Meiji Kinenkan was the first state guest house in modern Japan, and it is where Tokyo holds a formal gala. When an occasion needs a room formal enough to carry it, rather than the reproducible display of a hotel ballroom, the city offers very few answers, and this is one. It stands in the Outer Gardens of Meiji Jingu, and it was not decorated to look historical; it is the history. Garden and historic architecture hold each other, and the bearing needs no assistance.
The room that carries the most weight is the Kinkei no Ma, the Golden Pheasant Room, whose name alone is enough for anyone who knows. For corporate principals and government-level guests, holding a gala here states a posture: the host understands the Japanese regard for form and intends to place the guests inside it. It is the standard address for a formal dinner in Tokyo and never looks ordinary, because what makes a standard a standard is that nothing replaces it.
In an itinerary it supplies a sentence that can be said to guests of the highest rank: tonight they are received where Japan's tradition of receiving guests of state began. With the garden as the curtain and the historic rooms as the seat, a gala here confirms the standing of the guest rather than merely feeding them.