its 100th anniversary, before Emperor Akihito abdicated the throne to then-Crown Prince (and current Emperor) Naruhito. In 2023, however, the event was only accessible to upwards of 9,000 people via a lottery system.
Despite the holiday, there was a single room available at the Tokyo Station Hotel, and the price had dropped a little from when I first checked it. While it was still as expensive as you’d expect for a luxury hotel, judging by the calendar of availability for the months ahead, it looked like this was the cheapest option we were ever going to find for this place.
Since the timing was right for us with winter vacation, we decided to continue ringing in the New Year in the heart of Tokyo on January 2, after taking in the sight of Mount Fuji up close on January 1.
The Hotel Experience
The Tokyo Station Hotel is sealed off from the sound of trains and the world outside the station with lockout doors that require a key card to enter. We were originally supposed to be staying in the South Wing, but as we were checking in, we realized I had overlooked something that was printed quite clearly on our reservation: namely, that the one available room I had felt so lucky to book was, in fact, a smoking room.
The cancellation gods must have favored us, though, because the front desk was able to find another vacant room with a better view and upgrade us to it at a reduced price. This, on top of the Hotels.com discount, meant that we wound up getting a good deal on a room looking straight out over the station promenade and down the central avenue of Gyoko-dori to the Imperial Palace.
Our window in room 3042 was right over the Marunouchi Central Gate in Tokyo Station. It offered a full view of the Shin-Marunouchi Building and a partial view of the Marunouchi Building, with the latter being on full display once we took the north elevator down to the exclusive entrance for hotel guests and emerged onto the promenade.
The Tokyo Station Hotel's website describes the décor of its rooms as European, and all I can say is, ours was probably the nicest hotel room I've ever stayed in. We were literally sleeping under a glass chandelier.
A Room With a View, Part Deux
In contrast to the narrow corridors of this world-class boutique hotel, the room was very spacious, from the work desk corner to the walk-in rain shower. Though having two twin-size beds (as opposed to one queen or king) wasn't ideal, we’ve made that kind of trade-off in favor of the best possible view before with our balcony room at the Tokyo DisneySea Hotel Miracosta.
The Tokyo Station Hotel even reminded me of the Miracosta a little in that we had a view of a crowded pedestrian plaza but could also see it after hours (in this case, after the trains had stopped) when no one was there. It’s a rare sight to see Tokyo Station without any people in front of it. I imagine a pro photographer could have a field day with a setup like that and the various lighting conditions as the sun sets and rises during their hotel stay.
Being able to hop on an elevator anytime, and pop down to the promenade and dome floors through discreet hotel doors makes for some convenient access. Throughout the hotel, they also have windows where you can look down at the busy floor of the ticket gates in the central Marunouchi entrance/exit and both domes. From the third floor, you can see the top of the inner domes closer than anywhere in the public part of the Tokyo Station building.
Restaurants (Bar Camellia, The Atrium, and Lobby Lounge)
There are ten different restaurants, cafes, and bars in the Tokyo Station Hotel. Some of them are located on the second floor of the South Dome, so that you’ll have a view of it and people entering and leaving the station as you make your way inside (same as you would upon exiting the Tokyo Station Gallery in the North Dome).
At the elegant Bar Camellia, I had the 75-year-old signature “Tokyo Station” cocktail. Azusa ordered coffee and cheesecake. The bar offered a view of the KITTE Building, while the Lobby Lounge, where we had hot chocolate after checking out, offered a better full-on view of the Marunouchi Building.
Food-wise, the real highlight of our stay was the kaiseki-style breakfast buffet at the Atrium. This restaurant is only for hotel guests, and it’s located at the top of the station behind the circular, cyclopean window that you’ll see in the center of it outside. It’s a buffet with better quality food than the usual hotel buffet, and for those unsure about the dainty portions, there’s an omelet station, plenty of meat dishes, and even things like doria.
The other restaurant I was interested in, Yakitori Seo, was closed for the holidays, but the hotel’s location meant that we were also able to walk over to the Marunouchi Building and have dinner there at an Italian restaurant we like the night before.
Afterward, we checked out the Marunouchi Illumination, where trees along Naka-dori, the street behind the Marunouchi Building, are lit up champagne gold.
The Secret World of Tokyo Station
All in all, our stay at the Tokyo Station Hotel was a wonderful addition to our trip. It felt like we entered some secret world behind-the-scenes at the station. The hotel itself opened in 1915, and its walls are decorated with photographs that give a sense of its history. If you can afford it, I’d highly recommend the unique experience of staying at this luxury hotel built into the side of a bustling train station in the city center.
For more pics in and around the Tokyo Station Hotel, check out this photo gallery.