Why book?
You feel like you’re in a film set: a cross between a modern mausoleum and a Zen temple. If you want to understand what attention to detail means in Japan, this is where you come.
Set the scene
Those who love Aman love it with a madly, ecstatically, deeply devotional reverence. Would it be sacrilegious to say that, in some obscure yet undeniable way, the Aman Tokyo, with its irresistible combination of hard-edged icy calm and soft fibrous warmth, best expresses the magic of a brand that has evolved to become, well, a cult?
The backstory
Built in 2014, this was the Aman Group’s first urban address – its chance to show that it could deliver its unique brand of understated, soothing luxury to the city. The hotel’s designer, the late Australian Kerry Hill, was a master at mixing local styles into contemporary architecture and here he excelled at delivering a thoroughly Japanese hotel – with its washi paper ceilings, tatami matting and serene spaces – into an unremarkable steel-and-glass tower.
The rooms
The feeling is that of a ryokan: a sliding shoji screen separates the light-filled sleeping and living area from the basalt-lined bathroom, with its spacious walk-in shower and its deep square tub with views out over the Tokyo skyline. It’s a room in which you could stay all day, nibbling Japanese sweets or drinking fine green teas. The beds – like all the furniture, clean-lined and minimal – are made with the softest, downiest bedding and sheets, with reading lights and chargers set into the pale-wood bedhead, where simple controls for the whole room are based, from the lights to the blackout curtains. The Aman Suites are Tokyo’s largest: the space you’d dream of taking over for a private dinner party.
Food and drink
The main restaurant is Italian with food as delicious as those you’d get in Tuscany, but with some Japanese ingredients: Sagamihara eggs (as orange as you can get, in the spaghetti carbonara) and fresh tilefish, served with aubergine and capers. There’s nothing you can’t have for breakfast: exotic fruit platters, creamy yellow scrambled eggs with Norwegian salmon, or the prettiest bento-box.
The service
The chauffeur pick-up is by black Mercedes – and a driver with white gloves. Check-in is seamless. Waiting staff remember what you like.
The area
The Otemachi area isn’t very inspiring; it’s like the Wall Street of Tokyo. But it’s incredibly easy to get anywhere from here: it’s a five-minute walk to the Imperial Palace Gardens and half an hour’s drive to the airport, and the buzzing Shibuya district is easily accessible, on the metro.
AloJapan.com