Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
For Tokyo, I think the Hilton Shinjuku is a bad location; it's surrounded by high rise modern government office buildings. Given your shopping interests and possible day trips, I'd try to stay near Tokyo Station, such as Ginza or Hibya. For many destinations, Shinagawa station also works, but you're farther from prime shopping or tourist areas. Think also about transportation to/from the airport (HND or NRT?) and try to pick a hotel that has direct limobus service at convenient times.
It'll be HND, now that DL has moved operations there. And every time someone suggests a hotel, I look to see if it's served by the airport bus.
Regarding the Hilton, so many people have suggested it but when I look at the area in Googlemaps, it didn't look like there was much right around the hotel, so your comment about the location makes sense.
Originally Posted by
freecia
The Hyatt Centric in Ginza is quite central and you can easily walk to a huge variety of shops, department stores, decent proximity to Tokyo/Shinagawa for shinkansen to Kyoto, and several subway lines + JR Yurakucho station. It might be good for that last night before you head to the airport if you want to do some last minute shopping. I prefer staying along Shimbashi, Ginza, etc side of the city vs Shinjuku as I usually do more around the East side of the city. When weather in Japan is hot, my rule of thumb is to book as close to a subway station as I can get. A few extra blocks can feel like forever in humidity. Higashi Ginza station connects via underground walkways all the way to Hibiya station and several department stores have underground entrances.
I'll be there the beginning of September, so the heat and humidity will probably be an issue. Hyatt is usually my last choice since my low status doesn't get me anything but I'll take a look at the Hyatt Centric.
Interesting that you both mention Ginza; when I started planning, that was the location I thought would be most suited for me. But I wasn't finding much in the way of the western chain hotels I needed to use points (five or six nights in a Courtyard wasn't very appealing), so I started looking elsewhere. Now I think I'm swinging back to my original plan and putting location over status.