Really soon, I’ll be in Tokyo!
Anyway, I’m having really bad abdominal cramps now but I can’t stand wasting time away lying down on my bed, so I’ll just write about this.
Many friends like to ask me where to stay in Tokyo.
I’ve stayed in many places before: hostels, guesthouses, ryokans, business hotels, manga kissa, love hotels (haha!), and these are my recommendations:
1. Hostels
Where I’ve stayed before:
Sakura Hotel at Jimbocho
Kimi Ryokan at Ikebukuro
The first time to Japan, I stayed pretty much at Sakura Hotel. The place was clean and the atmosphere was friendly. It was also cheap. I had 3 other traveling partners and the 4 of us had a whole room to ourselves. We paid about 3000yen per person (this was years ago though. The prices have been revised). Our room was spacious so it was great! The hostel was near to the station, so you didn’t have to lug your luggages for too long a way. Jimbocho is a great street too with lots of amenities. I love that place. 🙂 I stayed there a second time with my boyfriend but the double room is really tiny.
I’ve always wanted to try staying at Kimi Ryokan and finally got a chance to do so. It looks warm and inviting from the pictures on its website. Even the reviews were great, but when we arrived there, I was a bit disappointed at the place. The rooms were rather spacious but dark and it looked worn out. The service was impeccable though. Very friendly and warm hospitality. Very helpful staff. We arrived at 12 midnight and our taxi driver couldn’t find the place, so the staff actually came all the way out to bring us to the hostel. With a really welcoming smile when he found us, I must add! 🙂 It’s also cheap and is at Ikebukuro, which is a busy and happening area. Ikebukuro station is also one of the larger train stations with multiple lines. If you take the NEX train from the airport, one of the stops is Ikebukuro, so it’s rather convenient. However, Kimi Ryokan is a distance away from the station.
2. Guesthouse
Where I’ve stayed before:
Picainn at Komagome
Pikainn is run by a Taiwanese lady. She’s really passionate and ready to help her guests in any way. The rooms are really cute, but tiny. The room walls actually glow in the dark, and the whole room feels very hello-kittyish with its pale pink walls. You have your own bathroom and toilet. The price is reasonably cheap. Picainn is a 15 mins walk away from Komagome station, but the route there is pretty straightforward. It’s not difficult to find it. Komagome is a JR station but it’s pretty far away from most touristy places. I really liked the neighbourhood when I was staying there. Famous ramen Tetsu is also in the neighbourhood. However, I noticed that the rooms aren’t exactly clean. Sometimes I find strands of hair on the floor and so on. If this bothers you a lot, you can look for somewhere else.
3. Ryokans
Where I’ve stayed before:
Andon Ryokan at Asakusa
Homeikan at Kasuga
Andon Ryokan has a lot of good reviews. It emphasizes a lot that it is located near Asakusa and Ueno, but truthfully, I don’t spend much time in either Asakusa or Ueno, so the close proximity to these 2 places isn’t that important to me. What was important to me was that it was cheap and it looks awesome from the website. When my traveling partners and I arrived there, the staff who greeted us were warm and friendly. Good-looking too. Haha! And many of them could speak English. There’s a jacuzzi bath at the top floor which you can use for a small fee. The nearby streets were really quiet and super dark at night, which was kinda bad for me because I got lost a few times going back after a long day. They serve delicious breakfast which is not included in your stay package. I enjoyed the homemade breakfast. I still remember I had cinnamon toast and my brother had French toast. My brother really loved the place, but to me, it was good, but well, just ok, because the rooms were really really small. And I’m saying this as a tiny Asian (I’m only 1.53m tall)! When I lay down on the futon, my head was right against the wall, and my feet nearly touching the other side of the wall. I shared the room with my brother, and both of us just completely filled the room up at bedtime.
