Hoshinoya Tokyo

Tokyo sits on water. Drill deep enough almost anywhere in the Kanto plain and you reach warm mineral water, and Hoshinoya did exactly that – the bath at the top of the building is fed from a bore hole running roughly 1,500 metres down, which makes it a real onsen rather than a heated pool.

The design is the clever part. The bathing area is on the top floor and open at the top through a tall shaft, so you are outdoors, looking up at a square of sky framed by the walls, in the middle of the financial district. You cannot see the city and the city cannot see you. Lying in hot water under falling rain, ten minutes from Tokyo Station, is a specific and genuinely strange pleasure.

It is a Japanese bath, which means communal and naked, separated by sex. You wash thoroughly at a seated shower station before entering the water; the bath is for soaking, not for cleaning. Tattoo policy at onsen varies by establishment and is set by the hotel, so ask when you book if it is relevant to you.

Rooms are tatami with low furniture and futon-style bedding on a slightly raised platform, which is a compromise for guests who find floor-level sleeping difficult. They are not large by international luxury standards and that catches people out: this is a ryokan, where the value is in the format and the service rather than in square metres, and comparing it room-for-room with a western five-star is the wrong measurement.

The ochanoma lounge on each floor is where the hotel actually works. Tea, sake, rice crackers and coffee are there through the day, staffed by the floor attendants, and it functions as a shared living room for the eight or so rooms on that floor.

Dinner is a serious kaiseki-influenced affair and is booked separately; breakfast is offered in Japanese and western versions and the Japanese one is the reason to be there. Neither is included by default, so check what your rate covers.

Rates are dynamic and the hotel does not publish a fixed nightly figure. We are not going to print one; check the official booking page for your dates.

Otemachi is an excellent and slightly counter-intuitive place to stay. It is dead at the weekend and quiet at night, which is precisely what you want from a hotel district, and it is one of the best-connected points in Tokyo: five subway lines meet here, Tokyo Station is a walk away with the Shinkansen in it, and the Narita Express and the airport buses run from there.

The Imperial Palace East Gardens are a few minutes on foot – free, and closed on Mondays and Fridays, which is worth checking against your dates. Virtù at the Four Seasons is in the same district, and Tokyo Ramen Street is in the station basement.

If the ryokan format is the appeal but the price is not, Hotel Ryumeikan Tokyo is a few minutes away and offers Japanese-style rooms at a fraction of the rate.