115 Best Hotels in Japan

It's hard to say what part of a stay at the Hotel Benesse House is the most memorable: the gorgeous views of the Seto Inland Sea, special access to the artworks at the Benesse Museum, or the Tadao Ando architecture and the luxurious yet minimalist decor of the hotel rooms. Each of the four buildings containing guest rooms has a different theme and location: Park, Beach, Museum (in the Benesse House Museum), and Oval, which is an artwork in itself, farther up the hill and accessed by walkways or a monorail. Stunning views of nature and art abound. The several restaurants on the property include Japanese and French cuisines and a café. The staff members are friendly and capable but deliberately keep their distance—a change from the ever-attentive service in other upscale Japanese hotels. Add-on meal plans are available.

One of the tallest buildings in Kobe, this hotel stands out at night when its brightly lighted tower points heavenward. The entire hotel is sumptuous, spacious, and chic. Rooms are sleek and modern, done up in restful shades of chocolate and cream. Corner rooms on higher floors have superb views over Kobe. Beneath the lobby are five floors of shops and restaurants, including Wakkoku. The hotel is a five-minute walk from Kitano-cho; the Shin-Kobe Ropeway is just outside, and several hiking trails, including one to Nunobiki Falls, pass very close to the hotel. It's three minutes from downtown by subway.

This relative newcomer to the historical Asakusa area has a stylish flair that starts at the entrance, where an elevator whisks you up 13 floors to the beautiful, glass-walled lobby, and continues in guest rooms outfitted in deep, dark browns accented with jewel tones and the occasional mod touches. Rooms can feel a bit cramped, so, when you need more space, head to the open-air Terrace on the 14th floor, with a lovely view of the Tokyo Sky Tree. The bistro-style French restaurant serves pork and beef dishes and has an extensive drink selection. The Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate) is a short walk away, as are Senso-ji and a host of shopping options. Staff members are friendly and speak English.

Located at Kyoto Station, the hotel is noteworthy for its good service and fusion of ultramodern design and traditional Japanese style. The spacious Western-style rooms have broad desks, separate tea areas, and bathrooms with big soaking tubs. A stroll between the hotel's north and south towers affords a great view from within the glass walkway.

One of the city's best hotels, the Kyoto Brighton has an elegant design, and its staff display a thorough dedication to gracious, efficient hospitality. Glass elevators whisk guests up from the central atrium to large rooms with separate sleeping and lounging areas. Some rooms have outside terraces with city views. Bilingual concierges are on hand to help you plan your sightseeing. The on-site Hotaru restaurant merits a visit; the resident chef won a contest on the popular cooking show Iron Chef. The sweets in the lobby's café are also worth checking out. Free shuttle bus to station runs every 20 minutes.

The imperial family and visiting baseball teams are among those served by the city's oldest hotel, which is also a haunt for celebrities in search of a little privacy. It's centrally located and provides the extra class and character you'd expect for the price. The lobby's white-brick walls are balanced by soft carpets and dark-wood furnishings. The guest rooms are spacious and overlook the city center. The Nagoya Kanko is five minutes by taxi from Nagoya Station or a short walk from Fushimi Station.

Built in 1909, this hotel is a beautiful synthesis of Japanese and Western architecture. The high ceilings, wide hallways, and sumptuous beds are fit for, well, an emperor. The filigree-patterned light shades and silver-painted room heaters are all original. The lounge shows bits of the hotel's history, including the piano played by Albert Einstein during his visit. Although most rooms have a good view of the gardens or the temples, those in the new wing are not as grand as the traditional rooms in the old wing. Dinner is a special event in the old-fashioned Edwardian-style dining room, where excellent French food is served.

With stunning views of the Sakurajima volcano and excellent service, the Sheraton Kagoshima (new in 2023) is the best luxury option for international visitors to the city.  The hotel has a fitness center, spa, and a great sodium chloride hot-spring bath. There is also a foot bath, which men and women can enjoy together. The 19th-floor Flying Hog Grill and the Vivarium cocktail bar offer guests the chance to wine and dine while watching Sakurajima smoke and rumble on the horizon. Splurging for a room with club lounge access will also let you enjoy your breakfast pastries with similarly impressive views. 

Staying at this group of eight farmhouses in the mountains of eastern Iya is the perfect way to experience traditional life here. The Chiiori Trust renovated them, retaining their rustic aesthetic with thatched roofs, thick wood floorboards, and sliding shoji doors. Present-day comforts like soaker tubs and wireless Internet access have been tastefully incorporated. Fusho House has a stunning view of the mountainside village across the valley. Make your meals yourself, or for an extra fee you can have dinner delivered or ask the Chiiori Trust to bring in a local cook.

