Where to Stay in Japan?

Finally, I’m going to Japan!! But where should I stay? Should I stay in a hotel? But will it be expensive? There are a lot of alternative places in Japan that you can use as your base camp while traveling in Japan. Read to find out about them

Dormitory

Basically, you rent a bed in a house. The rate of a dormitory is the cheapest, you can find some place lower than 10 bucks/person/day. Be careful about your stuff, though.

Shared house

You can get a comfortable room in a shared house for around 15 bucks/person / day in Tokyo area.

Rent apartment/ a house

You can experience the life of a local by renting apartment/house. Due to the lack of land, Japanese house is rare and might be very expensive to rent.

Airbnb is a good site to easily rent apartment in Japan. But note that some apartments are located on the high floor. So make sure the building has an elevator or you will need to drag your stuff through the stairs…

Internet Cafe

Yes, it’s not a proper place to stay, but its quite cheap and open 24 hours. They won’t provide you with any bed, though. Basically, it’s a small room with computer and internet. Some of them provided games to play and movies to watch. Nowadays, there are even cafes which provide you with a shower place. Very convenient!

Hotel

Don’t be afraid to book a hotel in Japan. Some hotel can cost the same as a shared house.

Ryokan

Traditional Japanese Inn which features a tatami-matted room, futon, onsen bath and kaiseki cuisine (Japanese multi-course dinner). A good ryokan experience requires around 20.000 yen/person/night. So it’s quite expensive. You can check out this article to learn more about Ryokan.

Love hotel

You might have a bad impression with the name. But Japanese Love hotel is one of the cleanest places to stay that you’ll ever visit. A good hygiene is very important in Japanese Love hotel and they even reject people whom they thought might be making a lot of mess.

Unique point of a love hotel:

•Reservation is done directly on the spot via a vending machine. You won’t meet anyone, just a list of rooms with pictures. After you choose a room you will be given a room key. Then you proceed to the rooms as normal.

• There are a few different price depending on how long you will stay… You can stay spend the night or just “rest” for a few hours.

• Most of the rooms are thematic. Chinese room, Jungle room, Hello Kitty room, you named it, they might have it. Some expensive room has outrageous equipment such as a water slide.

• Common amenities will be provided, but you can also take more stuff from vending machine. They will automatically charge it to your room.

• Some room provided games to play, movies to watch and some of them even have a karaoke machine.

• By the end of the session, the door will be locked until you have finished the payment. Various methods of payment are usually provided.

Capsule Hotel

It’s something that you might not see easily overseas. It’s hard to call this place as a hotel. It’s more toward Capsule Room for rent. The cost is not that cheap either. Most capsule hotel also only accept men as their guest. Don’t try this capsule hotel if you’re claustrophobic. The room is so small that you can’t stand in them. They provide you with locker, lounge and shower room where you can take care of your other stuff apart from sleeping.

First time going to Japan on your own?

Be sure to prepare yourself well before you go to Japan. Check out this article to help you plan what you need to have in Japan.

Language can be an obstacle since many people in Japan couldn’t speak English. You could either try to learn a bit of basic Japanese or you could also use free apps like Japan Travel Phrasebook to help you.

This app provide a lot of practical phrase you will need to travel such as “I want to go to …” or “Where is the toilet?”. You can imitate the phrases until you memorize them or you can simply bookmark the phrases and show it up to local so they can immediately understand what you need.

Hope it helps and have a wonderful trip! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°