A pre-breakfast dispatch from the 45th floor of Bulgari Hotel Tokyo, written from a window seat at the rooftop bar at 06:35 with a single espresso and the early Tokyo light starting to do its work across the Marunouchi skyline. The bar is not open at this hour for service. The maître d’ on duty knows I am writing and has unlocked the floor for the dispatch and a coffee. The espresso machine is on. Nobody else is here.
The Bulgari Hotel Tokyo opened in April 2023. It occupies floors 40 through 45 of the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu tower — the skyscraper directly above the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station, which is the central rail interchange of the city and one of the busiest stations in the world. The hotel sits on top of all of that. It does not interact with any of it. You enter the building at street level through a discreet lobby on the Yaesu side and you do not see the station again until you leave.
The pool
I came down at 06:00 to swim before the dispatch. The pool is the most ambitious hotel pool I have used in Asia. Twenty-five metres, fully indoor, lined in Venetian glass mosaic, with the hand-painted gold ceiling that the hotel’s marketing material understates rather than oversells. The wall of glass on the city side gives you the Tokyo morning at swimmer’s eye level. The water is warmer than competitive lap pools and cooler than spa pools, which is the correct compromise.
I had it to myself for thirty-eight minutes. One other swimmer arrived at 06:38 and took an outside lane. The pool is wide enough that two swimmers do not crowd each other. The lifeguard on duty was attentive without being a presence. Towels are warmed. Goggles are available at the desk for guests who have forgotten them.
The pool’s mosaic is the hotel’s defining architectural gesture and you do not understand the photographs until you are in the water under the gold ceiling at first light. The light moves on the gold. The gold moves on the water. The water moves on you.
The 45th floor
I came up to the 45th-floor rooftop bar at 06:30 with damp hair and a notebook. The bar floor is the second great room of the hotel. The floor itself is the dish: a vast peacock mosaic that runs the length of the bar, set into the polished surface, with the colour saturation that good Venetian-style mosaic delivers and which photographs flatten. You walk on the peacock. You do not stand on it directly without thinking about it. There is a low rail that channels foot traffic at the edge.
The outdoor terrace runs the length of the south face. I went out for ninety seconds — the air at the 45th floor in May at 06:30 is cool and the wind is steady — and then came back inside for the espresso. The terrace is the right room for an evening cocktail. The interior is the right room for a coffee in the morning.
The city below
The eastern view from the 45th floor takes in the long sweep of Tokyo Bay, the Rainbow Bridge in the middle distance, and the Tokyo Skytree off to the left. The southern view is the Marunouchi tower district. The northern view runs out toward Ueno. The morning I am writing this, the sky is the soft post-rain blue that Tokyo gives you in early May. The skyline is sharp.
This is one of the great rooftop views in a city with several great rooftop views. The Park Hyatt’s view will always have the cinematic weight that the film gave it. The Andaz has the more open eastern aspect. The Four Seasons Otemachi has the Imperial Palace foreground. Bulgari has the central station view, which is the most operative view of the city if you read Tokyo as a transit landscape, which it is.
The room
I am on the 42nd floor in a one-bedroom suite. The room is more ornamental than the Aman Tokyo or Four Seasons Otemachi vocabulary — Bulgari design, by definition, runs warmer and more decorative than the Japanese-minimalist register that has dominated luxury hotel design in this city for a decade. The dark woods, the gold accents, the deep marble of the bathroom — these are the brand’s signature moves and they are executed at the level you expect from a hotel that occupies six floors of a flagship tower.
The bed is firm. The blackout blinds are correct. The bathroom has the right water pressure and a soaking tub that is set against a window. The mini-bar is generous and not punishing.
Dinner the night before
Last night I ate at Il Ristorante - Niko Romito, the hotel’s principal restaurant. The Tokyo outpost of the chef’s three-star Italian programme has held a Michelin star here since shortly after opening. The cooking is the disciplined Italian cooking that Romito has built his reputation on — restrained, ingredient-led, with the kind of saucing that does not announce itself. I had a pasta course that was the best plate of cacio e pepe I have eaten in Asia. The dining room is quieter than the bar above it, the service is calm, and the wine list runs deep on Italian production with the right Japanese cellar additions.
The other dining options — Sushi Hōseki, The Bvlgari Bar, Bvlgari Dolci — I did not visit on this trip. I have eaten at Hōseki on a previous visit and it remains the best sushi in any hotel in the city.
What the property is for
Bulgari Hotel Tokyo is for a particular kind of Tokyo trip: a central-station trip, a Marunouchi-business trip, a shopping-and-restaurants trip. It is not the right answer for a contemplative Tokyo trip, which is Aman Tokyo’s role, nor for an Imperial Palace-adjacent trip, which is Four Seasons Otemachi’s role. It is the loudest, most ornamental, most design-forward of the city’s three top hotel openings of the last decade, and it is correctly so. The pool and the 45th-floor bar are the two great rooms. Both deserve the morning.
The day ahead
I have a meeting in Marunouchi at 10:00, which is a six-minute walk through the station’s underground. I will be back at the hotel by 14:00 for an afternoon in the spa. The pool will be busier at that hour. The morning was the moment.
I am going to finish the espresso. The bar will open for the breakfast service at 07:00. The maître d’ will lock the floor again at 06:50. I have eleven more minutes of the peacock to myself.
Standing Questions
- When did Bulgari Hotel Tokyo open?
- April 2023. It occupies the 40th through 45th floors of the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu skyscraper, directly above and adjacent to Tokyo Station's Yaesu exit.
- Is the pool actually outdoors?
- No. The pool is the 25-metre indoor pool inside Bulgari Spa, lined with Venetian glass and mosaic, with hand-painted gold ceilings. It is set behind a wall of glass with city views; it is the city's most architecturally significant hotel pool.
- What is on the 45th floor?
- The rooftop bar — with a peacock mosaic floor that is the hotel's other signature image. The floor is also home to the hotel's main outdoor terrace. It is the highest occupied level of the hotel.
- How does it compare to Aman Tokyo or the Four Seasons Otemachi?
- Different shape. Aman is quieter, more residential, and slower. Four Seasons Otemachi has the better Imperial Palace view. Bulgari is the louder, more ornamental, more design-led answer. The pool tips the comparison.