Akita Castle Hotel has bright and airy rooms overlooking the moats of Senshu Park, with those on the fifth and sixth floors offering the better views, as do the window seats at the Japanese restaurant for breakfast. The building is a reflection of a different era, when things were big and showy, but as a place to stay, it is still a great location. For a big splurge, request the Imperial Suite, where the imperial family stays when in town.

If this is not the largest hotel in town, it feels like it, sitting beside the Seibu Department Store right in the thick of all the shops that line the arcade extending out from the station, with many eateries located nearby. The hotel itself has several different dining options, some with nice views. You are also directly connected to the department store via the lobby. A three-minute walk east will take you to JR Akita Station, and a seven-minute walk takes you to the edge of the entertainment district.

This reliable and popular hotel puts you close to the Peace Park and the nightlife of Nagarekawa. The Unkai restaurant, on the fifth floor, has tasty Japanese food and looks over a garden of dwarf trees surrounding a pond filled with colorful carp. In the morning, enjoy a full buffet breakfast in the hotel's ground-floor restaurant with plenty of Western and Japanese dishes to choose from. The club-level rooms were renovated in 2023.

Right next to the train station the ANA Crowne Plaza Okayama is a modern, well-appointed hotel that has great views of the city, particularly from the premium rooms on the upper floors and its 20th-floor Sky Bar & Lounge. The 20th floor also has the Japanese restaurant Kuriya-sen and a teppanyaki restaurant, Osafune. 

One of Osaka's most venerable deluxe hotels, the Crowne Plaza overlooks Naka-no-shima Park. The 24-story building is a handsome white-tile structure with some unusual architectural features like great fluted columns in the lobby and an enclosed courtyard dotted with trees. The main bar is a throwback to a 1950s English gentlemen's club. Guest rooms feature shades of chocolate, tan, and cream, while the cups are traditional Japanese ceramics.

This pleasant, modern hotel is immediately adjacent to the JR Hirosaki Station and has a convenience store on the ground level. The breakfast, served on the second floor of the building, is a very involved buffet that is quite delicious. The variety available might make you want to hang around and eat, and it's definitely worth the extra charge if you like breakfasts.

Although the box-shaped Asakusa View is the largest Western-style hotel in the traditional Asakusa area, it isn't divorced from traditional culture—communal hinoki (Japanese-cypress) baths on the sixth floor overlook a Japanese garden. Rooms are basic, decorated in neutral tones, but single rooms can be small, starting at about 70 square feet. The suite rooms, on the 25th floor, have a view of the Senso-ji pagoda, the temple grounds, and the Tokyo Sky Tree tower. The hotel is a three-minute walk from the retro amusement park Hanayashiki.

This former department store in the heart of the downtown shopping area was remade into an elegant hotel. The lobby's creamy upholstery and yellow walls are echoed in the rooms, which are nicely furnished and have larger than usual bathrooms. A shared Japanese bath lets you get to know your fellow guests. There's a small teppanyaki restaurant and an 11th-floor piano bar with city views. 

Much classier than other members of this hotel chain, the Washington has guest rooms with views of the city or the sci-fi half-dome of Canal City. Hundreds of shops and eateries are steps away. The hotel has both wired Internet connection and Wi-Fi.

A splurge but absolutely worth it, this high-class ryokan behind the Dogo Onsen bathhouse delivers the royal treatment. The guest rooms are extremely spacious and offer views of the hot spring and the city, vistas you can also enjoy from your private balcony while soaking in a wooden tub in water drawn from the springs. The Japanese-style rooms have wooden floors and tatami sections, but instead of futons there are Western-style mattresses. The optional meals, inspired by French haute cuisine, are in private rooms in the restaurant downstairs.

Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the lake or the grounds, and pastel colors decorate the simple rooms at this outpost of the Nikko Kanaya on the road from Chuzenji Onsen to Shobu-ga-hama. The open-air hot-spring baths offer relaxation with views of nature.

While short-term guests can appreciate the amenities, the Citadines Shinjuku is also a bright bit of value for long-term travelers—a place where primary colors and attentive staffers greet you in the lobby, and guest rooms are cheerfully decorated and practically outfitted. If you spring for breakfast, you can fortify yourself with a wonderful continental-style spread before taking a stroll in the nearby Shinjuku Gyoen, a sprawling, landscaped garden. The nightlife scene here is also a draw. Note that it's easier to take a short taxi ride from Shinjuku Station than attempt to find the property from the nearest subway station.

