(Claska: translated as “how best to live”)

This is so amazing!!
I just love this…This wonderful recently renovated boutique hotel; the Claska Hotel, situated in the Meguro district of Tokyo is a hospitality gem with a difference…

The eight-story space now houses a restaurant, a bar, a shop, and a gallery space with rotating exhibitions of cutting-edge Japanese [“Nippon”] design. The architects involved are a medley of local hip designers and international greats: Iku Hirose and Yoshitsugu Takemoto from Urban Design System carried out the renovation of the mundane 1960s business hotel; while the the interiors were designed by various cool Japanese architects as well as the British UK design firm, Tomato.

The stay term is interesting… There are only twelve guest rooms available for short term stays (nine western and three in traditional tatami style) and those twelve rooms are much in demand among the fashionable souls who populate Claska’s lobby scene. Interestingly, the remaining twenty three rooms are available for stays of six months or longer..

And a what a beautiful hotel this is — possibly the finest small hotel that I have come across, and certainly the coolest. The Japanese culture has a way of seizing upon and then perfecting trends born elsewhere, so it is not surprising that the original Tokyo boutique hotel is possibly the definitive entry in the genre. Vestiges of the original New Meguro Hotel (sort of a Sixties jet-set business hotel) remain, adding an authenticity that elevates the interiors beyond mere set design. If you are fastidious about design or just the sort of person who appreciates the delightful absurdity of an upscale pet salon called Dogman (servicing Meguro’s pups since 2003), then this is the place for you.

Services are rather minimal, in classic boutique style, just as the nightlife is appropriately maximal — Claska’s lobby bar is pitch-perfect, the kind of place the locals go out of their way to visit — a surprisingly vast space with sleek modern furnishings and high ceilings, where DJs spin and drinkers drink until 2am.

Interesting concept…. I would love to do something like this here in Ireland… Any ideas on appropriate vacant hotel sites anyone…?