Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel is a 5 star hotel which looms over the other buildings in the hip district of Shibuya in downtown west Tokyo. It was built in 2001 and refurbished again last year. There are 414 rooms and it caters for both holiday-makers and business travellers.
The guest bedrooms ... Read review
Located at the heart of fashionable Shibuya in Tokyo, Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel is a ... more
modern upscale hotel that offers stylish accommodation with stunning panoramic views of the city.Decorated in warm earthy tones with contemporary Japanese motifs, it ...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. Rising within the Shibuya shopping and entertainment district of Tokyo, Japan, ... more
the streamlined Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel is located one kilometer from Yebisu Garden Place. Roppongi Hills and Shinjuku Station are located within three kilomet...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. Rising within the Shibuya shopping and entertainment district of Tokyo, Japan, ... more
the streamlined Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel is located one kilometer from Yebisu Garden Place. Roppongi Hills and Shinjuku Station are located within three kilomet...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Advantages: clean, the views, complimentary goodies, location Disadvantages: limited non-japanese TV, have to pay to use pool
Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel is a 5 star hotel which looms over the other buildings in the hip district of Shibuya in downtown west Tokyo. It was built in 2001 and refurbished again last year. There are 414 rooms and it caters for both holiday-makers and business travellers.
The guest bedrooms take up the top half of the Cerulean Tower building, from the 19th to the 40th floor. Other floors are given over to shops, businesses, conference ... ...a bus direct to the Cerulean Tower from the airport. It takes approx. 70 minutes by Airport Limousine Bus. Tickets cost Y3,000 per person single fare which can be bought inside the airport terminal. Buses run every 30 mins.
Train: A 5 minute walk from Shibuya Station which serves Tokyu Toyoko Line, Tokyu Denentoshi Line, Keio Inogashira Line, JR Yamanote Line, JR Saikyo line, Subway Ginza line and Subway Hanzomon line. Ticket machines ... more
Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel is a 5 star hotel which looms over the other buildings in the hip district of Shibuya in downtown west Tokyo. It was built in 2001 and refurbished again last year. There are 414 rooms and it caters for both holiday-makers and business travellers.
The guest bedrooms take up the top half of the Cerulean Tower building, from the 19th to the 40th floor. Other floors are given over to shops, businesses, conference rooms, theatres and restaurants.
Location: Shibuya (or Shiboom Shiboom as we fondly renamed it) in west Tokyo which has great transport access for getting to all parts of the city. Given the sprawling metropolisis that Tokyo is, it would be hard to find a location you could really call "central". Shibuya in the west offers the next best thing. It is a busy commercial and retail centre with a large tourist information centre in its bus/rail terminal.
GETTING THERE:
From Narita Airport: There is a bus direct to the Cerulean Tower from the airport. It takes approx. 70 minutes by Airport Limousine Bus. Tickets cost Y3,000 per person single fare which can be bought inside the airport terminal. Buses run every 30 mins.
Train: A 5 minute walk from Shibuya Station which serves Tokyu Toyoko Line, Tokyu Denentoshi Line, Keio Inogashira Line, JR Yamanote Line, JR Saikyo line, Subway Ginza line and Subway Hanzomon line. Ticket machines are self-service and will display information in English as well as Japanese.
By Car: There is parking available which is free to guests. The hotel is located with easy access to the south exit of Shibuya railway station. If you're travelling by car then it is five minutes from the Shibuya exit ramp of the Shuto-kosoku Expressway.
Entrance: The whole hotel is incredibly modern in design - earthy colours - simple lines warm materials - marble, granite and dark woods. It's all designed to give you a feeling of space - something very difficult to come by in Tokyo. The hotel entrance lobby is huge.
The front desk with a minimum of five clerks ready to check you in at any time. There are bellboys huddled around two desks working out luggage issues and providing guests with information about the local area. The entrance lobby also as a large seating area where coffe and tea are served all day, as well as a french restaurant which serves breakfast till 10am and then self-service buffets thereafter .
