Tokyo's shiny new billion-dollar Palace Hotel

Mon, 03/12/2012 - 09:06 — Anonymous Any idea what pops out when you insert
US$1 billion into a vending machine marked "Really Spiffy, Ultra-Luxury
Hotels"? We're not totally sure either, but we'll all find out on May
17, when the 23-story Palace Hotel Tokyo opens its doors right by the
Imperial Palace, a stone's throw from Tokyo Station. The new development
actually cost ¥90 billion, which works out at $1.2 billion and change -- an
ambitious investment in trying times for both the global economy and the
Japanese tourist trade. Aside from bringing almost 300 rooms and suites
(¥50,000-¥700,000) to the Tokyo hotel scene, the Palace also contains some
mightily impressive restaurants (in theory at this point, of course) and an
Evian-branded spa. Among the dining options -- hotel management says it's
"aiming for a constellation of Michelin-star restaurants" -- will be
French, run by two-star Patrick Henriroux; Japanese, another two-star man in
Shinji Kanesaka; and Chinese, whose operator also has (you guessed it) a
two-Michelin-star background.read more