“Dormitory” doesn’t do this place justice.
The name of Japan’s Dormy Inn hotel chain is strange in more ways than one. First off, there’s the fact that “dormy” isn’t a word, and second, even though it was made up by the company to evoke thoughts of a simple “dormitory,” Dormy Inn has some very nice amenities.
We got our most recent reminder of that on a visit to the Dormy Inn Tokyo Hatchobori, in downtown Tokyo’s Hatchobori neighborhood. The hotel is located just a two-minute walk from the A2 exit of Hatchobori Station on the Hibiya and Keio Lines, giving you quick and easy access to sightseeing spots in Ueno, Akihabara, Tsukiji, and Ginza, so location-wise we’re already off to a pretty good beginning.
The hotel just reopened this month following a round of renovations, and we booked our stay through Rakuten Travel here with a package that provided a nice, leisurely check-out time of 1 p.m. the next day.
So, starting with the “dormy” aspects of the place, yes, the rooms themselves are pretty short on frills, and the dimensions aren’t exactly spacious.
That said, our room was very clean and functionally laid out. It wasn’t luxurious, but it did have everything needed for a traveler whose itinerary is more about the things they’re going to do while out and about in Tokyo as opposed to spending all day inside their hotel.
If we had one complaint, it would be that the placement of the toilet was a little jarring.
It was directly in front of, and facing, the shower, which means that when you finish washing, you’d be looking right at the commode as you emerge from the bathing area.
Still, having a private bathroom and shower at all already puts the Dormy Inn above what most English-speakers would imagine when they hear the word “dormitory.” And if the placement of the toilet really does weird you out, it’s actually not much of an issue, because the Dormy Inn Hatchobori has its own traditional Japanese communal bath.
▼ The entrance to the men’s bath
The tubs aren’t filled with plain old heated-up tap water, either, as the Dormy Inn Hatchobori has its own onsen (hot spring) source, making a soak extra-relaxing. The Japanese bath area also has open-air sections where you can cool off in the breeze, and there’s a sauna section too.
Another nice, non-dormitory amenity at Dormy Inn: free ramen.
This is a free service provided by all hotels in the chain, which is called “yonaki soba.” Soba here is being used as a catch-all term for noodles, as opposed to soba (buckwheat) noodles specifically. Yonaki, meanwhile, means “crying at night,” as in the yonaki soba being a good way to placate cranky kids who’re hungry again after normal dinner times (the yonaki soba is offered between 9:30 and 11 p.m.), but adults can have a free bowl of noodles too, and you don’t even have to shed any tears for it: just go to the lobby restaurant during serving time and ask for a bowl.
Relaxed from a bath and satiated by ramen, we had no trouble drifting off into cozy dozing soon after we lay down in bed…
…but the best part of all came the next morning, with our final “we wouldn’t expect this at a dormitory” perk of staying at this particular Dormy Inn, which is…
…freshly made sushi for breakfast!
Now, while it’s true that grilled fish is part of the traditional Japanese breakfast, sushi isn’t ordinarily eaten as part of the morning meal. But hey, the whole point of traveling is to enjoy things you wouldn’t have the opportunity to in your typical daily life, right?
And with the hotel’s breakfast being buffet-style, you can help yourself to as many pieces of tuna, salmon, ikura, or whatever other sorts of sushi the chefs are putting out that morning.
There are non-sushi options too, including soups, pickles, dumplings, and Western foodstuffs like ham…
…plus fruit if you’re craving something both healthy and sweet to start your day with.
So yeah, even though the Dormy Inn Tokyo Hatchobori, by nature of being part of the Dormy Inn chain, can’t really do much about its name, its amenities really do go pretty far beyond the “dormy” level.
Hotel information
Dormy Inn Tokyo Hatchobori / ドーミーイン東京八丁堀
Address: Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Shinkawa 2-20-4
東京都中央区新川2-20-4
Website
Communal bath interior photo: Dormy Inn Tokyo Hatchobori
All other photos ©SoraNews24
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