Check-in: This was quiet simple as we had booked ahead. I handed over my credit card and the clerk entered my details into the computer. I then completed a guest information form (very standard) and we were given the option of a room on the 19th or 24th floor. We went for the 24th!
A bellboy was already waiting for us by the lift (one of 8 lifts), took our luggage and showed us up to our room. He placed the luggage in the door way, bowed and left us. It is not customary to tip in Japan.
The room: The room (queen size corner room) was a lot bigger than I had imagined. Laid-out in a T shape, not a pattern to be seen and decorated in creams and browns. The bedroom area was probably about 30sqm with a table and two chairs, writing desk, set of 4 drawers, fridge, side tables and a queen size bed. The room had two windows. One ran the width of the room looking out towards Tokyo's business district, and the second smaller window looking out towards the snow-capped Mount Fuji.
The room smelt really clean (almost new) and the air conditioning was already on when we entered.
The wardrobe, luggage storage and coat racks were housed in a small hallway leading off from the bedroom area. They had installed a nifty light system so that if you walked within 3 feet of the wardrobe, it's lights automatically went on. Cool!
The bed: I did the customary lifting of the frame to see if they had hovered underneath and to my surprise it was spotless! The bed itself was really comfortable and well supported. The duvet and pillows were plump and covered with fine white cotton. Incredibly comfortable.
The bathroom: This was another room with a view. The bathroom was very spacious with a separate shower unit encased in glass, a full length deep white enamel bath with marble surround and a toilet with a computerised bidet system. It took a couple of daring attempts to try the bidet and dryer out as the instructions were all in japanese. It was pretty funny trying to work out it though - male and female settings and hard and soft jets! Ouch!
The bath had to be the best I've had in a hotel. The bathroom window ran the length of the bath and at night you could sit in it by candle light looking out across Tokyo's skyline.
When you're in the bath, the window starts at head height so no -one in the buildings across can see you in it - just your head and the steam!
The comps: Complimentary gifts in the room included a half bottle of red wine, shaving set, cotton wool set, shampoo, bubble bath, shower gel, conditioner, toothbrush and toopaste, body lotions, soaps and nail kit. Coffe and tea were also free. There are also some great white bathrobes, japanese slippers and japanese pyjamas - all which are free to use and then available to buy on check-out if you wish.
TV: There are a lot of channels but we only found one non-japanese channel - CNN News. That's not to say the other channels can't be watched for entertainment value - Baywatch in Japanese anyone?
Room service: We'd been for sushi earlier in the evening so we feeling hungry by late evening. We ordered goat's cheese ravioli, burger, fries and capuccinos. It took 25 mins to be delivered and the food was piping hot, well presented and delicious.
We also ordered breakfast in the room one day which I wouldn't recommend the full english - the bacon, egg and sausage were all there - but not as I know it. I'd ordered our eggs scrambled but they were not cook all the way through, making them very wet and runny. The bacon also appeared to have been steamed. The fruit juice was freshly squeezed and croissants freshly baked so I decided just to have those instead.
A word of advice in Japan - if you like lots of milk and sugar with your coffee you will need to carry provisions in your bag. When serving coffee anywhere, the Japanese give you one small tub of milk and one sugar cube. I take neither but my husband loves milky, sugary coffee and we were always having to ask for more.
Other room facilities: AM/FM Alarm Clock Modem Line for Laptop Non-Smoking rooms available Free Newspaper (Japanese or English) Room Service (24/7) Safe Deposit Box (4 digit number) Television with Cable and Vide on-on-demand Telephone and Facsimile Minibar Hairdryer
Hotel Facilities There is a Health club and an indoor pool, however, if you are not a member of either you have to pay to use them. We thought this was a bit cheeky so didn't bother. I did take a sneak peak though to see what the facilities were like. The pool was a good size and pretty empty in the afternoon. There was also a large jacuzzi area.
For business travellers and those wanting to check emails, the "executive level" has a free broadband internet cafe.
Restuarants: There are a few restaurants in the hotel - Italian, French, Chinese and Japanese. We only tried the Italian one, Olio - which I believe is an international chain. The meal was very nice - in a quiet setting on the 2nd floor of the tower. The wine and desserts were delicious but the main meal portions could have been bigger.
