A rarity in Tokyo, this new hotel is one of the city’s best

The hotel

Trunk (Hotel) Yoyogi Park, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.

Trunk Hotel (Yoyogi Park) Tokyo has flourishing greenery on balconies and faces one of the city’s largest parks.

Check-in

Opened last year, Trunk (Hotel) Yoyogi Park is something of a rarity in central Tokyo. The boutique hotel, with just 25 rooms and suites, is as much about good design as it is about ensuring guests enjoy outdoor spaces. The inspiration is, no doubt, the locale. The striking seven-storey building sits directly across the road from Yoyogi Park, one of Tokyo’s biggest natural spaces. The park’s abundant trees – Japanese maple, crepe myrtle and camphor among them – create a leafy carpet that stretches to the bright lights of Tokyo’s skyscrapers. Making the most of the views, all rooms and suites have balconies, while the restaurant and pool club encourage indoor-outdoor eating, and the rooftop has a pool, hot tub and fire pit.

The look

From the street view, it’s edgy black-grey aggregate finish echoes the urban environment while hinting at traditional Japanese earthenware techniques. This contemporary look is softened by flourishing balcony plants and a ground-level restaurant that spills on to the pavement. The interior is something different altogether, a vision of urban serenity with a soft-hued, more refined palette of mushroom tones and palest pinks, mellow wood furnishings, heavily textured fabrics and rosy copper fittings. The collab between well-known Japanese architect and designer Keiji Ashizawa and Danish design studio Norm Architects fuses Nippon and Scandi design sensibilities to create a relaxed yet luxurious oasis.

The room

Trunk’s in-house design team has ensured even the more compact rooms maintain an aura of calm and repose, while being highly functional and liveable.

Trunk’s rooms rely on mushroom tones to produce a relaxed, luxurious feel.

All rooms and suites have floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies that overlook either the park or the tiled and concrete residential buildings of the local neighbourhood. Timber storage is neatly integrated into the floor plan, and stone bathroom benchtops and rattan panelling add a design element. The fantabulous Owner’s Suite (65 square metres), aka the penthouse, enjoys 30 square metres of terrace and a rock-star view over the swimming pool.

Food + Drink

Pizzeria e Trattoria L’Ombellico is the hotel’s street-front restaurant with outdoor tables and a welcoming, upbeat neighbourhood vibe. Inside, on stools along the bar, European wine is paired with authentic melty mozza-topped Neapolitan pizzas from the shiny copper-clad wood-fired oven. Hotel guests can enter the restaurant through a sneaky side access from the lobby.

Trunk’s L’Ombellico restaurant serves European wines and Neapolitan-style pizzas from the copper-clad oven.

For hotel guests only, Trunk (Pool Club) on level six has tables looking beyond the poolside umbrellas to the park. It serves Western-style breakfast (eggs benedict, avocado toast, kale and apple juice), and for lunch and dinner, fresh seafood, including a tempting selection of local oyster varieties perched on ice at the bar.

Out + About

Across Inokashira Street at Yoyogi Park, guests can take a morning walk to adjoining Meiji Jigu Shrine and enjoy the green space. In the other direction, the cool Tomigaya residential neighbourhood, also known as Oku-Shibu or inner Shibuya, boho businesses have popped up among the low-rise buildings.

A stroll through the greenery of Yoyogi Park takes guests to bustling Shibuya.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Explore cafes, quirky dessert shops, book stores and vintage boutiques or head to the local sento bathhouses. There’s also an array of hole-in-the-wall yakitori and noodle shops, complete with shingle facades and lanterns. Walk for 15 minutes and you’re in the bustle and buzz of the Shibuya district, known for its bright lights, big brand shops and mega walking strips including Cat Street, a fun place to promenade at night.

The verdict

One of Tokyo’s best with tasteful design, a cool neighbourhood and outdoor spaces that Aussies will love.

Essentials

Room rates start from ¥76,500 ($763). Trunk (Hotel) Yoyogi Park, 1-15-2 Tomigaya Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-0063, Japan. See https://yoyogipark.trunk-hotel.com/

Our score out of five

★★★★½

Highlight

The seasonally adaptable rooftop swimming pool is cool in summer and warm in winter.

Lowlight

The tap water is drinkable, so no need for those flashy plastic bottles.

The writer stayed as a guest of Trunk Hotels.