1 Hotel Tokyo Researched: Sustainable Luxury and the Peach Afternoon Tea

Sustainable luxury, opened in Akasaka211 rooms, floors 38–43Opened 5 March 2026. Rated S, the top grade, under Japan’s CASBEE building-performance system

1 Hotel Tokyo occupies floors 38 to 43 of Tokyo World Gate Akasaka, with 211 rooms including 24 penthouses and suites and five universal rooms. The address is 2-17-22 Akasaka, Minato-ku, connected underground to Tameike-Sanno station. The summer peach afternoon tea runs at NiNi on the 38th floor until 20 September.

Prices below are Japanese, in yen, and come from the operator’s press releases and the hotel’s own pages. CASBEE is the Japanese assessment system for a building’s environmental performance, and S is its highest grade.

Check first: are you going to stay, or to eat?

You know which you are doing (the restaurants admit non-residents)
For afternoon tea, you have a date you can book by 20:00 the day before
That date falls inside the serving period, 21 July to 20 September 2026
You have allowed for the JPY 1,000 gap between weekdays and weekends
You know there are no bottles of water in the rooms

The last line divides people. 1 Hotels fits every room with a filtered-water tap and recycled-glass tumblers and keeps single-use plastic out of the guest rooms. If you are used to buying water and carrying it in, discovering the arrangement after you have dropped your bag is a small shock. It is a brand policy rather than an oversight, so it is better known in advance.

The peach afternoon tea at 1 Hotel Tokyo, sweets and savouries arranged in a wooden box — La Belle Vie Afternoon Tea, the summer peach edition, served at NiNi, the all-day dining room on the 38th floor. Photo: MT&SH Hotel Management LLC press release, 25 June 2026

Five steps to secure a table

StepWhat it involves

STEP 1Put the date inside the periodServed from 21 July to 20 September 2026. It is a series whose theme and ingredients change each season, so the same name covers different food at a different time of year.

STEP 2Pick the hour12:00 to 16:30, with last orders at 14:30. That is the order deadline, not the last admission, so arriving after four o’clock does not work.

STEP 3Book by 20:00 the previous dayReservations are required and close at 20:00 the day before. There is no walking in on a whim. NiNi’s direct line is 03-6441-3022.

STEP 4Allow for the day of the weekJPY 8,000 per person on weekdays, JPY 9,000 at weekends and on holidays, both including tax and service. For two people, moving the booking by a day is JPY 2,000.

STEP 5Get the floor rightNiNi is on the 38th. The hotel uses floors 38 to 43 plus the ground floor and one basement level, with the rooms above the restaurant, so the lifts divide.

Access is from Tameike-Sanno station on the Ginza and Namboku lines, with an underground connection from Kokkai-gijidomae on the Chiyoda and Marunouchi lines as well. You can arrive without surfacing, which makes it an easy thing to put in a wet-weather plan.

The full picture: what is in the building, and what non-residents can use

FacilityTypeDetail and prices

Guest rooms211 in totalIncluding 24 penthouses and suites and five universal rooms. Every room has a filtered-water tap and recycled-glass tumblers

NiNi (38F)All-day diningThe peach afternoon tea runs 12:00–16:30, last orders 14:30. The price depends on the day of the week

NiNi BarBarThe bar inside NiNi. Runs limited-run Dessert & Cocktail courses (the 22 June – 20 July 2026 edition has finished)

Spotted StoneBarThe food and drink line-up is one restaurant (with three private rooms), one café and two bars

NeighborsCaféSends its spent coffee grounds on to other items on the menus upstairs

Bamford Wellness SpaSpaAlongside a gym, an indoor pool, banqueting rooms, a shop of the hotel’s own products and parking

From the operator’s press releases of 22 and 25 June 2026 and the hotel’s official pages, checked on 2026-09-14.

Coming only to eat, the constraint is seats rather than price. NiNi Bar’s Dessert & Cocktail course was counter-only and capped at ten people a day. If a similarly built event returns next season, the seat limit is the thing to read first. The afternoon tea sits in the ordinary dining room, where the constraint is much looser. Where this one hotel falls among the current wave of openings is set out in our round-up of international luxury brands arriving in Japan.

A dessert and cocktail pairing at NiNi Bar, 1 Hotel Tokyo — NiNi Bar’s Dessert & Cocktail course, which was counter-only and limited to ten people a day. Photo: MT&SH Hotel Management LLC press release, 22 June 2026

The sustainability work is built by moving material from one part of the building to another. The drink that closed the Dessert & Cocktail course used rum steeped with spent coffee grounds from the café Neighbors, and the course itself used sudo lemon made from lemons and by-products destined to be thrown away. Some of the fruit from the afternoon tea goes on to the bar menu. It is the kind of programme that reaches the ingredient list rather than stopping at the signage.

