The paradox of a five-star Hawaiian-themed hotel in Yokohama

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.

Though a Haiwaiian-themed hotel, the Kahala doesn't go overboard with the island decor in its guest rooms. | COURTESY OF THE KAHALA HOTEL & RESORT

My room for two nights is a 75-square-meter Premier Twin. Floor-to-ceiling windows are as close to mandatory as you can get in hotels that charge upwards of ¥100,000 per night (about $600), and the view doesn’t disappoint — mostly. Facing south, there’s a decent slice of the Yokohama skyline accented by the Cosmo Clock 21 ferris wheel, which lights up a range of colors at night, as well as the arching Yokohama Bay Bridge off in the distance. The lower third of my south-facing room, however, is dominated by the sheer-white facade of the adjacent Pacifico Yokohama convention center. It’s not a dealbreaker, and it does explain why the Kahala chose not to put its lobby and other venues on the ground floor, but it’s worth keeping in mind if an uninterrupted cityscape view is a priority.

At Hanagoyomi, the third-floor Japanese kaiseki (haute cuisine) restaurant, the Kahala’s designers overcome this external obstacle with aplomb. The restaurant’s communal dining area and koshitsu (private rooms) are all bounded by a large, tree-lined reflecting pool, beyond which the walls of Pacifico Yokohama seem to blend into the sky above. Particularly in the koshitsu, this gives meals a sense of seclusion without feeling cramped — a welcome illusion of well-thought-out design.

Hanagoyomi, the Kahala's Japanese restaurant, makes excellent use of simple design features. | COURTESY OF THE KAHALA HOTEL & RESORT

With decor like this, the food must deliver. Hanagoyomi’s dinner set menu (¥10,500) does, and for a fraction of the price of a meal of similar quality in the heart of Tokyo. The drinks menu is extensive and includes the same gyokuro hōjicha (shade-grown roasted green tea) served in Japan Airlines’ first class cabin, but the highlight comes back to back later in the meal: a loose hata (grouper) risotto with edamame and yellow cucumber, then kuroge wagyu served sukiyaki-style and mixed with robust hatchō miso and Korean gochujang. Purists beware — the latter is an intentional blending of ingredients and traditions, I’m told, in homage to Yokohama’s Meiji Era (1868-1912) past as Japan’s first international port city-turned-global cultural melting pot.

Such meals so fully integrated into Japanese history, culinary and cultural, beg the question of why the Kahala leans at all on its Hawaiian branding. Many staff members wear Hawaiian shirts, the elevators and corridors outside guest rooms play telltale Hawaiian Muzak and the in-room breakfast comes with thin, rolled pancakes that are evidently edible calling cards for the company’s main Honolulu resort. Like its location, this would seem to work against the Kahala when attracting the coveted overseas crowd — who, after all, would come all the way to Japan just to stay at a Hawaiian-themed hotel?

The view from the Kahala's guest rooms is sweeping as long as you can overlook the convention center adjacent to the property. | COURTESY OF THE KAHALA HOTEL & RESORT

I’m still uncertain who the target demographic for the Kahala’s Yokohama branch is. During checkout, which takes place at a leisurely 12 p.m., there were a few dozen parties milling around, Japanese and foreign guests alike waiting for staff members to deliver their final bills. I can’t say what brought them there, but I can say that few, if any, looked disappointed with their stays.