JAPAN TRENDS



 

Keio Plaza Hotel’s new rooms come furnished with cuteness.
On June 15, the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tama, Tokyo, unveiled a pair of new themed rooms as part of their ongoing collaboration with cute character creation powerhouse Sanrio. My Melody and Little Twin Stars (featuring the well-loved characters Kiki and Lala) provide the theme for the rooms, which are decorated with a whimsical and thematically appropriate style.

The Little Twin Stars room (pictured above) features wallpaper, bed linens and even ceiling decoration depicting the pastel world of Kiki and Lala. Meanwhile, the My Melody room comes with a bright and colorful forest motif.

The two new rooms are in addition to the hotel’s preexisting Hello Kitty room, which has enjoyed enormous popularity ever since it opened in 2014. Most popular with young women and families with young children, the Hello Kitty room also comes with themed refreshments during your stay, so you can dine on Hello Kitty cakes while enjoying Hello Kitty drinks. Hmm, wonder if they serve Hello Kitty coffee, too?

 

All this adorable accommodation doesn’t come cheap, however. As is often the case with hotel accommodations in Japan, the price of the Sanrio rooms is dependent on the number of guests in your party, with the per-person chare for the special rooms being 21,780 yen (US$203) for groups of three, 29,700 yen for parties of two, and 59,400 yen for single travelers.

The number of rooms available with these themes is also limited – there are presently four Hello Kitty rooms and two each for My Melody and Little Twin Stars, so they’re fairly exclusive (reservations can be made here).

If you’re a fan of My Melody or Little Twin Stars but can’t quite make your wallet stretch to accommodate a stay in the themed rooms, though, don’t fret! Sanrio often collaborates with department stores to create pop-up themed restaurants, like the My Melody cafe and the Kiki and Lala Cafe. And don’t forget about Sanrio Puroland, also in Tama, Tokyo, where you could even marry one of the characters if you felt like it…