Where to Stay in Japan? How to Pick the Perfect Hotel

Where to Stay in Japan? How to Pick the Perfect Hotel

Japan is an amazing country to visit but with so many incredible cities and unique accommodations choosing the right Hotel can sometimes feel a little well overwhelming from traditional Japanese style ins to futuristic capsule hotels and everything in between where do you even start in this video I’m going to break down everything you need to know to find the perfect place to stay in Japan no matter your budget or travel style I’ll cover key considerations like location amenities and even some Pro level tips you might not have thought of all right let’s go what you should know about hotels in Japan is that hotel rooms in Japan are typically small they’re typically clean but they’re also typically tired what do I mean by that I mean that like many hotels in Japan are old like if you’re in a 40-year-old Hotel just it might be like well-worn you know 40 years they’ll be trying to maintain it but there are just many hotels in Japan where you go in there and you’re like oh the golden air of this hotel has definitely passed I mean not this one the Intercontinental with a great view of Tokyo Tower out the window oh and my traveling Panda toer who was just helping me review this hotel room has come to join me for this section so they’ve just done a full Remodel and so it’s nice and fresh but this is something you have to be aware of when you’re booking hotels in Japan now the best hotels to stay in in Japan are generally going to be the ones that are close to train stations or on top of train stations because being close to the train and being easy to get around is Paramount when you’re visiting this country a rule of thumb I would say about like how close do you need to be a true a train station ideally less than 5 minutes if you’re 10 minutes away from a train or subway station then you’re right on the border of whether I consider that close enough or not it’s actually my biggest issue with this hotel the AA InterContinental it’s about a 10-minute walk to the subway stations from here and so I found myself most of the time taking taxis to get around cuz it was just such a long walk to the subway now of course if you’re looking to save some money the further away you get from a train station generally the cheaper the hotels get because in Japan everybody wants to be as close to a train station as possible not just for the trains but generally near train stations is also where you’ll find food restaurants and shoppings just generally the stuff that you want to do if you’re at a hotel that like provides a shuttle to the nearest train station beware beware now if you’re coming to Japan during a popular season like cherry blossoms you will want to book well in advance what do I mean by well in advance I mean like 3 to 6 months in advance particularly if you’re coming to some place like Tokyo particularly if you want to stay with some of the big Western chains the Marriotts the highest the Hiltons of the world lots of people are competing for those same rooms and are also booking out early now if you want to save a little bit of money don’t book with the big Western chains book with the local Japanese chains why is that well I feel like the Western chains can be uh you know 25 to 50% more than many of their local counterparts some local chains you might want to look at is the Nico hotels the Ana hotels Jr hotels J Japan Airlines hotels and one of our new recent favorites the hosino resorts hotels we recently stayed in atami at the hash Resorts resinar Hotel it was totally themed for kids it had a ball pit in it our daughter the K’s princess absolutely loved that hotel if you want to be on the real budget side of things take a look at toyo go in uh they call this a business hotel in Japan and it’s not the same thing as like an American Business hotel that we consider a Maria Japanese business hotels are like just meant for sleeping just meant for one night and so the rooms are going to be absolutely tiny the kind of room where like you open the door and it probably hits the bed and there’s probably no chair and you sit on the bed to get to the desk but the room prices are going to be dirt cheap but the hotel is still going to be absolutely clean and functional now I’d say this day and age most hotels in Japan are western style hotels what does that mean it means that you sleep on a mattress on kind of an elevated bed but if you want the true Japanese experience then you’ll want to stay in a Ron or a traditional Japanese style in I’m going to talk more about those when I get to the section on Hot Springs because generally traditional Japanese style ins come with hot springs though that’s not always the case but I feel like the ones that are still successful today and do well are tradition Japanese style ins that are in onen or hotring towns you won’t find a lot of traditional Japanese style ins in central Tokyo now if you really want to save some money you can definitely get creative in your hotel type yes there are the capsule hotels that are world famous these things that you basically just get like a small bunk or almost like coffin that you sleep in um there are manga cafes like places that are coffee shops you can read comic books you can like sleep in a chair in a cafe overnight there love hotels that you can rent by the hour so um you can definitely save if you’re willing to be little creative oh of course there’s course there’s hostels too there’s even hostels where maybe you can like do some work for your room if you don’t have any money at all now when you’re looking at Japanese hotels and rooms beware there are lots of different plans and room types you know if you stay at a holiday in it’s all just kind of