YOU don’t come to Tokyo to relax. You come to eat all the uni (sea urchin) in sight, zip around on the city’s superfast metro, shop at glossy department stores, and drink too much Japanese whisky. Then you head to a more rural part of the country, such as Hakone, to unwind.

Or you can just check into the new Hoshinoya Tokyo and accomplish ample unwinding smack in the middle of the frenetic Otemachi financial district.

Japan-based Hoshino Resorts opened the Hoshinoya Tokyo in July, billing it as the city’s first “luxury ryokan”. Staying at a ryokan usually means sleeping on a futon bed on a tatami (straw mat) floor, bathing in a communal hot spring bath, and eating a multi-course kaiseki style meal while wearing a kimono. Highly recommended!

But there aren’t many ryokans in Tokyo, and the Hoshinoya takes the best elements of a ryokan and makes them fit for modern travellers in one of the world’s busiest cities. The result? One of the most peaceful urban hotels anywhere on earth. 

With 17 floors and 84 rooms, the Hoshinoya isn’t a tiny boutique hotel, but it’s incredibly intimate and quiet. Even when it’s at full capacity, you’ll rarely see or hear another guest. You’re required to walk around the hotel barefoot, even in your own bedroom, which is surprisingly liberating and makes the whole place feel like home. 

In keeping with that residential feeling, each floor has a communal living room where attendants serve complimentary roasted green tea, onigiri (rice balls), miso soup and sake. For late night snacking, they even leave out homemade instant ramen. With only six rooms per floor, it feels like an extension of your private space — though the rooms themselves are plenty spacious. The smallest is 441 sq ft, and it goes for about US$700 (RM3,108) in low season. 

But the main attraction here is the open air onsen (natural hot spring), the area’s first natural hot spring bath. Women and men bathe in separate rooftop spaces, each open to the skies, yet enclosed by towering walls. Don’t skip it: It’s an experience so restorative that it starts to feel religious. (The water is rich in therapeutic minerals.) 

The hotel even manages to bump Japan’s already legendary reputation for service up a notch: When we asked room service to heat up a leftover steak sandwich, they took the time to perfectly sear the meat and then butter and toast the bread.

Considering the great care given to leftovers, you can imagine the glory of the in-room Japanese breakfast. It comes in a bento box with fish, tamagoyaki (a Japanese rolled omelette), yuba (tofu skin), seaweed, miso soup and steaming hot rice, plus flan and fruit. And if you really don’t want to leave, there’s also a 10-table French-Japanese restaurant in the basement.

Communication can be a challenge: Many staffers are not fluent in English, and that’s tough in a complicated city where concierge support is essential for reservations and navigation. Still, it’s a small trade-off for staying at a hotel that’s so traditionally Japanese. 

Tokyo was never lacking in gorgeous, opulent hotels, but the Hoshinoya gives visitors an unparalleled cultural experience that didn’t exist before. At the end of a long day of pounding the pavement in one of the busiest cities in the world, it’s a real joy to come back to a hotel so serene. — Bloomberg