The first two floors of the tower are home to most of the restaurants and details of menus are opening times are included in your room information pack.
Children: The hotel claims to be child-friendly although it's not the sort of hotel I'd feel safe letting my child run around in. Too many expensive things they could knock over and throughout my stay I have to say I didn't see anyone under the age of 18 at all. That said, cots are free and the hotel provide a baby-sitting / child-care serve in the "Kid's Room" for 2,500 Yen an hour.
Other hotel facilities: Concierge 24 Hour Front Desk Disabled Facilities Valet Services Japanese Noh Theatre (shows run every day - free entry to hotel guests) JZ Bratz jazz bar Cigar Shop 7/11 Supermarket Kid's Room Beauty Salon Meeting/Banquet Facilities
MY TIPS: Getting lost: A great benefit of staying at the Cerulean Tower is its sheer height! If you leave the hotel and wander off into the side streets of Shibuya and get lost (this is easily done!) - don't panic. Tilt your head to the skyline and do a 360 degreee swivel and you eye will eventually meet the top of the Cerulean and help you get your bearings back. I did this on several occassions until I grew bore familiar with the area.
MUST SEE! The bar at the top of the tower with it's panoramic views from Tokyo Bay right round to Mount Fuji is a "must see" during your stay at Cerulean Tower. Imagine what the film set would look like if "Lost in Translation" met "BladeRunner". That's exactly the feeling you get when you sit in the bar on the 40th floor of the Cerlulean Tower hotel looking out over the Tokyo skyline at night.
When you press the number 40 in the lift your stomach will leave you for a moment and met you again as the doors open on the 40th floor. A doorman greets you and will escort you into the bar, asking if you'd like to sit at a table or at the long bar itself. If you're after the views then I'd reccomend sitting at the bar. The bar itself takes up around a third of the 40th floor with glass windows on all sides. It's dimly lit at night (the oak tables shimmer in the candle light) but despite it's size, feels very intimate.
Get to the bar for sunset -it's magical!
Saving money: Being in the heart of Shibuya means there are hundreds of restaurants in the neighborhood that are far cheaper than the hotel restuarants. Even if you don't speak any japanese be adventurous and check out some of the many eateries. Many have english menus and picture menus and the japanese are always very polite and willing to help you out. If all else fails, Shibuya has a McDonalds too!!
Reservations: If you are reserving a standard double room, ask if they have any corner rooms available so you can get that view from the bathtub!
------------------------------------------------------------------- Did we have any problems? Yeh - of course we did! The morning we left we had 45 mins to have breakfast before catching a cab to the airport. We checked out and the front desk said they'd look after our bags while we ate breakfast in the lobby restaurant. On returning to collect our bags we found they had disappeared into thin air.
If this had been a hotel anywhere else in the world I would have burst into tears. The concierge asked us to sit down and not worry. He promised us that the bags couldn't have been stolen and it was some strange mix up.
Five or six very worried looking hotel workers started running around the lobby asking eachother questions, making phonecalls and generally looking like they were going to burst into tears themselves! Moments later we were told our bags had accidentally been put on a coach bound for Narita and the hotel had sent a taxi driver to stop the coach and get them off. 15 minutes passed and indeed the cab showed up with our bags.
Ah - happy ending - and so, we set off for the airport. I'm not sure this problem would have been sorted out so quickly and efficiently had it been in the UK.
Overall view: Most international hotels can be very predictable - opulent to the point of tacky. The Cerulean, by contrast, is incredibly stylish and the service in this hotel is exceptional. Everyone we encountered was very polite, helpful and friendly.
Examples of rates (seasonal): Standard room for two with City View (19th to 24th floors) - £100 per night per room Superior room for two with sky view (25th floor +) - £115 per night per room Corner room for two with sky view (25th floor +) - £125 per night per room
Check-in time - 3pm Check-out time - 11am
Address: CERULEAN TOWER TOKYU HOTEL 26-1 Sakuragaoka-Cho, Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150-8512 Japan