Homeikan (Picture from jalan.net)
Homeikan was where I stayed at when I brought my mum to Tokyo for the first time. It’s actually at a rather inconvenient location, and is quite far from the station. However, I was attracted to it because it was the oldest traditional ryokan in Tokyo, and I really wanted to try staying in a traditional ryokan for once!!! I never had the chance to stay at a traditional ryokan before because it’s usually so expensive! Homeikan was not too expensive. The rooms are huge. There’s a huge bath area at the basement which you will have to share with other guests. Throughout my stay, I didn’t see any other guests (which was GOOD! coz I’m really shy) at the bath area. And I’ve got to say this, do include breakfast with your stay!!!! It’s cheaper than its dinner, and it was soooo good! Till now, my mother and I remember it dearly. They serve traditional Japanese breakfasts, a whole full set of rice, vegetables, meat, soup, fruit, pudding, and so on. It’s soooo good. If you cannot eat anything (like you are a vegetarian or you can’t eat beef or pork or seafood or something), you can just let them know and they will prepare a meal specially for you. The staff bring a tray of food up to your room and prepare everything for you in front of you. It’s so Japanese I love it! My mother and I are not fans of white rice, but we actually emptied the entire pot of rice! We initially ordered breakfasts for only 2 days, but decided to order it for the whole trip because it was so good! Meals everyday were different. They place different Japanese sweets on your table everyday too, so we would come back after a long day and get surprised by yet another delicious Japanese cookie or cake. Haha! It was really awesome. We really enjoyed our stay there. I recommend it for anyone who wants to try a ryokan stay but have a tight budget!
4. Business Hotels
Where I’ve stayed before:
Shinjuku CityHotel Lonestar at Shinjuku
Tokyu Stay Nishi-Shinjuku at Shinjuku
In recent years, I’ve started to stay in cheap business hotels in Shinjuku whenever I travel to Tokyo. It’s for 2 reasons:
1. Shinjuku is easy to access to-and-from the airport.
2. You will realise you may need to change trains at Shinjuku a lot, or that you will pass by Shinjuku a lot to get to your destinations, which means that, if you stay at Shinjuku, it is awesome because of the many train lines found there! It’s easy to go to anywhere on the JR Line (Harajuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro etc), it’s also easy to go to Disneyland and Disneysea. It’s also easy to go on short trips outside Tokyo (Hakone, Mount Fuji and so on). It is also easy to go to and from Narita airport. It is just great and convenient. Do yourself a favour and get any accommodation in Shinjuku. It really doesn’t matter where in Shinjuku and what kind of place you are staying at. Hotels will of course be the best, but it’s still too expensive for a person like me earning such low income at the moment.
Shinjuku CityHotel Lonestar offered a great low price and I stayed there a couple of times. The prices of accommodation in Tokyo is always changing though, and rather quickly, so, always check first. Basically, I never stay at any accommodation that costs more than 6000yen per pax. I try to get accommodation that is about 4500yen a person. It is possible. You just have to really search! Anyway, although it’s supposedly at a red-light district, I didn’t feel it was unsafe AT ALL! So, heck all care about reviews that say it’s at a red-light district, implying that it’s messy and dangerous. It felt totally normal to me. Plus, there’s a conbini right below the hotel. Totally convenient. Room is a bit tight but normal by Tokyo’s standards.
Tokyu Stay Nishi-Shinjuku is the best business hotel I’ve stayed at! It was found by my boyfriend and I was surprised at the generous space in the room. There was a fridge, a microwave, a washing machine (with washing powder included), air freshener, free wi-fi that was easy to use, bathtub (and the bathroom wasn’t crazily small that you can’t brush your teeth without knocking your elbow into something else), a writing table, hangers, TV, full-length mirror (VERY IMPORTANT!), small mirror to do your makeup, plates, cups, forks and spoons, and there was totally enough space for you to put your luggage without it blocking your path. I really loved it. For the price we paid, it was totally worth it, but I think it has increased its prices again, so my boyfriend and I are looking at another business hotel this time. It’s also in Shinjuku. I will update this page after my experience there!
I hope this page has been useful. I have provided my honest views and hope it was able to help you in any way. Yutaki recommended me to use Airbnb which I’m going to use for the first time for this coming trip, so look forward to my review on Airbnb too~! 🙂
*I could have used perfect beautiful pictures from each accommodation’s website, but I decided to post pictures most like the real place to better help you in making a decision. For more actual pictures of the place, do try tripadvisor.com 🙂
From the Sunny Island~! 