This luxury Tokyo hotel is a favourite with locals

The hotel

Hotel Gajoen, Meguro, Tokyo

Check in

The ’great gate of fortune” leads into the expansive public areas.

With so many city hotels a cookie-cutter blend of polished but bland tones and innocuous artworks, the Gajoen’s ornate decor signals instantly that you couldn’t be anywhere else but Japan. The curved foyer features an imposing “great gate of fortune” leading into the expansive public areas, with colourful painted murals dating from the 1930s; a two-storey waterfall and pond filled with koi, and public toilets so elaborate they attract the Instagram crowd.

The look

Ornate artworks, including on the ceiling, adorn the hotel.

Originally a restaurant and now a renowned wedding venue with its own shrine, the hotel prides itself on its history and art (you can book a guided tour). There’s a separate heritage property, Hyakudan Kaidan (The Hundred Stairs) built in 1935, and pre-war works of art everywhere, including on the ceilings, so remember to look up.

Mother-of-pearl cranes (a symbol of luck and longevity) are inlaid in black lacquer, orchids abound and you can do yoga in a palatial room with art deco chandeliers and vibrant Nihonga-style painted panels.

The room

A king bedroom with huge picture window.

The 60 all-suite rooms are huge by any standards (most are 80 square metres) but especially for Tokyo. There’s a choice of Luxury, Japanese and Japanese Modern, depending on whether you want a touch of the ryokan or not, but all have marble bathrooms with a whirlpool bath and separate sauna. My suite has the biggest king bed I’ve ever seen, a walk-in wardrobe and glorious picture windows with district views in both the lounge room and bedroom. The bathroom boasts a vast array of perfectly packaged amenities including the ubiquitous face mask and a pocket-size wooden comb that I snaffle.

There is no spa on site, but you can book a private treatment in your room. Guests can also access a nearby gym and swimming pool.

Food + drink

The garden setting of Japanese restaurant Tofutei.

There are seven restaurants including Canoviano (Italian) and Shunyuki (Chinese), while the central and airy Pandora lounge overlooks the water features. Kanade Terrace serves a Western and/or Japanese buffet breakfast with good croissants (personally, can’t do raw fish first thing). The 8th-floor executive lounge, Ouka, offers complimentary drinks and snacks most of the time from 11.30am to 10pm plus a ticketed matcha experience on weekend afternoons.

The highlight is a nine-course dinner at Tofutei, the hotel’s beautiful Japanese restaurant with its private rooms and traditional low seating (though with a large rectangular pit for everyone’s legs so more comfortable than it looks). The stunningly presented menu spans the likes of tilefish soup, grilled butterfish with snow crab and wagyu beef with truffle; a rice set the final course before seasonal fruit.

Out + about

The waterfall and gardens create a sense of santuary from Tokyo’s bustle.

Despite being only a couple of stops from Shibuya and Roppongi (and 20 minutes from central Tokyo), Meguro feels relatively undiscovered. You can visit the Buddhist Daien-Ji temple to see locals making offerings; wonder at the product array of a 7-Eleven; wander down the riverside (prettier during cherry-blossom season); caffeinate at the lab-like Coffee Base; buy patisserie at Gentille bakery, or check out an izakaya. Be warned though, we got turned away from a few that clearly didn’t welcome tourists before finding the wonderfully friendly wine bar Iron House.

The verdict

Birthday and wedding celebrations abound at this historic hotel. Credit: Trudi Jenkins

This historic but contemporary hotel seems to attract as many, if not more, locals than tourists, with weddings and birthdays a focus. It’s lovely to stay somewhere that is clearly also a drawcard for celebrations.

Essentials

Hotel Gajoen Tokyo, a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, has rooms from ¥111,000 ($1097) a night, including breakfast. It has one accessible Japanese Modern room. The hotel will be closed for renovations from October 1 until March or April 2026.
See slh.com

Japan Airlines flies to Haneda (30 minutes away) from Sydney and to Narita (90 minutes away) from Melbourne. See jal.co.jp

Our score out of five

★★★★

Highlight Seeing dressed-up Japanese locals frequenting the hotel for important celebrations.

Lowlight
The barman at the Pandora lounge seemed overwhelmed by our straightforward cocktail order.

The writer was a guest of Small Luxury Hotels and Japan Airlines.