A five-star hotel in Yokohama is a bit of a conundrum. If you’re a Tokyo resident, the port city is an easy day trip from just about anywhere in the metropolis. If you’re a tourist coming from overseas, you’re all but certain to choose an accommodation closer to the sights and sounds of Tokyo proper. For the majority of these travelers, all they might see of Yokohama — historic and full of its own attractions though it might be — is the view outside the shinkansen window as they speed along to Kyoto or Osaka.
In this macrotourism sense, the Kahala Hotel & Resort Yokohama can’t quite brag about its location. In almost every other facet, however, it’d be right to do so.
Opened in September 2020 during the height of the pandemic and more than two years before general tourists would be allowed to enter the country normally from October 2022, the Kahala still has the feeling of a newly opened hotel. The walk to reception is unique — a snaking hallway with double-height ceilings leads you to the elevator, which takes you to the 14th floor housing the lobby, the bar and lounge and the Italian restaurant. The property is the Hawaii-based business’ first attempt to set up shop in Japan, and if the intended effect from this entrance and rise from the streets of Yokohama’s Minato Mirai neighborhood was to make guests seem like they are being transported elsewhere, it’s not entirely without merit.