Ritz-Carlton Tokyo Opens, Offers Diamond Martini

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 4th 2007 at 9:02AM

Last year we wrote about the influx of new luxury hotels in Tokyo. Now the Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo, a 248-room hotel in the city's tallest skyscraper is officially open. The hotel starts on the 45th floor and is home to Japan's most expensive Presidential Suite, at $20,000 per night, and a 200-year-old Japanese teahouse. The design scheme blends European inspiration with contemporary details such as four bold and colorful works by American painter Sam Francis. The hotel's lofty location provides views of the city and Mt. Fuji in the distance. The Ritz-Carlton Club, accessible only by elevator key, offers multi-lingual concierge service and round-the-clock food and beverage offerings. The hotel is also home to restaurants that feature sushi, tempura and Teppanyaki as well as a restaurant that serves Asian and French inspired cuisine.

The Washington Post reports that the hotel also offers a very pricey drink. The Diamonds-Are-Forever Martini is a $16,000 cocktail with a one-carat Bulgari diamond at the bottom that you can take to any Bulgari store in Tokyo and have a ring fitted to the stone for free.

Tags: bulgari, diamond, hotel, japan, martini, ritz-carlton, tokyo, travel

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spirits

Source

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

ken Apr 10th 2007 8:29PM

I hope the person dumb enough to buy a $16K martini swallows the diamond and has to take it to Bulgari the next day chocolate covered in s***.

Frank Crisci Apr 10th 2007 10:40PM

What waste of life would spend $16,000 on a drink..??

me Apr 10th 2007 8:45PM

sounds like a great way to propose if your in Tokyo!

Julius G. Alzona Apr 10th 2007 8:55PM

Article should be read by your "rich & infamous!" Remember the bible verse "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his ONLY soul?"

Brockeim: Brockeimia - The Absurd World of Brockeim Apr 10th 2007 8:54PM

Opulent, foolish (as I see it), materialistic, and no different than the more modest versions of living many of the rest of us indulge in with ordinary incomes.

Brockeim
http://Brockeim.com

Jim Apr 10th 2007 9:06PM

Why would you pay 16K for a 3 - 4 K value diamond? I think the whold idea is ludicrous. Send the money to the poor and feel better about yourself.

mike Apr 10th 2007 9:36PM

What a beautiful building. I have only been in really prestigeous hotels a couple of times. It was very nice to experience. Being a common man I prefer a dirt bike in the desert myself. To each his own. The president of the corporation I work for could definately buy his high maintenance wife a few of those martini's during their stay. I don't see wealth as an evil. I see it as psychological destination not so different from myself getting decent air on two wheels. Something motivates us all. I love the feel of flannel not silk. Sunsets on a desert horizon are as pretty as anything ever painted or carved no matter how valuable they are. Watching my girlfriend peel off her clothes as she plays on her quad in a sandwash is something glorious I can have without trying so hard that I miss the simple points of my life. Beautiful building, wonderful feat of technology.

DAVID Apr 10th 2007 9:43PM

Hey, Mike (Comment number 6).

Thanks for the very enlightened and pleasant comment. I enjoyed reading it and agree with you, wholeheartedly.

As for Ken's comment......well.......

David

Mike Apr 10th 2007 9:49PM

I can't belief this. I'm serious! I'm salling my chicken farm here in Tennesee and going to get one!

carol Apr 10th 2007 10:03PM

A $16000 diamond is ok. But if you had your heart in the right place you could help a lot of starving people to eat, be clothed, and have an education.
Think about it!

Shell Apr 10th 2007 10:19PM

I am soo tired of the rich and famous .. go to Hollywood it is a dirtbag .. With a blanket of fog laying over it . yukkk .. I agree I'll stay with the beauty of the outdoors than sit with my nose in the air drinking a 16,000 Martini ...big deal .. I can hold my own against any woman my age and then some ..They do not intimidate me in the least. Most of them stay together and cheat anyways ,,, cost too much to get divorced, Like Pitt I lost all my respect for him for what he did to his wife with Angelee Jolee, Then they want the world to think they are top dogs adopting all these kids from other country's . What is wrong with them, Our OWN people need help, Like Oprah givin away the homes to 98% black people and only ONE white person lost their home in Katrina?? I was actually embarassed for Oprah .. Shame on the people .. I go along with Mike and his gal on the motorcycles ... WTG

Ms. Linda Apr 10th 2007 10:25PM

If you've got the money to buy a $16K drink, I'm sure you've got an extra $16K to spend on the needy. Most people that are that wealthy donate thousands of dollars to charity every year (some for the tax right-off, others because they general care, and some for all of the above), and they have every right to spend that kind of money on vacation, or any other time for that matter. People with a lot of wealth have usually worked very hard for their money, or their families have work very hard. Anyone can achieve great wealth, however, it generally calls for a lot more motivation, work, and time than the common man cares to dedicate. People usually end up missing out on everything else in life while they are building their wealth, and once that wealth is reached and there are others to run their companies, they try to catch up on all they missed, and buying a loved one a $16K drink in order to treat them to a special ring with a great story, is one of the ways they feel they can regain the time lost.

If there wasn't a market for this type of thing, it wouldn't exist.

