We took the subway's Marunuochi line to Akasaka station. There's a map at the station with yellow exits that leads you to points in the surrounding area. It’s a 5-minute walk to the tower side of the New Otani. The hotel consists of two parts, the Main and the Tower. I’m not sure if there’s any real distinction, perhaps tourists in Tower and business travelers in Main?

If you enter via the Tower, the lobby is on the third floor. The first few floors are occupied by office workers, and there’s also an office block extension. We checked in at the Tower and were disappointed to not be informed, until we were in the room, that although we had reserved a nonsmoking double room, we’d been assigned smoking (brick hard) twin beds room. The hotel was fully booked and we couldn’t be bothered to unpack and repack in case a nonsmoking room became available. So that resulted in me waking up with runny eyes and stuffed nose due to agitated allergies.

The room was quite spacious, with a roomy bathroom with the usual amenities: TV (CNN and BBC being the only English channels); Internet access at a ¥1,200 per day (modem cabling is supplied); free tea and coffee; lots of snacks and other expensive goodies in the fridge and drawers; and bedside lighting controls with a radio. The bathroom was well stocked with everything from toothbrush and paste to little bottles of shampoo, etc. The towels were all quite soft and didn’t smell bleached – usually you get one rough and one soft one. The bath/shower functioned well with enough water pressure and a fancy showerhead. There was also a patch of the mirror that didn’t fog after a steamy shower. The toilet was standard, with lots of little buttons to play with!

The third floor connects the Tower and Main with the breakfast area, some touristy shops, and a travel agency. If you’re going to be picked up by a tour bus, make sure you wait in the lobby of the Main. From the breakfast area, one can see the hotel’s famed garden, which is quite large, and the pool and a restaurant are hidden there, too. There’s a pond with koi (do not feed) and mini bridges. It’s quite a peaceful environment that’s perfect for wedding photos. We were lucky enough to catch glimpses of a couple exchanging vows in the hotel – it’s quite common for larger hotels to have Shinto Shrines to wed people.

I was not entirely impressed with the hotel as a whole in that breakfast wasn’t included – it was more expensive that some of the dinners we had in Tokyo. We opted for the coffee shops down the road near the Belle Vie subway entrance. There was also an extra charge to use the gym and hotel pool facilities! It was a nice enough hotel, but not quite a value for the money.

The mammoth Hotel New Otani complex is the largest hotel in Japan. It is also one of Tokyo’s most prestigious and the hotel of choice for delegations from many governments and international organizations.

The complex consists of two hotel buildings (the Main and the Tower), an office building (the Garden Court) and arguably the best maintained privately owned garden in Tokyo. Banquet rooms, shops (about 120) and restaurants (almost 40) are spread out throughout the complex and cater to all tastes (except cheap!). A revolving bar on top of the Main offers good and changing views.

We once stayed in the hotel for two weeks in The Main in room 444, which is the Japanese equivalent of 131313 (with death specifically rather than ordinary standard bad luck foremost in mind). I doubt they would offer this room to Japanese and many Asian customers but it suited us fine. An error in the quotation added free breakfast which generally cost from yen 2500 to yen 4000 (about US $ 20 - 30) per person. The room was spacious by Tokyo standards and tastefully decorated with ample storing space. The bathroom had a small waterproof TV but showed only local Japanese channels. Standard cable with CNN, BBC, etc is available in the bedroom. All rooms have coffee and tea makers - but avoid the plum tea like the plaque unless you are constipated and even then there are more human treatments. The view from this room was a bit disappointing featuring rather prominently the roof and air-conditioning units of the public rooms. That said we were astonished the first morning to see Mt Fuji, almost 100 km from Tokyo. The mountain looked so close as if you could actually stroll there in half an hour. We stupidly didn’t take any photos and never saw it again the rest of the two weeks.

The view from higher rooms and especially those in The Tower is generally nicer. The rooms in The Tower are also slightly nicer but there is not much in it. I checked many delegations into this hotel and have seen most of the types of rooms and the difference is not much unless you go for a suite. Rooms become nicer as the price goes up but as the movement is from a rather high base even the lower price rooms are nice.

Check in is remarkable fast and smooth for such a busy hotel. The bellboy will accompany you to your room and remind you that tipping is NOT customary in Japan. (Japanese restaurants and hotels manage to work the salary of staff into the price of the services they offer.) Ironically many of the restaurants in the hotel add a 10% service fee to bills, something that is usually not done in restaurants in Japan except those in internationally oriented hotels!

Room rates generally exceed $ 200 but specials are often available on the Internet or package deals and can go as low as $ 120.