Aman Tokyo - Trip Report
 

For me, there's a big difference between a resort and a city hotel. Resorts I go to because I want to. City hotels I go to because I need a place to stay.

Too date, I haven't been too impressed with any of the new hotels in Tokyo. The service is always good, but always feels a little impersonal....like it's just the result of good training, good processes and good information technology without much character. The other thing that bugs me about the new hotels is the lobbies. I think the finance guys have taken over and demanded that any space that doesn't generate revenue needs to be minimized. All the new hotels in Tokyo really lack character. There's no sense of identity. No grandeur. No tranquility. No sense of serenity. No nothing.

So anyway I decided to give Aman Tokyo a try. In short... it's worth going just to stay there. Stunning lobby. Incredible views. Food was excellent. Great ambiance in the restaurant and bar. Service was close to impeccable and incredibly friendly (not surprising for opening night.) The rooms were a bit too zen for my taste....I prefer a little less spartan and a bit more decoration. That said the rooms are really well laid out, great views, very comfortable, very spacious and the bath and shower are pretty amazing. Spa and gym are very good. Pool is fantastic....33 meters... view of Mt. Fuji during the day and city lights at night.

By far and away the nicest hotel in Tokyo.... maybe the nicest big city hotel period.

I'll post a more detailed report and photos when I have time.

We arrived late in the afternoon. Typical Aman welcome. Jefferey (GM) and about half a dozen staff members were waiting. Very easy valet parking. The entrance is on the ground floor with a small but nice reception area. Here's a picture of the building and entrance.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...09.40.01-1.jpg

The lobby is on the 33rd floor and you get there by express elevator. Check in is in your room, but we spent a little time looking around the lobby before heading up. The lobby is just stunning. Definitely a nice place to just hang out. Photos don't do justice but here's an attempt. The ceiling is 80 feet high.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/pa...w600-h440-p-no

In the photo at the far end of the lobby, there are several rooms including a board/meeting room, a library (mandatory for all Amans), and a cigar room. Here's a pic of the cigar room.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/C5...w600-h440-p-no

The restaurant and the bar are just off the lobby facing west (left on the picture of the lobby). There is also a nice sitting area off to the side of the lobby. Great views of the city, the Imperial Palace and Mt. Fuji as you can see below.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Me...w420-h575-p-no

After checking things out, we headed to our room and then got in a quick swim before dinner.

Since it was opening night, there was a dinner hosted by Aman for the guests. The level of cuisine is so high in Tokyo it's hard to make comparisons. It would definitely be worth going there just for dinner. If they can consistently serve the kind of food we had at dinner and stay creative with they menu, they'll get a reputation as one of the very best restaurants in Tokyo.

There is only one restaurant so we were back there for breakfast. My wife had the Japanese breakfast and I had the American breakfast. Both were very good. I have a thing about people who always want to take pictures of what they are eating... so sorry folks...no food pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't get any great photos of the restaurant either. It's a very comfortable.... high ceiling, intimate without being crowded and did I mention the views...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Un...w450-h600-p-no

As I said in my first post, the rooms are a little too zen for me, I'd like to see more decoration. We were upgraded to a suite. Here's a picture of the entrance.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/xg...w340-h460-p-no

As you walk in, there is a sitting/dining room to the right...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/S-...w560-h420-p-no

The main bedroom is off to the left.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/oK...w560-h420-p-no

As I said, the rooms are little too Sparta meets Zen for me, but the bathroom makes up for it.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/fW...w660-h500-p-no


The room is really well laid out. Very good controls for lighting, curtains, HVAC, toilets (definitely Japan). The only thing weird was that there's a VGA connector above the bed, but no USB ports. (How you forget the UBS ports I don't know.) The seating area is very comfortable. Our suite faced north and you actually get a view of Sky Tree, the city sprawl and the mountains to the North. I did not get to see them, but I think most of the rooms on the west side will have the best views.

After breakfast we headed to the pool. The pool is great..... 33 meters, perfect temperature, high ceilings and great views. There are also electric outlets next to the daybeds, which makes it a lot easier to spend several hours by the pool with my laptop. Here are a couple of pictures of the pool.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-U...w600-h449-p-no

And another. (You can see Fuji out the window.)

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Yt...w600-h400-p-no

Definitely one of the great city hotel pools.

The gym is very well equipped. Not quite Puri, but pretty impressive for Tokyo.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Vh...w450-h333-p-no

I had a treatment in the spa. Excellent massage, but the treatment rooms are again pretty spartan for my tastes. I also wished they had designed them with a view out over the city. Instead they put small individual sitting areas between the treatment rooms and the windows. Nice view for tea after your massage, but a bit of waste. The views would have been spectacular if you could see out from the treatment rooms.

Anyway, it's an absolutely beautiful hotel. I'll try to add a bit more about the service later.




Reserved by OP for more detail.

Aman Tokyo - Trip Report
 

Thank you! So much looking forward to hearing mote!

Ditto, thanks 5k! Look forward to the details and pleased that you enjoyed it.

Looks great. Thanks for posting!

Will be visiting in January!

There is a pavilion like structure within the garden , adjacent to the entrance ( I think it's the Aman's entrance ) on the ground floor . 5khours , is that part of the hotel ?
Any other public areas other than the lobby and library ?
Great report , thanks !

another first report with some new photos - thanks!

"the cafe by aman" on ground floor
http://www.businesstravelerusa.com/n...open-its-doors

The bathroom looks nice, room is so so in my eyes

Agreed; some of the furniture looks like it was purchased at Ikea!

I don't understand why Aman are talking about this hotel as the first City Aman. Is there nobody remaining at Aman who remembers Aman Delhi, or Carcosa Seri Negara (originally Aman), or am I one of the few Amanjunkies left who remember these things? :mad:

Even Canal Grande is a city hotel, even if Venice is a very special city.

Exactly!

Great trip report and probably the first review out there. I won't be in Tokyo until March but might give it a try for a few nights then just out of curiosity (despite my previous cynicism). How many nights did you stay? Did you try to see if they opened with someone who can get great restaurant reservations? Is this hotel Virtuoso? I am assuming not but if so, what are the Virtuoso amenities?

anyone know that aman concierge? since 2012 hes >
http://www.lesclefsdorjapan.com/en/2...kyo-20129.html
http://www.lesclefsdorjapan.com/en/members/

opened 22nd, 5khours posted afternoon of 23rd

Just one night.

Not sure what you mean.

Don't know, but IME, you can get all the Virtuoso/Amex/etc amenities just by asking when you book at an Aman.

Thank you for sharing this! :cool:

Thanks for sharing. I am planning a visit to Tokyo in 2015 and the Aman is high on the list. :)

Trying to ask if the concierge had the required local connections already, but Kage answered that above already -- sounds like he does.

The hotel is in the process of applying to various consortia, including Virtuoso. No specific timeline (as far the hotel is willing to say) yet as to if, or when, Aman Tokyo will be accepted.

The chief concierge is previously from Peninsula hotel. I am a die hard foodie fan( both high and low end) in japan especially tokyo. I had eaten pretty much all the top end restaurant (according to media and internet) in tokyo that can be booked without introduction system for example quintessence, loseir, matsukawa, sukiyabashi jiro...etc. The chief concierge wasn't really able to secure any of the top end restaurant reservation unless you happened to be regular customer of those restaurant, so forget about Saito or KyoAji. MO concierge is much more courteous, organized and get things done. To me, he came off highly snobby with the few emails i had interacted with prior to my arrival.

With regard to the room decor, we stayed in the same suite at the highest floor that 5khours stayed at but with slightly different view ( mount fuji, palace, and tokyo tower instead of sky tree). I wasn't sure if we are upgraded. The room is truly massive probably double the size of the oriental suite we typically stayed at MO. I actually like the decor especially the day bed. There is a dish washer machine in the kitchen for I have no idea who would use it as it wasn't a truly functional kitchen. The design of the room reminds me of the upper house suite in hong kong. I only briefly toured around the lobby last night but it was indeed gorgeous. We hadn't checked out the gym, pool and library yet. Will do so later today.

The location of the hotel is however not so desirable compared to Mandarin Oriental. Yes the hotel is connected to 4 underground subway station ( marunochi line, tozai line ( the closest), chiyoda line and hanzomon line). However, you have to take 3 different elevator to reach your hotel floor which is cumbersome. Not too mention, the subway station is a long walk to get to and the different station is not close by and some as far as 380m apart. MO location again beats Aman at least for us as we use the subway a lot.

We had just spent our first night so far, the service is friendly and attentive but i don't see a huge difference between other tokyo high end hotel such as MO and Shangrila. I also greeted by the GM and all the team at check in but I pretty much get greeted as well in MO.

In summary, I haven't find anything special so far in Aman Tokyo compared to MO except the massive suite size and the impressive lobby.

