Ideal for urban-weary gents, the new Four Seasons Hotel Osaka straddles the healing cultures of yesterday and today.
If the idea of a long weekend spent contemplating your place in the universe while soaking in a hot mineral bath appeals, Osaka’s newest house of slumber has your name on it. The new Four Seasons Hotel Osaka has arrived, and with it the city’s first contemporary ryokan experience, which takes place on its own dedicated floor.
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Of course, we all know that ryokans – timeless Japanese inns where a gent can soak his body, fill his belly and soothe his soul – are usually traditional affairs, but the new hotel, located in the vibrant Dojima neighbourhood, is a little different.
You can spend your mornings exploring the precinct’s many cafes, galleries and restaurants and then, when the need arises, make for the Gensui floor, where specially-trained staff will relieve you of your footwear, wrap you in a yakata, and beckon you down washi paper-lined corridors either to your traditional guest room or to SABO, an exclusive tea lounge with spectacular city views, tea rituals by day, and sake and wine sessions by night.
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If something a little more conventional is called for, you’ll have your pick of the hotel’s 130 guest rooms and 24 suites (only some of which are located on the ryokan floor), each of which has been blessed by the modern minimalist inspirations of local design agency Simplicity.
Osaka is also a culinary destination within a country famed for its food (the city boasts 85 Michelin-starred restaurants) and you’ll dine like a Shogun at the new Four Seasons, with venues ranging from signature Cantonese restaurant Jiang Nan Chun, and cocktail emporium Bar Bota, one of the city’s most seductive new watering holes, to the intimate Sushi L’Abysse Osaka, the creation of celebrated chefs Yannick Alléno and Itaru Yasuda.
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And if soaking doesn’t do it for you, The Spa at Four Seasons boasts five spa suites and a menu of classic and contemporary treatments ranging from massages to cutting-edge facials and herb-infused bathing rituals. There’s even a 16-metre indoor pool, traditional ofuro bathing pools, and a state-of-the-art gym.
We can feel those troubles slipping away already.
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