Visitors to Tokyo have a wide choice of places to call home during their visit. It can be difficult to choose.
The Park Hotel Tokyo is a choice offering plush comfort and hospitality with sustainable practices and something a little extra, namely the feeling that one is staying in an art museum.
The hotel is located on the 25th to 34th floors of the Shiodome Media Tower, just next door to Yurikamome Line Shiodome Station and a 5-6 minute walk to Shimbashi Station, home to multiple train and subway lines.
The hotel’s art connections are immediately obvious with a modern sculpture greeting visitors on the ground floor before they even step into the elevator hall, which contains more art. Once at the 25th floor lobby, modern sculptures representing the guardian gods of wind and thunder often seen at temple entrances keep watch over the lobby entrance. And this is just the beginning.
The lobby is an atrium ten stories high with a skylight flooding the space with natural light. At night, images are projected onto one of the tall blank walls, creating the appearance of a Japanese kakejiku scroll. Various works of art are displayed on the walls at eye level. The themes of the art works are changed with the seasons.
The front desk faces the atrium, with a view-filled lounge area facing the windows behind it. The atrium lounge is a space designed to emulate a Kare-sansui garden, right down to the patterns on the carpet. Even the coffee tables at the center of seating clusters are designed to look like raked sand. Around the periphery are stands containing small sculptures.
There are also two restaurants off the lobby atrium. Hanasansho is a fine dining Japanese restaurant, perfect for a business dinner or quiet relaxing end to a heavy day of sightseeing. Like many Japanese restaurants, the menu varies with the season, especially for its kaiseki course. Your waiter will happily recommend the best sake to pair with your meal. True to any Japanese fine dining, each course of the meal is beautifully arranged on dishes paired to the appearance of the food item so that each is also an artwork in its own right.
ART colours Dining is a more casual dining choice, open all day and into the evening. If your room tariff includes breakfast, this is where it is served, with both a buffet and choices off a menu. Besides enjoying views of the city, be sure to look over the walls of the restaurant, which are filled with beautiful modern Japanese art.
As I mentioned, modern Japanese art is a central theme of the hotel, not only in the lobby but also in the hallways of the guest room floors. Even the buttons on the elevators announce the exhibitions on each floor. And every piece of art in the hotel is available for purchase, making it possible to acquire your own piece of modern Japanese art as a souvenir of your visit.
Many guest rooms have been hand decorated by “artists in residence”, who have lovingly painted or otherwise decorated the walls of the rooms. Where possible, guests booked into these art rooms will be given a choice of decor. Since every room is different, the choices vary widely. The amenities are made of bamboo and other sustainable products, underscoring the hotel’s environmental conscience.
Step off the elevator on any floor to find the hallways are art museums in their own right. Many are arranged thematically, or as exhibitions of a single artist. Each piece of art is labeled with the name of the piece and of the artist, as well as the price. Scan the posted QR code for an audio commentary about the art and artists of each floor.
The neighborhood of the hotel can provide further art and other sights for those interested. Even the lobby of the building has interesting displays on the history of the Shiodome neighborhood and photojournalism. Just across the street at the overhead walkway level is the famed NTV (or Nittele) Big Clock, featuring characters from Studio Ghibli. The Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art is also just a couple of blocks away (online reservations are strongly recommended for weekend entry).
This hotel is a place where guests can be truly relaxed to enjoy their stay and their visit to Tokyo.
© 2026 Jigsaw-japan.com and Vicki L. Beyer
We’re thrilled if you share this; if you want to re-use in any other way, please request permission. The author wishes to acknowledge the kind hospitality of the hotel, which made this piece possible.
