A Fantasy at the Top of a Tokyo Tower: Inside an 'Artist Room' at Park Hotel Tokyo

"Take the elevator to the 34th floor and open the door to a room that feels like stepping inside a child’s daydream: mobiles hang from the ceiling, paintings of cherry blossoms line the bathroom tiles, a tiny figure of a little girl flying atop a carp animates the space above the bed, and a fluorescent pink tree rises from beside the flatscreen TV. High above the Gucci and Prada stores of Tokyo’s Ginza district, these are some of the boldest rooms in the city; Yume Aoyama from Ibaraki was granted creative control of room 3419, and with a blank slate and four walls her swirling paints form a surreal representation of forest, wave, and sky inspired by the Japanese folk toys that thrived between the Edo and Meiji periods and often represent local Japanese legends. That explains the girl with the carp and the painting of a tree growing from a bathtub, and the contrast with traditional hotel facets—the large picture windows, the tightly made white bed, the wood‑framed minibar—makes for the most satisfying part of a stay here. Don’t call it sleeping in a museum. Call it waking up in a painting." - Alexis Benveniste