I obviously can't speak for everyone of wealth, but in my line of work (accounting), and current position (CFO), I've encountered enough people of this status to have developed a pretty good sense of how a lot of them are.

In response to one comment, it is definitely a special way to propose marriage. I, however, would want to take a look at the diamond ahead of time, or at least receive paperwork with it certifying the quality. And for those that can't afford something as lavish as this, you can always stick the ring you've purchase in her drink at a special dinner, or whatever the occasion calls for.

Dink Apr 10th 2007 10:38PM

If you can afford the trip there and that fabulous hotel..... why not afford an unforgetable occurance that will never be forgotten by any female! ... the memory and the experience for any who can afford would be remarkable. Priceless! I know I would love it and never ever ever forget it.

Lisa Apr 10th 2007 10:45PM

If people have money to spend they can spend it any way they want as long as it is legal haha. If they want to buy a diamond in a martini glass then who cares...I just want to know what cut the diamond is...do you get to choose or are they all the same?

Carol Apr 10th 2007 10:49PM

I'm so tired of these posts about giving to charity. Its getting sooo old. I wonder how much these posters give of their own time and money. Its just jealousy and as in the other Carol's post #9, shows how little she knows about how far $16K goes. And you are making the assumption that the person who has the means to buy a $16K diamond-- doesn't give that a whole bunch more to charity. If you don't want to buy a $16K diamond don't, but don't judge others (my bible reading poster #4)

Randall Apr 10th 2007 11:02PM

AS far as, the desert comment I totally agree. However I do also agree that if you ahve it spend it anyway you want to. I do not understand why everyone wants to scream about the poor. It doesn;t take the super-rich to fix the poverty problem. If everyone ave all they could it would fix itself. However, we always want to blame the people that have the most as if they have not earned.

Of course I am broke and do not give all I can!!!!

So go figure.

I do love th emarriae proposal idea. My luck she WOULD swallow it..

thanks,

Randall

Teri Apr 10th 2007 11:13PM

Thanks, Mike, posted at 9:36 on April 10, are there any more like you out there?! What a wonderful spirit you have and such a true perspective on what is most important in life! You have one lucky girlfriend! Thanks for the uplifting moment!

mike Apr 10th 2007 11:48PM

Ms Linda, I like your comments about the fact that many wealthy people are generous to charities. Goodness of heart is not for the poor and struggling only. I also liked your take on how much time and effort is expended on getting to the top. Very true. You are a CFO and I am a maintenance man that loves the desert, and that might suggest that we are more understanding than angry about a pretty building in Japan. I would bet you that it will also withstand an earthquake of 7.5 or less.

Shell, your comments about LA being a dirtbag is not all true. Fog Is common to San Fran but the smog in LA has been lowered every year due to constant vehicle testing. As a kid in the LA area the smog was so bad that my lungs would ache. We covered our mouths with clothing while waiting for the school bus. That was over 40 years ago and upon moving back to LA in 82 or so, I have never had another smogged out lung episode. Things are getting massively out of control with population but the Gov is working on things to make life better. I was downtown during the LA riots because I was curious. I took a 35mm cannon to shoot some people with. I had the Cannon camera under a poncho and was talking to black people a half a block from where the white truck driver was pulled out and beaten. Those blacks around me were not angry with me but they were excitable. One of them might have gotten upset with me but they did not. There was a black wino sitting in the recess of a closed store entrance in filthy clothes. He looked very sad so I said hello. We talked for a little and he told me a story about losing his wife. It's hard to remember but I think she was in a line at LAX and he tried to talk her into coming back home. By this time in the story he was crying pretty hard. I wanted to give him some money to help out a little but I didn't want to offend him after the time we shared. So I asked if I could have a hit of his wine. He looked almost startled for a second and then offered me a sip. I thanked him and then felt able to give him a few bucks in return. We shook hands and then I went to a rooftop to catch some more pictures of fires and people.

I am rambling on severely but I think the moral of my story is that we are all brothers and sisters from one common mother Earth. We are all jammed into this overcrowded world. We can complain, curse and try to rise above the next guy, or we can close our eyes for a minute to clear our senses. We can look back to the playground of our childhood and remember how good that was. We can relive our mistakes but not let them condemn us. We can be the good or bad inside us at any given moment so why not close our eyes at times and try to see the world as our playground again.

If there is a God, it might give me Grace for listening to a wino in downtown LA. If there is no God then there must be real goodness in man. Sorry for going on and on.

Lindsey Apr 11th 2007 12:08AM

I know half of you are saying that people of wealth need to support the needy and all this, but really if they worked hard for their money and want to spend it on a special way to propose, who are you to judge? And no offense to the needy out there, but it's not ALWAYS the job of people who have wealth to give it all up to charity. Let people live their lives the way they want to. 16k isn't a lot to some, and it can be a gold mine to others...it's all in perspective.

Thomas Walker Apr 11th 2007 1:56AM

Why Not a $40,000.00 Wine Cooler with My Nuts Floatin' in the Bottom? If I had even $16.00 to spend
it wouldn't be on a Gawdamn Martini, I don't care if the Queen's Jewel's and Anna Nicole Smith's Boobs were in the Mix. These Gawdamn Rich F*&%'s should throw their Money Away on Raisinets! Pass The Butter Mel!

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments