Best for cultural immersion
£ £ £ HOSHINOYA TOKYO
Leave the city, and your shoes, behind as you step onto the tatami floors of this skyscraper It’s a low-lit retreat of screen doors and incense-scented air, with a secondfloor lobby that includes a little salon for tea ceremonies. The 84 rooms are spread across the next 14 floors, with each level centred around a traditional lounge serving teas, sake and house-made snacks. The rooms themselves are plush, with raised-platform futon beds, deep-soak tubs and jersey kimono-style pyjamas. An immense 17th-floor onsen-spa has hot spring waters pumped in from 5,000ft below the city streets, with a vaulted roof that leaves it part-open to the elements. The 10-table basement restaurant serves exquisite French-Japanese tasting menus and the in-room
