Review: Toggle Hotel Suidobashi

Why book?

A big design swing, and it’s a hit—bold pastels, compelling branding, and lofted furniture enliven Tokyo’s famously small budget hotel rooms.

Set the scene

The yellow and black stripes will grab you as you zoom by on the commuter train; inside the swatch book of eye-popping hues continues—purples and blues coat the common spaces and rooms. We’re partial to the avocado and millennial pinks. Hallways sliced down the middle by different shades of paint make for particularly fun Instagramming as you toe the line between two brash commitments to color.

The backstory

Toggle is the operative word; guests can customize their experience, moving between the hotel’s different moods and room setups.

Rooms

It’s worth combing through the website to pick your palette pattern before you arrive as a full spectrum of colors means you could end up with lemon-wedge yellows or deep coats of sapphire in your bedroom. Beds lofted above couches are particularly fun, try for a room facing away from the commuter traffic for maximum quiet.

Food & drink

A cafe and bar gets the bicolor treatment as well, with zags of white and green, and dozens of potted ferns all over.

Neighborhood

Baseball enthusiasts will enjoy being close to the Tokyo Dome, but really the Iidabashi area makes for a convenient escape across town to Shinjuku or Ueno. It’s well worth walking around the cobblestone streets of Kagurazaka nearby, an old geisha district that’s now home to some of the city’s best restaurants.