Where to stay & onsen

A ryokan or hot-spring inn旅館・温泉宿

Dinner and breakfast brought to you, a bath, and floor bedding laid out while you eat. The price is per person and includes both meals.

A city hotelホテル

Clean, small, reliable and priced per room. Right for early trains, late arrivals and anyone travelling with a large suitcase.

A guesthouse or minshuku民宿・ゲストハウス

Family-run, cheaper, and often the only option in the countryside.

Asakusa View Hotel浅草ビューホテル — A-sa-ku-sa Vyu-

This is the one to aim for in Tokyo, and it is in Asakusa rather than in a business district on purpose. 326 rooms, and the tower across the river is visible from the upper floors. Asakusa is the part of Tokyo that still feels like a town, and it is the only part where staying the night changes what you can see.

• Be on Nakamise before eight in the morning. The temple grounds are open, the gate is lit, the shops are shuttered, and there is almost nobody there. By eleven it is one of the busiest few hundred metres in Japan.
• Go back out at night. The shutters on Nakamise are painted, so after closing the whole street becomes a two-hundred-metre painted wall under the street lamps. The temple has no gate and no closing time — you can walk the approach at ten at night, alone. Almost no visitor knows the shutters are painted.
• Leave by water instead of by train. Boats go from the pier beside Asakusa down the Sumida river, under bridges each painted a different colour, out towards the bay. It is a way of getting somewhere, not a tour — which is why it costs a fraction of a sightseeing cruise.
• The kitchenware street is five minutes away and sells knives, moulds and the plastic food used in restaurant windows. It is where cooks shop, and it is open on weekday mornings when the temple is busy.

Where

Nishi-Asakusa — directly at Asakusa station on the Tsukuba Express. Sensoji, the great gate, Nakamise and the kitchenware street are all within about ten minutes on foot.

Address

3-17-1 Nishi-Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo 111-8765

Telephone

03-3847-1111

Booking

Through the official site, or the booking services below

Checked 2026-08-17

Tokyo Station Hotel東京ステーションホテル — Su-te-e-sho-n

You sleep inside a nationally designated Important Cultural Property. Walk out of your own front door onto a platform for the north of Japan.

• Inside the station building itself.
• A third-floor corridor looks into the relief work in one of the domes.
• Every shinkansen line in the east ends underneath.

Where

Inside the 1914 brick station building — the platforms are below you

Address

1-9-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo 100-0005

Booking

Through the official site, or the booking services below

Checked 2026-08-18

Hotel Gracery Shinjukuホテルグレイスリー新宿 — Gu-re-i-su-ri-i

Five minutes from the busiest railway station in the world. The free observatory at 202 metres and the national garden are both walkable.

• Walking distance to the west-side towers and the free observatory.
• The long-distance coach terminal is above the tracks nearby.
• The lanes of six-seat eating houses are minutes away.

Where

Kabukicho, Shinjuku — five minutes on foot from the station

Address

1-19-1 Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-8466

Telephone

03-6833-1111

Booking

Through the official site, or the booking services below

Checked 2026-08-20

Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu渋谷エクセルホテル東急 — E-ku-se-ru

The scramble crossing is directly below. Some rooms look down on it, and you can be at the Hachiko statue in two minutes.

• Above the station, so no walk with luggage.
• Rooms on the crossing side look down on it.
• Through trains run to Yokohama and into Saitama from below.

Where

Above Shibuya Station — the crossing is below the window

Address

1-12-2 Dogenzaka, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0043

Telephone

03-5457-0109

Booking

Through the official site, or the booking services below

Checked 2026-08-18

Nohga Hotel Uenoノーガホテル上野 — No-o-ga

Ten minutes from the park with four national museums. You can be at the museum door at opening, before the school groups.

• Walking distance to the park, the zoo and the lotus pond.
• The airport express from Narita reaches Ueno in about forty minutes.
• The market under the tracks is five minutes away.

Where

Ueno — about ten minutes on foot to the park gate

Address

2-21-10 Higashi-Ueno, Taito, Tokyo 110-0015

Telephone

03-5816-0211

Booking

Through the official site, or the booking services below

Checked 2026-08-18

Haneda Airport Garden羽田エアポートガーデン — Ha-ne-da

Inside the airport, with a hot spring on the top floor. An early international flight needs no train, and a late arrival needs no taxi.

• Connected to Terminal 3 under cover.
• A natural hot spring bath looking over the runways.
• The monorail and the Keikyu line leave from the same building.

Where

At Haneda Airport — connected to Terminal 3 on foot

Booking

Through the official site, or the booking services below

Checked 2026-08-18