one room in the whole hotel but not in Japanese hotels they will have many different kinds of room from small to slightly less small uh do also be aware that the occupancy of many Japanese hotel rooms is two and so if you’ve got more than two people definitely make sure when you’re searching that you bump that up so you’re actually getting the rooms that could hold three or more people uh Japanese hotels can be pretty big sticklers about it like if they see you showing up with three people and you’ve only booked a room for two people they might not let you check in or they might charge you more um so make sure you do that ahead of time also do beware that there are many Japanese hotels that still have smoking rooms so it’s not a given that all rooms are non-smoking so do make sure if you don’t like to be in a smoky room that you’ve booked a non-smoking one and oh just a kind of a cool note about Japanese hotels most of them will accept Amazon or online shopping packages for you so so if there’s some things you really want to buy when you’re in Japan and you can’t make it to the shop you can’t make it the Yoda Bashi to get those Electronics you can order them on Amazon have them delivered to your hotel with your name and your room number on it or even if you don’t have a room just your name on it uh and they will get it up to you in your room or hold it down the front desk and you can go and pick it up I mean it’s probably worthwhile for you to check with the hotel just to make sure and let them know that you’re expecting some packages but every Japanese hotel that I’ve ever stayed at was happy to accept packages for me hot springs really popular thing to do while you’re in Japan is go and bathe in the water that’s been heated by all the volcanic activity on this island of a country um now the thing you need to know about the hot springs in Japan is they are generally called onen here that’s the Japanese word for a hot spring and you can enjoy the hot springs in a couple different varieties uh probably the highest and nicest experience is if you’re going to an onen Hotel these are usually traditional Japanese style hotels where they will have hot spring baths for the hotel guests sometimes you can if you’re not a hotel guest pay to go go in during the daytime a little extra um but the good thing about being a hotel guest is then maybe at night time where they don’t let the public in then you have those baths all to yourselves hot spring baths in Japan are generally gender separate and fully nude you’re nude so that when you go in you don’t like make the water dirty from your swimsuit or clothes or things like that which means that you need to take a shower and clean yourself off before you go and relax in the hot spring if you’re not into that you abs absolutely can get hotels that do have private hot spring baths we stayed at the Marriott in Mount Fuji it had a private hot spring bath in the room we also stayed at another hotring hotel that had private Hot Springs outside of the hotel room so there are options just know that it’s a much smaller subset that have the private hot spring baths than the typical setup which is communal hot spring baths gender separate fully Ned now speaking of onsens people always ask as me what onsens I recommend and so to answer that question I’ve put a list together of my seven favorite onson hotels that I’ve personally stayed at you’ll find that link in the description below that I made as a planin guide from there you can also watch my full review videos on each of those hotels and even book from there too plan in also offers some really sweet Insider discounts to hotels up to 40% off on some of them but they can only display those prices to logged in users so do sign up for a free account so you can see the discounts and the guide and if you do happen to book with any of those hotels via the link I may earn a small commission which really helps support the channel now if you don’t want to spring for staying in an Onsen Hotel there are many public baths that are around and so these are like bath houses that pipe the hot spring water in they’re not hotels they’re just places for people to come and take a bath they’ll often be relatively inexpensive 300 Yen 500 yen um you may have to bring a towel you may have to rent a towel uh but that’s an option to do it on the cheap and if you want to do it even cheaper and by that I mean free something you will also find in a lot of hot spring towns and a lot of Hot Spring areas are foot baths places that you can just soak your feet in the hot spring water these are also typically free uh you’ll want to bring a towel if you’re enjoying those although some places they’ll even sell you towels for a couple hundred Yen and if you’ve never dipped your feet in hot spring water it is absolutely a great way to relax the feet in the middle of a long day of walking all right f explorers the last thing to know is that we’ve got even more videos to help you with your Japan trip if you’re coming to Tokyo you might want to check out my Tokyo travel guide right here or you might want to dive into our whole Japan series playlist over 150 videos right here from all the different regions that I talked about earlier as usual I won’t say goodbye cuz I’ll see you in the next video

Choosing the right hotel in Japan can make or break your trip! From traditional ryokans and modern hotels to budget-friendly hostels and unique capsule hotels, I’ll cover the major options. I’ll discuss factors like location, budget, amenities, and cultural experiences to consider when making your decision. ✅ Check out my favorite hot spring hotels: https://yelloww.co/BestOnsen
✅ Or watch more from my Japan travel series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL14F9F774CE8798C3