A co-worker and I completed a 14-day cruise around Japan and wanted to spend time in Tokyo afterward. There were lots of options for us, but I decided to stay in Shinjuku and my travel agent booked us into the Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo for four nights, selecting a Deluxe Grand with two beds on a Premier Club floor. This gave us access to the Club Lounge on the 45th floor where we had breakfast each morning.

We arrived at the hotel around 10:30am but check-in was at 3pm so we left our bags and went out to explore Shinjuku. Alas, it was raining that day, so we slogged around trying to find landmarks without much success. In any case, this is a review of the hotel so I will leave our Shinjuku experience for another review. At 3pm, we were efficiently checked in and obtained our passkeys to our room on the 36th floor. We retrieved our bags and made our way to our room.

The room is well laid out, a small closet, vanity and the shower/tub are to your left and the Toto toilet in its own room to your right. Past the bathroom, you enter the main part of the room with picture windows looking eastward. There are two twin beds on the left, a chair and table between the bed and a desk on the right. At 330ft2, it was smaller than our stateroom on the Silversea Muse, but it served its purpose well. Interestingly, the shower/tub had a window so one could see in from the bed area but there were horizontal wooden blinds for privacy. The bathroom could be closed off with a sliding door; the same type of door closed off the toilet. To the right of the desk was a section with a refrigerator, glassware, and a coffee maker.

After unpacking, we explored the hotel and the club lounge. After a bit, we went back up to the 45th floor to try the Sky Lounge, which opened at 5pm. My roommate was always on the lookout for Japanese whiskey, so he had to try one with our charcuterie platter. I had a gin & tonic. The tab was $74.74.

We decided to stay on property for dinner, so we explored the various dining options. There are about ten restaurants in the hotel but when in Japan, eat Japanese food so our first meal was at Kagari, where we had a teishoku meal: highballs for my roommate and more gin & tonics for me. The food was very good, and we thought very reasonable ($94.41).

On another evening we tried the Chinese restaurant, Nan-en, because it offered two items we can’t get in Hawaii … shark fin and turtle. We opted for the seven-course meal and my roommate tried the plum highball while I had a Tsingtao beer. Uh, the highball was terrible, so it was replaced by a normal one. The food was very good and reasonably priced ($230.87). A bowl of shark fin soup, when it was legal in Hawaii many years ago, cost $25 so this meal was inexpensive in those terms.

On our final day, we again checked our bags with the valet station and did our last tour of Shinjuku. We had six hours to “kill” before returning for our 4:30 bus ride to Haneda. We spent the final hour in the Lobby Lounge; I had a glass of Champagne, and my roommate had his final highballs.

Thoughts on the Keio Plaza: With one exception, the service from the management and staff were exemplary; very courteous and gracious. The Club Lounge on the 45th floor is a pleasant space to have breakfast or just to relax. There are many food options available; we didn’t get to try most of them. We did frequent the convenience store often for snacks or drinks.

If I return to Shinjuku, I will seriously consider returning to the Keio Plaza. It’s centrally located yet away from the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku. It’s surprising what a quarter mile will do to change the atmosphere. Our rooms were expensive; it came bundled with limo service from Haneda to our first hotel and limo service from Yokohama to the Keio Plaza and transportation back to Haneda, so It was difficult to figure out what the room actually cost. I think we could have saved money had we made our own reservations but as neither of us are fluent in Japanese, I was willing to pay a premium to avoid any miscommunications.