Devoted to the eternally renewed beauty of cherry blossom

The Japanese can genuinely be said to venerate the cherry tree, which they call Sakura. The tree's singularity stems from the fact that its flowers blossom far before the leaves appear, giving the impression of an immaculate white tree, and when the petals begin to fall, the blossom that has not yet wilted cloaks the surrounding meadows in a beautiful white mantle. This botanic characteristic explains why the cherry tree is regarded as a symbol of beauty and also of the evanescent quality of beauty. Every year, the National Weather Board and the entire population track the "sakura zensen" (cherry blossom front) at the same time as the weather forecast. The first trees to blossom are in Okinawa in January and the "front" progresses gradually northwards. The Japanese eagerly await this brief moment when they can "contemplate the blossom" in the country's parks, altars and temples.

The "front" reaches Nagasaki around March. Here, the 1000 cherry trees, planted by the doctor and writer Takashi Nagai on the hillside of the devastated cathedral in the wake of the atomic bomb, are steeped in symbolism. From the top of its 15 floors in the heart of the city, the Best Western Premier Nagasaki Hotel boasts one of the finest views of the spring hillsides decked in blossom and of the stunning coastline. Japan is indeed truly a land where daily life takes on an aesthetic quality, a vision the hotel generously shares with its guests.

In Japanese Art de Vivre, one word sums up a very subtle aesthetic ideal: "iki". It is a complex concept, whose refinement extends equally to clothing, architecture and people and the Best Western Premier Nagasaki Hotel eminently embodies this ideal by its prevailing genuine natural elegance. One of the most remarkable traits of this characteristically "iki" hotel, from the lobby to the last bathroom, the terraces to the bar or from the Westernised to the most Japanese spaces, is the pursuit of harmony and balance in the design. The real aesthetic feat accomplished by the hotel's designers and architects is, paradoxically perhaps to our Western minds, the invisible and intangible nature with which they have applied this ideal, whose supreme elegance lies precisely in its inconspicuous simplicity. Contemplating the cherry blossom is as "iki" as are the brown marble and superb cream vault in the lobby. In this lobby moreover, subtle details voluntarily break up the symmetry, illustrated by an eccentric table graced with an exuberant flower arrangement or chaotic splashes of light. For "iki" is the contrary of a quest for perfection, whose vain crusade demands an application, concentration and methodology that are the antithesis of this ideal. "Iki" is embodied rather by spontaneity, a certain nonchalance and the freedom of human beings who know that perfection is not of this world and that cherry blossom will fade sooner or later.

Such is the Best Western Premier Nagasaki Hotel, supremely elegant down to the humility with which it expresses the transient nature of beauty. The result is a unique experience in an exquisitely refined environment that is also deeply humane. The hotel, accustomed to welcoming prominent international figures, does not compromise with international standards of comfort. Always one step ahead of its guests' needs, it offers, for example, a choice between an authentic Japanese decor and a Western setting for foreign visitors. Both are equally consummately deployed, but neither is imposed. The restaurants are equally enticing, offering a first-class repertory of international culinary classics and Japanese cuisine whose inimitable flavour, here more than elsewhere on earth, is the result of incomparably fresh ingredients and ancestral techniques. The flawlessly appointed guestrooms command magnificent views of the city and its stunning landscape. The light fittings for example can be modulated to suit the changing moods of guests. Plush and lavishly fitted out down to the tiniest detail, they are also conscientiously free of superfluous clutter so that guests can truly make themselves at home. Just another illustration of the Best Western Premier Nagasaki Hotel's commitment to "iki".

Best Western Premier Hotel Nagasaki

2-26 Takara Machi, Nagasaki, Japan - 850-0045

Phone: +81 95 821 1111 Fax: +81 95 823 4309