I was Tokyo twice on a recent trip, and because I was unable to secure a reservation at my usual hotel I decided to try the Hotel New Hankyu Tokyo, mainly because the price was reasonable and it appeared to be in a good location. I found my stay to be satisfying, and I would consider staying their again in the future.

The only tricky part is the location: the hotel is an easy 10 minute walk from Tsukiji station. The north exits from the station will drop you off by the correct intersection, and you only need to walk about five short blocks (until the street dead ends at the Sumida River). Once you get into a clearing, its very hard to miss the two towers (seen in the photo). Most of the two towers are associated with St. Luke's Hospital (they're adjacent), so you can simply ask for direction to St. Luke's if you need help on the ground (incidentally, this section of Tokyo was where foreign legations were located before the country fully opened up; the hospital has a few relics from that period).

The location allows for a pleasant 20 minute walk to Ginza, or a very short subway ride. The location is also very well positioned for visits to the famous Tsukiji fish market (while it still exists), which is located a short 10 minute walk to the south --very convenient considering the best times to visit are around 4:30-5:30am, before the subway gets working.

The hotel itself is very nice: the lobby is on the first floor, but the hotel rooms and restaurants start on 32nd floor of the tower (shorter of the two), extending to the top. All views are excellent; the only think as tall is the adjacent tower, but it is offset to allow the rooms to all have good, almost totally unobstructed views. The decor reminded me of the early 1990s pink pastels and creme colors, but is pleasant and kept in great condition. The rooms were fairly spacious for a Japanese hotel, I was especially happy the bathroom was not one of the one-piece modular bathrooms you see at numerous other hotels. Like many nice Japanese hotels, they have robes and slippers for guests. The best feature in the room is the free massage chair --although we tried it a few times, our biggest regret was our lack of free time to really use it. Our room's desk had a card that provided a description of the buildings and landmarks in our window view, but it was only in Japanese. The room offered CNN; and our room was provided with the choice of English-language newspaper: The Japan Times or Asahi Shimbun. The rooms surround a large, glass-roofed atrium that starts on the 32nd floor and continues up for the rest of the building.

We enjoyed our breakfast (not included in our reservation, but convenient) in the 32nd floor restaurant, which offered excellent views of the Tsukiji fish market, Shiodome, Tokyo Bay/Odaiba and more. They offer both Western and Traditional Japanese Breakfast, we went with the Japanese (we love it, though it may not be for all tastes; most Japanese appeared to prefer Western breakfasts). If you want something quicker, there's a Starbucks in the building lobby.

If this isn't your first visit to Tokyo, and you have an easy time getting around cities, don't hesitate to book here. It might be slightly more difficult to find for a Tokyo novice, but I won't consider that to be a deal breaker. We were very pleased.

I've attached photos of various views, the hotel room and their Traditional Japanese breakfast.