24-Hour Room Service: Park Hyatt Tokyo

There is nothing quite so disappointing as checking in to your hotel only to find that the view from your room is of an internal courtyard or a car park.

There is nothing quite so disappointing as checking in to your hotel only to find that the view from your room is of an internal courtyard or a car park. Fortunately, this is never the case at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. The hotel occupies the top 14 floors of the gleaming 52-storey Shinjuku Park Tower, and the panoramas are spectacular. By night you can gaze down on the twinkling morass of Tokyo, while on clear days you are treated to views of Mount Fuji.

For film fans, the hotel's big claim to fame is its starring role in Lost in Translation. Much of the story was filmed in the Park Hyatt's guest rooms, dimly-lit corridors and buzzing bars, and guests can visit the rooftop New York Grill & Bar to sit in the same seats as the movie's leading characters.

There are two bars, a delicatessen and five restaurants, one of which is Kozue on the 42nd floor, where you can work your way though a succession of beautifully presented Japanese dishes decorated with autumn leaves and served on handmade plates.

If anything is going to induce you break into a sweat it will be the Club on the Park on the 45th floor, with its swimming-pool and gym, and whirlpool, steam, sauna and treatment rooms.

LOCATION

3-7-1-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku (00 81 3 5322 1234; www.parkhyattokyo.com). The hotel is in Shinjuku, Tokyo's most Bladerunner-like district.

Time to international airport: it takes about an hour to catch the Narita Express from the airport to the maze-like Shinjuku station. One-way tickets cost Y3,110 (£16) and you need to reserve a seat at the ticket office before you get on. From there a free shuttle service takes passengers to the hotel. Limousine bus transfers are available straight from the hotel to Tokyo Narita every 50 minutes that cost Y3,000 (£15) one-way. A taxi costs around Y25,000 (£126) one-way and takes around 90 minutes.

COMFORTABLE?

When you walk in, you are immediately drawn to the mesmerising views from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hotel's 160 guest rooms and 18 suites. Once you have dragged yourself away, you will find sleek and sophisticated East-meets-West interiors; huge beds plus lots of thoughtful touches like books to flick through, a giant Japanese dictionary and tea- and coffee-making facilities. Rooms are also surprisingly large in a city where space is at such a premium.

The hotel's luxurious bathrooms are clad in marble and feature the state-of-the-art Japanese-style Western lavatories, with their heated seats that adjust to your body temperature and shower and drying mechanisms that perform tasks you never thought possible.

Freebies: The Park Hyatt goes that little bit further than the usual luxury stock-in-trade of Bulgari and Hermès, with the fashionable Australian Aesop range of natural products.

Keeping in touch: direct-dial telephones with voicemail, a fax machine connection in every room and a TV with DVD.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Double rooms cost from Y69,000 (£338) with breakfast.

I'm not paying that:

At the Homeikan Ryokan, 5-10-5 Hongo, Bukyo-ku (00 81 3 3811 1187) has double rooms from Y11,550 (£58) room-only.