Situated on the first four floors of the sleek Kyobashi Trust Tower, the Courtyard by Marriott is a convenient option for business travelers. The rooms are outfitted in tasteful beiges and browns, but they tend to be small (starting at 170 square feet); a Corner or Queen room is recommended for a little more space. Staff members are skilled in English and provide very attentive service. Though the Lavarock restaurant on the first floor offers a nice bistro menu, drinking and dining opportunities abound in the neighboring area, which includes Ginza. Unlike most hotels in Tokyo, the Courtyard has a smoke-free policy covering the entire building.

One of Osaka's most stylishly modern and hip hotels, Cross is perfectly located for exploring the south side of Osaka. The bold, red glass–fronted exterior and spacious, design-focused rooms have the feeling of being at a boutique hotel—albeit one with over 200 rooms. The amenity-filled, spacious bathrooms—a rarity in Osaka—are another highlight.

This lodge connected to Dewa-Sanzan Jinja by a long stairway allows you to enjoy the shrine and scenery at the summit after most tourists have gone home by staying in communal, Japanese-style rooms with shared baths. Early birds may join priests at the main shrine for morning prayers—a great way to start the day. The cedar-lined approach is more than majestic, but inside, this shukubo, or monk's lodging, is spartan. The large tatami-mat rooms can be separated by fusuma (sliding paper doors) to create smaller rooms. Two vegetarian meals are served daily. The signature dish, tasty sesame tofu, is thicker, richer, and creamier than regular tofu. Since the lodge does have an irregular schedule to accommodate events, be sure to check. Reservations are best made by phone, and when you (or someone who speaks Japanese) call, you can check the dates and also request vegan meals. If you are taking the bus, get off at the final stop, and it is a 10-minute walk a bit down from the summit.

This friendly temple, close to Okuno-in, is where you can take part in morning prayers and observe the morning fire ceremony. Much like staying at a ryokan, the accommodation is all tatami, varying from modest 11-square-meter (118-square-foot) rooms for solo travelers to smart, family-size options. All room rates include a good vegetarian dinner and breakfast served in-room. From the cable-car terminus, take the bus for Okuno-in and get off at the Karukayado stop. Eko-in is several hundred meters east along the main road.

The Aso-Kuju National Park is famous for horses and cows, and at the El Patio Ranch you can live your cowboy or cowgirl dreams as you walk, trot, or canter around the local area. The rustic rooms are simple but spacious, while the views over the horses and hills are fantastic. The horse-riding courses are also available to nonguests and range from a 20-minute 1-km (½-mile) course at ¥4,400, to a 75-minute, 6-km (3¾-mile) course at ¥20,900. The restaurant menu is very beef-centric with steaks, burgers, beef curry, and BBQ.

This small, family-run Japanese inn has simple tatami rooms with the bare essentials. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Takahashi, speak English and are a great help in planning trips off the beaten path. The inn is between Odawara Station and Togendai; take a bus (30 minutes) from Hakone-Yumoto Station (Lane 3) and get off at the Senkyoro-mae stop. 

Namari's most famous ryokan (and its most famous onsen) is a dark wood house made of Japanese zelkova trees that is starting to show its age but still seems to have stories to tell, with rustic rooms without private baths in the main building and newer rooms with private baths in a concrete annex. The main reason to stay here is to have the opportunity to steep in the venerable Namari Onsen, which has a high ceiling and a round shape that resembles nothing so much as a giant inkwell. It is not the only hot spring available to you (and the water in the hot springs can be hot to the uninitiated), but the outdoor baths along the river are more milky. Relatively rare in these modern times, the ryokan has mixed-sex bathing with some hours reserved solely for women or men depending on the bath. Although the rooms in the main building have no private toilet, many find them nicer and more atmospheric than those in the newer annex, where the rooms do have private baths; the corner rooms overlooking a waterfall are particularly roomy and tastefully furnished. You can also use their bath for ¥800 per person without staying, and rent a towel for a few hundred yen extra.

At this understated hotel not far from the West Exit of Shibuya Station, guest rooms are done in neutral tones and have interesting decor features and/or pops of bright color. Some rooms also have glass-enclosed baths with overhead showers. In addition to the on-site steakhouse, dining and drinking options include myriad neighborhood restaurants and bars.