Artificial sea of clouds made by luxury hotel in Tokyo during summer

There are few more stunning views than looking down on what appears to be a sea of clouds. It's an especially beloved feature of many landscapes in Japanese works of art because of the country's mountainous terrain, but seeing one in real life often requires leaving the urban centers and finding places with just the right topography and climate for such a phenomenon.

That's not the case for anyone living in or visiting Tokyo, however, because the city's Hotel Chinzanso has been offering a manmade version of this spectacle since 2020. The Tokyo Sea of Clouds (Tokyo Unkai in Japanese) involves the installation of specially designed nozzles that fire mist in such a way that cloud-like formations appear in the hotel's sunken garden area.

The garden is also decked out in a variety of natural-looking accoutrements like bamboo lanterns and bamboo spheres.

There's also a path with rows of some 300 Edo-style wind chimes hanging overhead.

Also, in celebration of the hotel's 70th anniversary, this attraction has been upgraded to a "Great Sea of Clouds" using more advanced nozzles that can generate even fluffier-looking clouds using twice as much spray.

The regular Sea of Clouds are created five times throughout the day while the Great Sea of Clouds appears once in the early morning and twice in the late evening. This is all being done between July 3 and September 18, making it not just eye candy, but a nice way to cool down during the hottest months.

And speaking of candy, Hotel Chinzanso also has clouds inside in the form of a special cloud-themed dessert. An in-house competition among the hotel's chefs to come up with the best cloudy treat led to the creation of the Tokyo Sea of Clouds Zuccotto: Lemon Fragrance.

This zuccotto, which is an Italian style of creamy cake, has ricotta cheese and sponge cake made from rice flour for a whiter appearance. It also contains chocolate, dried fruit, pistachios, and a dusting of icing sugar, as well as a dollop of lemon cream inside which gives it a taste as refreshing as walking through a sea of clouds.

It's served in the hotel's Il Teatro dining room or available for takeout for 900 yen each.

Hotel Chinzanso offers a variety of packages to ensure guests’ stays are cloudy with a 100-percent chance of luxury.

Event information

Tokyo Sea of Clouds / 東京雲海

Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo / ホテル椿山荘東京

Tokyo-to, Bunkyo-ku, Sekiguchi 2-10-8

東京都文京区関口2-10-8

Period: July 3 – September 18

Sea of Clouds: 11:10 a.m., 2:10 p.m., 4:10 p.m., 6:10 p.m., 8:10 p.m.

Great Sea of Clouds: 7:10 a.m., 10:10 p.m., 10:40 p.m.

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