Hoshinoya Tokyo

Hoshinoya Tokyo is on many a design-loving travellers’ hit list. It begins with the entrance—a wooden doorway carved from a single slab of aomori hiba (cypress wood), which leads to a tatami room lobby. Above, each floor functions as a six-room traditional ryokan, with private suites and a communal ochanoma lounge, where seasonal teas are served ceremoniously throughout the day. Of course, no ryokan is complete without an onsen. Perched on the top floor of Hoshinoya Tokyo are two bath houses, separated by gender and fed by hot spring waters drawn from 1,500 metres below the ground. Each contains an indoor and an outdoor bath, the latter located at the bottom of a grandiose, cave-like, open-roofed chamber with soaring walls that frame the sky above.