Keio Plaza review, Tokyo

Tokyo's first hotel skyscraper is on the precipice of being as many years old as it is storeys high. Although no longer a visually striking structure in the vertically unchallenged urban landscape of Shinjuku, the 47-level Keio Plaza Hotel now stands out within one of the city's main administrative and commercial areas by offering guests intimate insights and hands-on experiences of traditional Japanese culture.

When I arrive late on an early-March evening, the first sign of this is a colourful multi-mobile installation celebrating Hinamatsuri or Girls' Day prominently positioned in the big flashy foyer. The second sign is breakfast.

One of Keio's three morning meal options is a set Japanese breakfast at Kagari restaurant. I'm greeted in Japanese and led to a table in a spacious room where most people sit alone separated by decorative hanging beads and artfully thrown light. It feels both intimate and private.

"Porridge or rice?" is all anyone needs to know before a cup of green tea is delivered followed by a tray of 15 different plates and bowls and tiny porcelain containers of egg custard, miso soup, smoked fish, vegetables and condiments like roe, bonito flakes and pickles. There's some quiet music. I don't even look at the magazine I've brought to keep me company. It feels more an act of meditation than a meal.

Although it doesn't seem like it at breakfast, Keio Plaza Hotel is a dual-towered mini-city of shops and spas and chapels and banquet rooms with 25 bars and restaurants including Korean, Chinese, Italian and French cuisine and an all-day sweets buffet booked out weeks in advance. Local dining options are mainly specialty restaurants – soba, sushi, teppanyaki, tempura – as is typical in Japan. Seasonality of food is hugely important and menus change with the seasons. March means strawberries, plum blossom, Asari clams.

The hotel's exhibitions also cycle. Just off the main foyer I find glass cabinets displaying the art of knot tying, paper wrapping and chopstick decorating soon to be replaced by Mt Fuji and sakuru (cherry blossom) artworks, Imari porcelain from Arita, and the masks and costumes of classical Noh theatre plus some free performances. A flower arranger turns up a few times every year and there's a koto (harp) recital in the lobby twice a week.

More interactively, tea ceremonies are now held four times a day most days hosted by Michiko Yano whose grace and good etiquette comes with a lovely splash of strictness. We follow her instructions on when and how to eat bean paste cake and sip thick and thin tea. Although a genuine chanoyu can take four to five hours, Keio guests can take part in a half hour session for a fee.

There's also the chance, budget willing, to try on a striking silk bridal kimono and be photographed in various locations around the hotel. To spend more time in one of these magnificent outfits, you can hire one for a wedding for $US4000 ($5400) a day or take the frock home forever for quarter of a million. Keio has 1437 rooms in Western and Japanese styles along with eight Hello Kitty rooms. The hotel's enthusiastic observation of events like Kitty's big birthdays – she's now fortysomething herself – and the Little Mermaid turning 180 and anything Alice in Wonderland keeps the kitsch alive.