Palace Hotel Tokyo opens first evian SPA in Japan

With panoramic views of the Imperial Palace Gardens an Alpine-inspired design and a pristine, white ambiance that is at once remarkably serene and very Japanese, evian SPA TOKYO introduces a current of French savoir faire into the city’s fast-developing spa culture with its debut at Palace Hotel Tokyo. A first for Japan, the 1,200-square-metre facility features five treatment rooms and a spa suite (each aptly named after a peak in the Alps), heated baths, a marble sauna, cold plunge pool, dry sauna, reclining baths and separate men’s and women’s relaxation lounges. While urban spas sometimes struggle to evoke serenity amidst congestion, Palace Hotel’s incomparable location is a willing collaborator, lending inimitable views of the Imperial Palace Gardens and moats and, on a clear day, mystical Mt. Fuji in the distance, to reinforce the natural connections. “Like evian natural mineral water itself, the concept for this spa springs from the mountains,” said executive director Masaru Watanabe. “The journey of evian water through the French Alps, which leads to its purification and balance, is the same metaphorical journey we’re endeavouring to embark upon with our guests.” Inspired by that journey, the spa’s treatment menu cultivates similar themes, with facials, body scrubs, therapies, journeys and rituals that celebrate celestial restoration, mineral enrichment, precious nourishment and renewed vitality. Products by Paris-based Omnisens and Anne Semonin are incorporated throughout. Tapping that same inspiration, the spa’s design is an interpretation of the purifying journey undertaken by evian natural mineral water. “We sometimes forget that spa treatments can be very transformative, very much like a journey,” added Watanabe. “That theme, of reclamation and recovery, not only defines the treatments but the space itself.”