CHAMPAGNE DREAMS

Krug in minibars instantly says style. That’s the operative word at the 18-month-old, 98-room Bvlgari Tokyo. The hotel is located on the 40th to 45th floors of the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu skyscraper, only five minutes from Tokyo Station. It’s on the top five floors of a 45-storey Mitsui Fudosan building.

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

There are several Bulgari ‘essentials’ here. Interiors are, as always, by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel - but, as in Rome, there is slightly more colour, at least in orange, the brand hue, than in earlier Bulgaris. (Bulgari or Bvlgari, as you like, it seems.)

 

TOKYO ON A PLATE 

Similarly, as expected by Bulgari fans, the food is by Niko Romito, but again, the maestro has evolved since the opening of the first Bulgari in Milan in 2004. A typical lunch at the eponymous Niko Romito Tokyo might start with a clear broth of vegetables boiled so long that the flavour is as intense as a perfume. Next comes a single Botan Ebi shrimp swimming in a clear lemon-flavoured liquid, with pea-sized globules that were pink pepper or parsley. After this, the tortellini is opened and topped with morsels of zucchini and mint, all in a Parmigiano Reggiano sauce.

A FLAVOURSOME AFFAIR

Of course, spaghetti’s a must, here served as a mound topped by sea urchin and served with roast garlic and pepper powder. Carry on to a two-bite Miyazaki wagyu fillet with the tiniest green grapes, capers, black pepper, and one bite of mashed potato. Finally dessert. A martini glass of white chocolate mousse is blended with Yamanashi peach sorbet, and the whole is enclosed in rosé wine foam.

 

DIRECTOR OF LUXURY

The hotel’s General Manager, Yuji Tanaka, is as interesting as the food. He’s a movie buff who saw over 500 films as an early teenager and later worked in a hotel to earn money to study production in the USA. Except he didn’t. He stayed in hotels. He had previously opened five Marriott-family hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton Kyoto. (A Ritz-Carlton is more formal; Bulgari stresses being more true to yourself, he says). 

 

MANGA PAGES, DIGITAL STAGES

He's bubbling over with energy. Why are there so many American tourists around, often with enthusiastic preteenage kids? Tanaka-san talks about manga, any-age Japanese comics, and the Ghibli Museum of adorable cartoons in the Mitaka area of Tokyo. There are also two Team Lab digital art museums in Tokyo, one in Azabudai Hills and one in Toyosu. It's easy to see why kids and their parents are excited. The art is absolutely charming and attractive to any age.

GRACEFUL CURRENTS

We also talk about bedrooms or rather suites. Suite 4,411 is lovely, with all-wall windows looking over the Tokyo River and around the Imperial Palace gardens. Elm floors and some wood wall panels complemented statement convex ceilings in both the bedroom and the sitting room. The soft-orange felt-feel chairs in the sitting room had crimped edges (like sealing an old-fashioned pie crust). A large Bulgari coffee table book sat on - a coffee table.

 

FROM BALI WITH LOVE

It is also essential to talk about bathrooms. This one is beautiful, primarily because of the ‘bits’, the containers and holders for soap, toiletries, and the like. Here, they are china, soft blue and grey with ‘real-look’ gold spotted in a deliberately ad hoc alignment. They are covetable gorgeous, handmade in Bali for Bulgari. The style throughout here at Bulgari Tokyo.