At Tokyo’s first Fairmont hotel, the views are impossible to ignore | Canada Voices

It must be an awful lot of work keeping Fairmont Tokyo’s massive floor-to-ceiling windows so spotless, but I couldn’t stop pressing my entire face up against the glass. I did it as soon as I walked into the 35th-floor lobby, drawn by the panoramic views of Tokyo Bay and the Rainbow suspension bridge. I did it every time I returned to our plush 41st-floor suite, where the bedroom overlooked Tokyo Tower, a twinkly red-and-white Eiffel tribute. I did it instead of bothering with the gym treadmill, so I could watch the bullet trains down below zip off to Osaka. I would’ve done it at the hotel restaurant Migiwa, except there was a sushi counter in my way.

In my defence, the Fairmont staff encouraged this close examination. They were all quick to point out Mount Fuji in the distance – its satisfyingly triangular shape, like a child’s drawing of a mountain, is usually hidden by the city’s haze. I could see it out of a corner of our room, but everyone told me the prime view was a few floors down, from the hotel’s 66-foot indoor infinity pool. It’s a good tip: Wade in just before sunset to watch the light fade behind Fuji and the dense city skyline. You may be better than I was at maintaining a respectful distance from the glass.

Why you should visit

This is Fairmont’s first property in Japan, and its location is fitting: The year-old hotel sits against the tracks of several Tokyo train lines, including the Shinkansen, a nod to the brand’s Canadian Pacific Railway past. It occupies the top nine floors of the Blue Front Shibaura South Tower, with 188 rooms and 29 suites. The waterfront Shibaura district – once a fishing village, now filled in with high-rise apartments and office buildings – is incredibly convenient for Haneda Airport, a 15-minute monorail ride away.

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Inside, the hotel’s art and furnishings borrow from traditional Japanese design. You’ll find engawa-style seating nooks in the guest rooms, karakami woodblock prints on the walls and sand-coloured carpets with curved, zen-garden patterns tucked beneath the king-size beds. An enormous installation suspended over the lobby’s lounge looks like tumbling blue-and-gold sheets of translucent rice paper.

But there are plenty of modern touches here – from the QR code that connects your phone to room service to the bedside control pad that handles the blackout curtains – and the bathrooms display the boldface brands you’d expect at a five-star hotel.and the bathrooms display the boldface brands you’d expect at a five-star hotel. Dyson hairdryer: check. Le Labo Santal 33 amenities: absolutely. Japanese Toto toilet with a whole array of bells and whistles: of course. (Although the toilets really are exceptional all across Tokyo. This is the only city where I have ever uttered the words, “No worries, I’ll use the washroom at the subway station.”)

Fairmont Tokyo’s five restaurants cover quite a bit of terrain, reflecting its mostly international guests. And while scoring a reservation at Migiwa takes some planning – there are only six seats at its sushi counter – it’s worth the legwork for the stellar omakase.

Our dinner began with wild bluefin tuna sashimi, gleaming like rubies, then moved through airy dumplings made of pounded Shiba shrimp (named for the Shibaura district) and ended in a tangle of nutty soba noodles. Still, it’s the custardy midcourse sea urchin that I keep thinking about. I’m a sucker for this stuff, and the chef scooped more of it into an oval of seaweed than I thought gravitationally possible, then handed it over to me with a wink.

I’d hoped to close out our meal with one more chance to see Serene, a two-year-old black lab who serves as the hotel’s Chief Happiness Officer. But it was getting late, and Serene had called it a night, so we headed to our room – only to discover that a tiny stuffed Serene Jr. comes with the turndown service.

Room for improvement

The nearby Yamanote subway line provides direct access to Shibuya’s scramble crossing, Shinjuku’s narrow alleys and Ginza’s upscale shopping – all stops on most first-timers’ itineraries. But Tokyo is a colossal city and it can take a decent chunk of time to get back to the hotel.

Among Fairmont Tokyo’s five restaurants, only one stays open past 10 p.m. Off Record is a speakeasy-style bar that goes till 2 a.m. with killer cocktails and an A+ R&B-heavy set list – although there’s seating for just 14 people, along with a roughly $20 cover charge.

Since you’re in the neighbourhood

There are more parks than you might expect scattered across the commercial Shibaura district: The Edo-period Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Gardens is a 10-minute walk from the hotel, while the scenic Hama-rikyu Gardens is a little further up Tokyo Bay.

I’m partial to Shiba Park, one of the oldest public parks in Japan, where you can wander through Christmas markets in the winter, cherry blossoms in the spring and haphazard circles of picnicking families on a nice weekend. It’s also home to Zojo-ji Temple, a 17th-century Buddhist sanctuary that was the family temple of the Tokugawa shoguns.

The take away

Any time I travel somewhere new and need to get my bearings, my first move is to find my way to the highest vantage point. Fairmont Tokyo makes that exceptionally easy – whether you’re pulling up for breakfast, or paddling the length of the pool, or tucking into bed, a huge stretch of the city is laid out before you. The hard part is tearing yourself away from that view.

Fairmont Tokyo, 1-1-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, rooms start at $1,120 a night and include access to a 24-hour gym and bike rentals, plus an in-room Nespresso machine, Marshall speaker and cocktail-making set. fairmont.com/en/hotels/tokyo/fairmont-tokyo.html

The writer was a guest of the hotel, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.