Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel | Time Out Tokyo — The Q-Pot room at the Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort

Quirkiest hotel rooms in Tokyo

Add a touch of designer class to your vacation

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Friday 18 April 2014

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Hotel rooms in Tokyo are renowned for being squeaky clean, expertly maintained and beautifully designed, but we're surely not the only ones who find them a tad unpersonal and boring. Fortunately enough, a few innovative inns in the city have already started correcting this defect: inviting well-known designers and other creatives to work with them, these hotels have started producing quirky 'collaboration rooms', intended to make your stay even more inspiring and fun while providing a unique exhibition space for up-and-coming artists. Choose your favourite from our round-up of these special rooms and book well ahead – designer vacations are trending here right now. And if you'd rather know more about budget options, our cheap hotels guide is where to start.

Grand Pacific Le Daiba: Project Room-G

Hotels
Luxury hotels
Odaiba

Fans of the Mobile Suit Gundam anime won't be able to resist staying at Odaiba's Grand Pacific, which hosts three types of rooms decorated with colours and themes from the classic show. The 'Jaburo Type' is modelled after the base of the same name, while the 'Standard' and 'Special' types recreate the world of Gundam down to the smallest detail. If robot warriors aren't your cup of tea, you could always try checking into the Galaxy Express 999 or Space Pirate Captain Harlock rooms instead.

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Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort: Q-Pot Room

Hotels
Maihama

How about an executive suite (or should that be 'sweet'?) designed by Tadaaki Wakamatsu, the man behind 'sweets as jewellery' brand Q-Pot? The suite's living room is inspired by chocolate, the bedroom is shortcake-themed, and guests can enjoy Q-Pot Café-style drinks and goodies at any time. Might things even get a little too sugar-coated on these premises?

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Akihabara Washington Hotel: Railway Room Kuhane 314

Hotels
Akihabara

True train geeks could probably spend their entire vacation in this room: produced by the people behind Bar Ginza Panorama and featuring a full-scale mini-Akihabara diorama, the 'Railway Room' is pretty special even on Tokyo standards. Remember to bring your own N-scale train, make it circle the room's model railway, and admire the view from a special monitor set up next to the diorama.

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Lotte City Hotel: Koala's March Room

Hotels
Kinshicho

Lotte’s perennially popular chocolate-filled biscuit patterns are everywhere in this room, right down to the curtains, bed covers and amenities like shampoo and soap – they say that the closer you look, the more cutesy koalas you'll discover. Admiring the amazing view of Tokyo Skytree while snacking on koala-shaped cookies is, we suppose, a completely legitimate way to spend your Tokyo vacation.

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Shinjuku Granbell Hotel: Designers' Rooms

Hotels
Higashi-Shinjuku

This entire hotel is dedicated to promoting up-and-coming artists from all over Asia, so it's hardly surprising that it features rooms thought up by creatives like Graf director Shigeki Hattori, Katsuhiko Taniguchi from Barneys Japan and textile designer Ryoono. Aiming to express the new values and visions of Shinjuku's infamous Kabukicho, the Granbell also houses an 'art lounge' that regularly hosts exhibitions and other events.

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Park Hotel Tokyo: Artist in Hotel

Hotels
Shiodome

The Park Hotel has taken a unique approach to transforming some of its standard rooms into specially designed, Japan-influenced 'artist rooms'. Artists are invited to stay at the hotel and work toward altering their rooms into pieces of art – 31 rooms are supposed to receive this treatment by 2016. As of now, guests can choose from themes like sumo, zen, Japanese washi paper and dragons, in addition to enjoying the many exhibitions that take place on the hotel grounds.

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Hotel Mets Shibuya: Art Box

Hotels
Shibuya

Staying in the heart of Shibuya is quite an experience in itself, but the four 'Art Box' rooms at this hotel make it even more special. The manga-themed room, decorated by artist Takashi Okazaki, is one highlight, but we're especially fond of the room with a huge cityscape picture, created by virtuoso painter Kaz. All four rooms come with matching tenugui handkerchiefs and postcards that you can take with you when checking out.