We got to toured around the hotel this morning and we had breakfast as well. The American breakfast was better than their Japanese counter part. They had gohan which was rice freshly cooked in a traditional japanese pot, but took approximately 40 minutes to cook. I liked their butter which came from gunma, fresh juice from wakayanma and eggs from kanagawa. The baked cod ( japanese dish) is slightly overcooked. The presentation of both western and japaneese dish is however beautiful. Their breakfast however is expensive even more so than MO, it would be a great benefit if breakfast was included as a perk if Aman Tokyo becomes part of virtuoso partner in the future.

I agreed with 5khours that their spa, gym and pool facility is probably the best among hotels in tokyo. The pool is the largest pool in tokyo spanning 39m and the view is amazing. i was told the water temperature is regulated. There is lots of arts on display in this hotel, the one I like the most is the wall arts located on the entrance toward the spa. At the moment , there is about 20 room/suites available for booking, so the hotel is really calm and quiet.

We had a spa treatment last night. Similar to my experience in Amanoi which in my opinion is only so so. I had better massage at Takefue ( a luxury ryokan in shirokawa, kyushu), which is true traditional shiatsu massage where pretty much all the knot and muscle tension in your body was loosened. The therapist stared off well but seemed to lost steam halfway through as I requested deep pressure tissue massage. My wife therapist is even worse as she isn't strong enough to lift my wife head up during neck massage in a supine position and hence it was more touching than massaging.

Tha Aman journey provided so far in tokyo include
1) Iaido-Mugai-ryu Japanaese sword manoeuvring
2) Soboku( Caligraphy) with Koshun Masunaga
3) Edo Glass Blowing"Furin" wind chime making
4) Tsukiji Fish Market tour with Sushi Chef, Mr Oba ( Previous kyubey chef and own a restaurant "Sushi Kokoro"in kagurazaka
5) Miyasaka Brewery in Kamisawa--Sake Tour

interesting

thanks! general price range?

re massage, how does it compare to tokyo hotels and luxury hotels in general?

anyone else heard anything about other culture/hotel offerings at aman tokyo?

So far it seems that everyone has been met by the GM when checking in. That's great during the initial opening, but given that the hotel has 80 rooms, how likely is this to occur and how accessible will the GM be later on? Also does that mean that this Aman will have to go after regular business guests by offering corporate rates?

Strictly hypothetical questions for now, but given this is the largest Aman by far it may require a different management style.

As to the tours on silverslim's list, I am not into this sort of thing but I do know that generally speaking the luxury hotels of Tokyo will arrange a Tsukiji tour with one of their chefs. What they won't do is likely publicize it, the guest needs to know to ask.

Sake tours are straightforward. So is a tea ceremony experience which strangely is not on that list. Also I would expect (but again not on that list, maybe they don't have contacts yet) that there should be a visit to a sumo stable for morning practice.

amans with residential villas can have many more bedrooms and much higher maximum occupancy. agree that in tokyo the number of check-ins and occupancy rate will be very high, especially in comparison. (although they have stated in recent press coverage that they are looking to increase occupancy rates at all amanresorts, and that has been illustrated by the continued addition of low seasons.)

most rooms >
84 tokyo
58 sveti stefan
51 summer palace

im curious if tokyo will have complimentary cultural activities like other aman,
and whether prices of excursions are as high as peninsula. edit: sounds like yes >

Hard to say. The massage I had was very good... better than most luxury hotels. But that's just one therapist, and when they're fully staffed, they'll probably have 15 to 20 therapists. It also depends on what kind of massage you want. I personally hate shiatsu and it's unlikely you'll have a therapist that's good at both shiatsu and say aromatherapy. Bottom line though IMHO you will never get as good a treatment with a hotel therapist as you do with a therapist you see regularly and understands what works for you.

BTW - One problem with the spa is that it is only open from 10am to 10pm. Completely useless for a business traveler IMHO.

Spot on. I think that's the reason Aman brought on Jeffery who has hotel experience rather than someone from inside the organization. You definitely can't judge service by your reception at opening night. It really depends on how things develop and how they handle things when the hotel is more fully occupied. Also I think the challenge for Aman Tokyo is that while there are a lot of very well trained hospitality professionals in Tokyo, they are.... very well trained....which means very much by the book and somewhat robotic service. Empowering employees with the Aman culture is a lot harder when you are dealing with employees who have a set idea of how to do things.

As I said in the OP, a lot of hotels in Tokyo have very good service, but very few can take great formal service and make it personal feel at home.

