The Strings by Intercontinental, Tokyo

Stayed at The Strings by Intercontinental, Tokyo for five nights at the end of May.  The total bill for a contemporary superior room-cum-breakfast plan came up to 159,000yen, averaging 31,800yen per night.

Location-wise, The Strings was conveniently between levels 26 to 32 of the Shinagawa East One Tower, an office block connected by a shelter walkway from the Shinagawa JR station, a hulking place of a station with traffic flow that hits one in the face during the morning rush hour.  For travelers flying in from both the Narita Airport or Haneda Airport, The Strings is very easy to get to, either by a direct Narita Express train from the Narita Airport or the Keikyu Line from the Haneda Airport.  There is also a fairly large bookstore near the lift lobby for the Shinagawa East One Tower that opens early at 8am and closes late at 10pm.  For early raisers, it is possible to pop down to the bookstore, browse and grab a couple of books before the day starts in craziness trying to get to the Shinagawa JR station entrances during the mad mad masses of black-clad salarymen.

My room on level 30 was a little oddly-shaped with a sharp angle at one end and a part of a pillar at the other end.  The view from my fairly large window was pretty cool, and it was fun for a while to watch the trains arriving and departing from Shinagawa station.

View from my window.  Spot the Shinagawa station at the bottom left of the photo.

Because The Strings is part of an international hotel chain, mercifully, the room and bathroom is larger than a usual Japanese business hotel.  Which means I can walk around the room even with my suitcase lying open without suffering from bumps and grazes to my limbs.  Also, there is a proper bath tub in the bathroom for lying in, unlike the usual Japanese-tub for sitting in to soak.  There is also a proper basin sitting on a fairly large vanity table where there is space to lay out my toiletries without worrying that they would fall into the toilet.

 Being so used to having just three bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body soap in the usual Japanese business hotel, it’s great fun again to see little bottles of toiletries laid out prettily on the vanity table, together with soaps.  However, I do wonder about the environmental aspects of discarding all the little bottles instead of refilling the large bottles of the lower-end Japanese business hotels.

Breakfast at level 26 was buffet-styled with a choice of eggs.  For my first breakfast, the staff omitted to let me know that I was entitled to eggs, and it made me wonder why The Intercontinental was so stingy despite the high price of the room.  For a one-night stay, eating breakfast was a no-brainer task of trying a little of everything.  Eating five breakfasts of exactly the same things laid out at the buffet table became boring by the third day.  Luckily I could play around with the choice of my eggs to make breakfast a more interesting affair.  The cherry tomatoes, though, were really nice.  With a hint of sweetness and tartness, I could just eat bread and cherry tomatoes for breakfast!

The one thing that irked me, other than the eggs that I wasn’t served for my first breakfast, was the soundproofing of the room.  Specifically sound from the trains 30 floors below.  The rumbling from the trains ends at 11pm and starts again at 6am.  So I couldn’t watch my TV programs without hearing the rumble rumble of the trains before 11pm.  And despite worrying if the hotel phone and my mobile could be loud enough to wake me up by 6.30am, I was up at 6am, again from the rumble rumble of the trains.  It bewildered me for the five nights I stayed at The Strings, that despite being 28 floors above the JR station, I could STILL hear the trains.  I shouldn’t be paying 31,800yen a night to hear trains 28 floors below!