Tokyo
Japan


The Experience

One might expect to find history in a place with such a grand name. But its past -- opened by royal decree in 1890 and added to by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923 -- has disappeared. Today the Imperial -- wedged between the bustling Ginza district and leafy Hibiya Park -- offers up two sleek postmodern towers that boast high-speed Internet in every room and the nation's largest hotel business center. If you want to reprise Lost in Translation, this is the place, spacing out beside the indoor pool, tooling around town in one of the hotel's Cadillac limos or seeking your own Scarlett Johansson in the dreamy Aqua Lounge.

The Rooms

By Japanese standards, even the most modest rooms are huge. But don't get too excited, because big in Japan (340 square feet) translates into small in most other places. The decor is more conservative -- and international -- than need be, with few hints of either bygone or modern Japan (not even a Hello Kitty phone), even in the disappointingly bland suites. The only place designers were allowed to throw caution to the wind was the 2,300-square-feet Frank Lloyd Wright Suite, unveiled in 2005 as both homage to the renowned American architect and one of the most lavish hotel rooms in the entire Far East. The room utilizes various Wright motifs, including furniture designs created for his famous Prairie-style homes.

The Service

The Japanese always go out of their way to please, and the Imperial holds true to that norm. The hotel also prides itself on a high standard of English -- which you don't always find in Tokyo, even among the best hotels. And those white glove-clad hotel limo drivers certainly know their way around town.

The Highlights

Locals flock to the Imperial's French gourmet eateries, but the local food is even more terrific -- no fewer than eight restaurants specialize in different aspects of Japanese food. They range from the classy Nadamon, with its Japanese haute cuisine, to the sublime, intimate setting of a Kyoto-style café called Iseaho. Work off your meal with a round at the 20th-floor health club, a few laps in the 21st-floor indoor heated pool, or a stroll around the 4th-floor Japanese garden, where you can also experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

-- Joe Yogerst

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