For months leading up to Christmas and New Year, I have been trying to think of a city to spend the festival season. I turned to popular app, Nametests for answers and guess what it said.
Tokyo (and Paris) has always been high on my list but finding accommodation in the Japanese capital is never easy. It's one of the most expensive city to travel in the world so hotel prices are always on the high side and of course, I have to decide which part of the city to stay at. Then it's Christmas and New Year, so demands are always high during that week. But all those are good problems to have. Jelloman made things easier for me by hinting that she wanted a trip down memory lane, a visit to a hotel that she used to stay at during her business trips to Tokyo more than a decade ago. Being the good hubby that I always am, I decide to grant her her wish so I promptly got ourselves a room at Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo Marunouchi.
I have to admit, the location of Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo Marunouchi is nearly perfect. Just a stone's throw from Tokyo Station, nobody should miss it although we almost did by coming out of the wrong exit.
The first thing we spotted when we arrived was a miniature train station model in the middle of the hotel lobby. Looks like I'll be spending a lot of time here with my little nugget. He's such a fan of trains and cars.
We booked a corner room just to give us a little more wiggle room to work with. Little one's already loving it.
But there's a wrinkle to all this. When mom decided to join us at the very last minute, I had to make some late changes to our plans. I tried to secure another room in the same hotel but it was mission impossible with just less than a month to go. I ended up getting a smaller room just for a couple of days at Hotel Metropolitan; after that, I will be switching to a nearby hotel. Notice I said "I". Yeah, since it requires some moving around and mom doesn't know Tokyo all that well. Her beloved son will be the one staying at the newly booked smaller room and then moving on to another hotel in a couple of days.
The Double Room, despite relatively smaller than the Corner Room wasn't bad after all.
With just 18sq meter, of course the interior designer had to make it work. For such a small room, the queen bed looks somewhat of a luxury.
Even with the queen bed, they managed to fit in a desk and sofa. Not bad for a business traveler.
The wardrobe was a little small, especially during winter months when I have thick sweaters and jackets to accommodate.
It was nice waking up to the city view of Tokyo every morning.
The bathroom was pretty much standard Japanese style and size. The raised floor was a little inconvenient but I got used to it.
Only if I could get a little more space to put my razor, cream and hair products...
The next morning I decided to check out the gang next door (almost next door)...they were already up and wow, they already messed the whole room up with stuff on the sofa, floor...everywhere!
Not surprisingly, the view here was much nicer!
I never spend New Year in Tokyo before so I wasn't familiar with the traditional new year festivity including this, making mochi rice cakes the old-fashioned way.
The folks kept pouncing their wooden mallets on the glutinous rice with musicians playing traditional music in the background. I'll never forget this experience.
Rating: ❤❤❤
Price: ￥￥￥
Address: 1-7-12 Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo 100-0005, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Tokyo
Tel: +81 3-3211-2233
Website: marunouchi.metropolitan.jp
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