Hotel Okura Tokyo (?????????, Hoteru ?kura T?ky?) is a luxury hotel opened in 1962 in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is operated by Okura Hotels and was a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. The historic main wing was demolished in 2015, with a modern replacement on the site set to open in 2019.
Video Hotel Okura Tokyo
History
The historic 408-room Main Wing opened on May 20, 1962, while the 380-room South Wing opened on November 26, 1973. The hotel is located near the United States Embassy in the Akasaka area, and hosted every President of the United States since Richard Nixon, as well as numerous other foreign heads of state. The South Wing can be cut off from the rest of the building to serve as lodging for reporters and logistics aides, while using the penthouse "Imperial Suite" as high-security VIP lodging.
The hotel has also been the site of several major international summits and has also provided catering to international summits held off-site. In 1976 JVC chose the Okura Hotel for the launch of the world's first VHS videocassette recorder.
The hotel grounds also host the Okura Museum of Art, which houses a collection of Japanese and East-Asian Art amassed by industrialist ?kura Kihachir?.
In a reference to the three Edo era branch houses of the Tokugawa clan, the Imperial Hotel Tokyo, Hotel Okura Tokyo, and Hotel New Otani Tokyo are often referred to as one of the three great hotels (???, gosanke) of Tokyo.
Maps Hotel Okura Tokyo
Reconstruction
The original Main Wing closed in August 2015 for demolition, leaving only the smaller South Tower operating. Following a $980 million construction project, a new Main Wing will open in spring 2019, in anticipation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It will be a mixed-use tower with 550 hotel rooms and 18 stories of office space.
The demolition plans were met with dismay by travel journalists, like Tyler Brûlé, who called the original "a masterpiece" and "one of the most loved modernist hotels in the world". Others lamented the irony of the iconic building and its "Orchid Bar" being demolished at a time when shows like Mad Men have made the modernistic style of the 1960s highly fashionable again.
In fiction
The hotel appears in Haruki Murakami's novel, 1Q84, and in Eric Van Lustbader's The Ninja.
In Ian Fleming's novel You Only Live Twice, James Bond stays at the Okura while in Tokyo.
In Barry Was Eisler's novel Zero Sum.
References
External links
- Official website
- "Save the Okura" on the Monocle website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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