Alright! Although my blog is mostly for people living in Tokyo for a longer period of time, I guess it provides it’s uses for travelers as well.
My friends and some of my blogs visitors have asked me about hotels. Living in Japan, I’ve always sought my refuge in everything but hotels.
So your options are as such:
- Friends homes: I had host families and made lots of friends over the years. (Not everyone has a spare room, or as open to share their home… just a heads up)
- Hostels: are good but still a little unsafe. (Your stuff can still get stolen!)
- Ryokan (旅館): Japanese style hotels are expensive but super nice! You get to wear the yukatas and eat japanese billion course meal ^_^
- Minshuku (民宿): Japanese style bed and breakfast. Usually owned by families. Food is usually mediocre and AC is limited.
- Hotels: I stayed at Daichi in Kichijoji, nice but expensive. Loved the brunch buffet!
If you are unfamiliar with Japanese customs (bathing, cuisine, squatting toilets), I suggest you stay at a hotel. Shinjuku, Tokyo, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and Kichijoji have Airport Limousines (If I am not mistaken). Those are far more convenient than taking the train. With luggage and such, it’s going to be a pain to navigate through the crowded stations. Especially, if you are going to Shinjuku!
Warning: Do not book a hotel near the airport. Narita is 2 hours away from Tokyo and it is not a cheap train ride!
There are Japanese websites that aggregate hotel rates, but alas, they are in Japanese…and chances are, if you reading this post, you cannot read Japanese. However, I do have a solution!
I love sites like these, I mean I like saving money…but my time is also worth something as well. So you’ll know you’ll get a good deal if you use one of these sites:
- Hotelscombined.com : It’s searches a over 30 hotel booking website, so it’s a pretty good resource.
- Booking.com: Similar…If you select the hotel, it will tell you which rooms they have available those days.
Must Packs:
- Comfortable shoes
- Dufflebag (you are gonna have tons of stuff to bring home^_^)
- Simple phrasebook
- Camera
- Medicine (Ibuprofen, stomach medicine)
- CASH (The country mostly operates in cash on a day to day basis; credit cards are only for large purchases)