Pastry is led by executive pastry chef Fumitake Goji. He is from Kamakura in Kanagawa, was chef pâtissier at Patisserie Damme in Belgium, and has since held pastry roles at Fuji Speedway Hotel and the Unbound Collection by Hyatt. That the peach afternoon tea contains Kamakura cider does not look unrelated to where he is from.

Where people trip up

Last orders at 14:30, bookings close at 20:00 the day before

Seeing that service runs to 16:30, people plan to arrive some time after three. Orders close at 14:30, which in practice means being seated by the early part of the two o’clock hour. Reservations shut at 20:00 the previous evening as well, so this is not something you can slot into a gap that appears on the day.

For anyone whose dates are already fixed, that rigidity reads the other way: decide by the evening before and the table is yours, and choosing a weekday takes JPY 1,000 off each person. If the room is part of the plan too, our comparison of travel credit cards draws the line on which card the accommodation should go on.

A high-floor hotel, with the rooms and the restaurant on different floors

The hotel occupies floors 38 to 43 plus the ground floor and one basement level, and NiNi is on the 38th. Akasaka Trust Tower is a mixed-use building of which the hotel is one part, so the route from the entrance up to the 38th floor is not obvious the first time. Being inside the building 15 minutes before your reservation removes the problem.

If the view is what you are after, the 38th-floor dining room delivers it. The rooms are higher and the outlook does change, but not by as much as the difference in price.

A limited-run name stays the same while the contents change

La Belle Vie Afternoon Tea is a series that changes theme and ingredients each season. Summer 2026 was white peach: a peach and Japanese black tea charlotte, a white peach and Kamakura cider jelly macedonia, a white peach and rhubarb tart. After 20 September the composition changes.

NiNi Bar’s Dessert & Cocktail works the same way — the 22 June to 20 July 2026 edition was built on melon. If a specific dish is the reason you are going, read the serving dates rather than the date the article was published.

What if the serving period has already closed

A different collection appears in the same slot with the season. The brand’s centre of gravity is the building rather than the menu, and that does not change through the year. 1 Hotel Tokyo holds the top S grade under CASBEE, Japan’s system for assessing a building’s environmental performance, and the interiors carry it through: walls set with mossy stone and planting, ceilings drawn from the raked patterns of a dry landscape garden. There is also 1 Less Thing, under which clothes you no longer need can be left in the room and passed on locally.

To set it beside the brands that opened around the same time, the four names making their Japanese debut are tabulated there with opening dates and room counts.

Domestic openings landed in the same year. OMO7 Yokohama, built into the former city hall, and WE Hotel Toya at Lake Toya, which moved to a Thai brand, both arrived in 2026.

Common questions: access without a room, deadlines, and the water

Can I have the afternoon tea without staying?

Yes. It is served at NiNi, the all-day dining room on the 38th floor, and it is not restricted to hotel guests. Reservations are required and close at 20:00 the day before; service runs 12:00 to 16:30 with last orders at 14:30. The price is JPY 8,000 per person on weekdays and JPY 9,000 at weekends and on holidays, tax and service included.

How long does the peach version run?

From 21 July to 20 September 2026. La Belle Vie Afternoon Tea changes theme each season, so once the period ends the ingredients change with it. The summer 2026 edition was built on white peach, led by a peach and Japanese black tea charlotte, with seven sweets, two scones and three savouries, and a choice from 16 drinks.

Is there bottled water in the room?

No bottles. 1 Hotels equips each room with a filtered-water tap and recycled-glass tumblers, as part of keeping single-use plastic out of the guest rooms. The water itself is not the issue — only the container it arrives in.

SOURCES

MT&SH Hotel Management, peach afternoon tea release (25 June 2026: period, hours, price, hotel outline) ↗Checked on 2026-09-14
The same operator, NiNi Bar Dessert & Cocktail release (22 June 2026: period, price, seats) ↗Checked on 2026-09-14
1 Hotel Tokyo official (address, CASBEE S grade, in-room drinking water policy, facilities) ↗Checked on 2026-09-14
1 Hotel Tokyo official, La Belle Vie Afternoon Tea (menu and reservations) ↗Checked on 2026-09-14

Source: the reference block above / Checked on 2026-09-14 / Photos: MT&SH Hotel Management LLC press releases