LapLap,
Thank you, thats what I was looking for, I think the AC option will be the best(only medium wide). We get into YYZ at 12am and our connection is at 2pm next day..We should be able to find a room near the airport and do some shopping or sightseeing the next day. Any suggestions on a hotel in Tokyo, near Ginza?

I would recommend a hotel in Shinjuku instead.
Look at the Keio Plaza or the Hyatt Regency;
I prefer the first one - it has some nice restaurants inside and the service is impecable. Splurge and get one of the Premier rooms
It is livelier and has more action at night.
It is a quick 15 minute subway ride to Ginza

With the exchange rate and the cost in Tokyo, most things in Japan are cheaper in the US.

If you want to stick to the $300~/night range, IMO some of the best values would be the Hyatt Regency, Hilton, and Century Southern Tower. These hotels are in the Shinjuku area, where there are a great many department stores, including Takashimaya Times Square, Isetan, Odakyu, etc...

If you can increase the budget a bit, then the very best located hotel would be the Mandarin Oriental. It is right next to Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi in Nihombashi, and very close to Ginza as well. Even a standard room is spacious at 50 square meters, and will have impressive views. Booking through Amex FHR will get you breakfast, an upgrade, and other benefits at MO or any of the other FHR hotels in Tokyo.

You might also consider the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi Hills. Roppongi is also good for shopping, and it is easy to get around the city by subway.

Lot of good suggestions in this thread. My personal recommendations are:

1. If you are buying the tickets and want to fly C, AC is the best choice. Great seats in C and the best price. The only caveat is that it is a herringbone layout and you won't be able to sit side by side with your wife.

2. For the hotel, I would stay at the main wing at the Okura. It's old, the location is slightly inconvenient for public transporation, and the rooms are small, but a) you can get a decent rate, b) it has an elegant, quiet and timeless lobby, and c) the service is the best in Tokyo....by far. For many years, it was ranked as the best hotel in the world.

And those years ended at least 20+ years ago. But as a result they often have to discount heavily. I would sort of view this as equivalent to staying at the Waldorf=Astoria in NYC: faded glory.

This is definitely true about the hotel, but the restaurants are still very good. Instead of staying at the Okura, a much better idea would be to stay at the GH or R-C and go out for a teppanyaki dinner at the Okura's excellent restaurant Sazanka.

Thanks for the reply, I am buying the tickets and AC is by FAR the best rate for biz class.
Is the herringbone pattern of seating normal? Can you see or interact with your spouse at all or are you completely isolated?

It's becoming more and more normal, it's the compromise made in order to make angled 180degree beds into fully flat ones in many carriers.

I'm afraid in the AC set up you'll barely be able to maintain eye contact with your partner and it's impossible to have a discreet conversation unless you get up and crouch next to them. It's a very unromantic way to travel.
Best to do all your wining and dining in the lounge and imagine that you're flying side by side in individual travel pods where you can sleep and catch up on movies and then chat about what you saw once you arrive at the airport and are queuing at customs and passport control. At least you'll be refreshed from the sleep and feel pleased to be able to interact with your partner again rather than feel as if you're fighting each other for space and getting more and more irritable with each passing hour of the journey.

As for hotels in the Ginza area...
$300 is about double my budget (I've been to Tokyo too often to have been able to afford to splurge on each visit).
I have been to a few of the higher end hotels but not made it to a genuine 5 star establishment.
Shinagawa is not the most happening location but it's proved itself time and time again as being extremely convenient as the location makes trips to Ginza just as convenient and easy (and inexpensive) as trips to Shinjuku and other prime locations in Tokyo.
The Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa has rooms that were recently refurbished on the Superior floors. These particular rooms offer (IMHO) some of the best value accommodation in Tokyo. (I was able to compare them directly on one visit to the rooms of the Club Floor at the ANA Intercontinental and they stood up beautifully to that challenge). They aren't quite as nice as the rooms at The Strings IC but The Strings is nearly double the price.
I'm personally not willing to pay the premium needed to stay within Ginza when Ginza is about a 3,000yen taxi ride from Shinagawa (or 10 minutes and 150yen each on the Yamanote line + 10 minutes walking/waiting time)

I agree, but even though the rooms are not as nice as other hotels, a) the tranquility and elegance of the public spaces are much better than almost any other hotel, and b) the service is arguably the best of any hotel in the world.

Just make sure you are looking at the right hotel. The Shinagawa Prince hotel complex contains a number of Prince hotels with VERY similar names.

Absolutely right.

After much research, we are going with the Peninsula. The rates for top hotels in Tokyo are much less than the rates in New York and even Hong Kong. Do you have advise for the best way to get to the hotel from NRT? The hotel car service is MUCH more expensive than in HKG. Thinking either limo bus or train, how difficult are these options and are there any other options I don't know about?

I'm researching this very question about transportaion to the PEN.

You actually have several options:

You can take the N'EX (Narita Express) and if you buy it in combo with their Suica card offer you get a great price along with a starter Tokyo transporation stored value card. You would take this to Tokyo Station and take a cab from there inexpensively, or you can transfer to the metro which doesn't seem worth the effort, or if you aren't too badly loaded down you could walk in - hmmm - ~15 minutes??

You can take the Sky Train to Nippori and transfer to the JR Yamanote line to Yurakucko, from which Hibiya (which is the actual PEN subway station) is listed as a four minute walk. I've read that the Yamanote line is a major commuter line and will be crowded at peak hours.

This site is wonderful for travel planning:

http://www.tokyo-subway.net/english/index.html

You can also take the limousine bus with has a stop at the PEN, the travel times for this option as posted as the longest option and the buses not terribly frequent:

http://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/pla...hes/index/2/64

Not quite as easy as jumping into a cab at JFK..

But possibly easier than JFK to EWR!