japan chronicles: for relaxing times, make it suntory times
i admit we never had suntory times whiskey, as bill murray had so effectively advertised, but we did have our fair share of booze. while this topic essentially could cover some 90% of our japan tour, i will rather focus on the same topic surrounding our adventures in the park hyatt tokyo.
for those of you who don't know, the park hyatt hotel in tokyo is the hotel that bill murray & scarlet johansson stayed at in lost in translation. it's a five star hotel that, honestly, puts the broadmoor to shame. it's all on or above (and way above) the 41st floor. we were on the 46th. from one side of the hotel, you can see the busy city lights, all flashy and colorful. on the other side, the side we were on, you can see the mellower expanse of the city of 28 million that truly never sleeps, and the peak of the incredible mt fuji.
when we first got into our room (after going through a maze of smiling faces and a series of elevators), we checked out all the stuff. and let me tell you. it took us a while. there was an array of soap, fancy bathroom stuff, a million drawers filled with random stuff ("western" and traditional japanese pajamas), a stereo that could do anything you wanted (including remote controlling my iPod from anywhere in the room!), and booze. this is a photo of just one of the cabinets.
of course, the booze in the room was probably half the cost of the building, so we went out to buy a delicious bottle instead. after dinner (which was incredible), we went to the bar, where they were playing live music (and sucking everyone's wallets dry). it was great. i got some fruity drink, while stefan got a whiskey. we were there a bit late, and pretty thirsty (and the thought of another $20 for a drink was not exactly thirst quenching), so we headed back to our room and had the wine we had bought.
looking out over the blinky lights of tokyo, with the silhouette of fuji off in the distance, we talked about a little of everything. more than anything, the colorful taste of napa pinot, the quietness of the tokyo night, the feeling of absolute comfort, and being with someone who, after nearly a year and a half, is as familiar as someone i see everyday, gave me a feeling of complete peace.
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