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After checking in and meeting our Japan
National Tourism Organization (JNTO; www.japantravelinfo.com) guide for the trip, the lovelyChihiroDoi, I ate aquickdin- ner at the InterContinental’s Cascades Café and crashed in anticipation of the whirlwind trip to come.
Saturday Our morning began with an inspection of the brand-new
Capitol Hotel Tokyu (www.capitolhotel tokyu.com/en), which at the time of our visit in late September wasn’t even open yet; it opened this past Oct. 22. The ele- gant, 251-room property occupies the same site, near the more than 500-year- old Hie Shrine and the Japanese prime minister’s office, as a previous incarnation of the hotel, opened in 1963 and shuttered in 2006. (It hosted the Beatles in 1966, on their lone visit to Tokyo.) The Capitol Hotel Tokyu has a 5,800-square-foot ball- room and three 560-square-foot confer- ence rooms. For lunch,wedrove to theTokyo suburb
of Togoshi, where we were introduced to Japanese cooking in a privatehomebyWAK- JAPAN(http://wakjapan.com), a company that can arrange authentic cultural experi- ences for groups, from ikebana (flower arranging) to kendo, a Japanese form of martial arts. We learned about the tradi- tional Japanese flavors—shoyu (soy sauce), sake (rice wine), vinegar, sugar, salt, miso (a seasoning paste), and mirin (a type of “cooking sake”)—and how to make sushi rolls and miso soup. The rest of the day was occupied by visits to a few unique
group venues: Happo-en (www.happo-en.com/english), an intricatelyman- icured garden complex that’s home to ponds brimming with koi (carp), rolling green lawns, 500-year-old bonsai trees, and, whilewewere there, 27 weddings. Happo-en (“en” means “gar- den” in Japanese) has 16 banquet and meeting rooms, the largest of which can accommodate 450 people for a seated dinner. Tokyo City View (www.roppongihills.com/tcv/en), a 52nd- floor observation deck atop the Roppongi Hills tower that offers 360-degree views of the surrounding, sprawling metropolis.You also can go out of doors—literally on top of the building— for totally unobstructed views of Tokyo. During our visit, we marveled at a beautiful golden sunset, just to the right of hazy Mt. Fuji. Tokyo City View can host group events for 50 guests in each of its two Sky Terraces, or 200 to 250 people in its Ital- ian-style restaurant, Mado Lounge. Gonpachi (www.gonpachi.jp/en/casual/home/index), a tra- ditional Japanese izakaya—something of a pub that serves food —where Japanese Prime Minister JunichiroKoizumi took Pres-
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ident GeorgeW. Bush in February 2002.We had sushi, tem- pura (deep-fried vegetables and seafood), and yakitori, charcoal- grilled skewers of chicken. Gonpachi’s Nishi–Azabu location, where we had dinner, has a maximum capacity of 350 people.
Sunday Our second day began with a site inspection of our host hotel, the ANA InterContinental Tokyo (www
.anaintercontinental-tokyo.jp/e). Two years ago, this 37-story, 844-room hotel spent approximately $40 million to upgrade and renovate the entire property. On the 36th floor, Pierre Gagnaire—named for its famous chef—is a Michelin three- star French restaurant with 60 seats, including two private dining rooms. The hotel is connected to the Ark Hills Shopping Center and
is near Suntory Hall, Japan’s most famousmusic venue. The sleek, polished ANA InterContinental Tokyo has 24 meeting rooms, including a 20,370-square-foot ballroom, and is both the first stop for buses coming from and the last stop for buses leaving forNarita and Haneda airports. The next hotel we visited—the 931-room Imperial Hotel
ILLUSTRATION BY MARTIN HAAKE