It will be interesting to see how things develop. A lot of the Aman Tokyo staff have overseas and/or previous Aman experience so that helps. Without that you get the Japanese staff saying, "This is Japan. We know how to do things. You don't. Don't tell us how to do our job."

did they say they would not open spa 'after' hours, even for additional fee?

lots of good details and discussion.

i believe 21 rooms on 1 floor (84 rooms on 4 floors)
i heard theyre opening a floor at a time IIRC

You can use the pool, gym, locker rooms, ofuro, steam 24 hours a day. Treatments though are only 10 to 10.

The guest rooms are located on floors 35-38.

I like to correct 5khrs that only gym is 24 hrs the ret is only open till 1030pm at least for now

The main staff that I have been interacting the most is yomiko which is transferred over from amankora (Bhutan) . She is probably has the most Aman spirit staff among everyone else I have seen , the rest is still very Japanese hospitality at best which is not at par in terms of training compare to mo. I understood a lot of the hotel staff is actually recruited from MO , Penisula and the like as I met a lot of familiar face. I think Aman has to conform to Japanese way of how things is done given they have large japanese clientele as 2 third of the guest that have checked in the hotel for the last few days have all been Japanese . Japanese is acclaimed with their service especially high end hotel and luxury ryokan so I really don't think Aman can really compete in service level compared to the other high end hotel in Tokyo.

As far as Aman journey go they were way overpriced and I wasn't interested at the journey offered so much probably I have been to Japan endless time and have traveled from the tip of Kyushu to Hokkaido. It's seems to cater to those who have never been to Japan before. In my opinion it is much better exploring Japan on your own leisure time. For one the tsukiji fish market tour with a sushi chef and as mentioned by Richard is also provided by other hotel or even travel agency . The journey include dining at the sushi chef restaurant kokoro in the evening which I think there is a conflict of interest and by the way its no where to consider the top sushiya in Tokyo let alone ginza.
There is no complimentary activities right now in Tokyo unless you consider listening to someone playing traditional music in the lobby an activities which is certainly free.

According to yomiko , the centre part of the lobby lounge which is between the restaurant and bar to be the tea or Cafe room in the future . I think the true redeeming point of my Aman Tokyo stay is the peacefulness and calm since they have very few guests at the moment which truly bring out the zen atmosphere the hotel is trying to transpire which I doubt will be the same case anymore once the hotel is fully opened

were there bills to sign in the restaurant/spa? (unfortunate if not aman style)

silverlim, re massage, how does it compare to tokyo hotels and luxury hotels in general?

some aman staff from hotels in japan listed here >
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...l#post23793006 and next post was >

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if Aman only attains the service level of MO, they will have failed. Japan still has restaurants and hotels that do have great service, but MO, FS, RC, Pen, PH etc. aren't even close......IMHO.

Kagehikokiri-- I rarely does spa while I am in Japan and most of the time I did it while I am in a ryokan. In terms of pampered level the mo is better but treatment wise , for me Aman is better but for my wife mo is cleat better so it's really depend on which therapist you get. To each of his own, I prefer traditional shiatsu or Thai massage where few hotel does really well whilst most luxury hotel focus more on facial treatment , body exfoliation, aromatherapy....etc

I am not sure if you referring the ground floor as hotel lobby versus the otemachi ground floor as the hotel ground floor has nothing aside the evator to get to the hotel lobby

All hotel floors is open according to yomiko but they limit how many room is occupied at the moment they will put guest to their prefer room and floor .

No bill to sign at restaurant but instead of other Aman where they recognize who you are here they ask for your room number and you have to check in at the spa reception facility every time you use any of the facility and you also have to sign the waiver which I found annoying

thanks for additional details.

http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4067682.html
"the cafe by aman" now says "(Opening spring 2015)" - they just added that

With this hardware service can`t be good enough.....

Agreed. Photos of the rooms - bathrooms aside - are really uninspiring. I like Zen and minimalism, and greatly enjoy modern and Scandinavian/Nordic design, but the photos just leave me scratching my head.

Between this and the location, I'm in no hurry to stay. Too, unlike others I feel no compulsion to "collect" all of the Amans.

Am I the only one that likes the look of the rooms?

The official photos I've seen from Aman themselves are stunning - the user posted here less so, but still something I like.

I do agree that the bathroom is a stunner though.

Mrs. 5k loved the rooms too. I think it's a matter of personal preference.

Also, I don't get the comments on location. I can understand it doesn't work for someone doing business in Shinjuku, but IMHO it's a much better location than MO or FS, but then I tend to think in terms of getting to places by car.

i like "premier room living area" and "corner suite living room"
http://www.amanresorts.com/amantokyo/accommodation.aspx
even some official photos dont show wood on walls very clearly

I don't see how it can be better located than the FS. The FS is in Tokyo Station.