Tokyo Hotels
 

Any suggestions for well located hotels in Tokyo for $225 or under (preferably under)?

Also, what is a good website for reservations? I've used asiahotels for thailand but wonder if there is anything better for Japan?

Thanks

I've always found the best prices to be the hotel's own websites. If it's an international chain like Starwood or Hilton, the English and Japanese language site's prices match. If it's a Japanese brand, I've always found the Japanese langauge internet rates to be by far the best.

Japanese people typicallly use travel agents to book hotels, so you might find using JTB or other travel agents might be able to get you a good rate. Calling hotels directly usually gets you rack rates at Japanese hotels, though sometimes I've been able to negotiate a discount. Calling the Hiltons in Japan, I can almost always manage to get the best rate in my stay history at that hotel for the asking.

A quick search of rates at the Shinjuku Hilton (10 minutes or so walk from Shinjuku station) came up with rates from 17,000 yen/night and upwards on hilton.com and starwood.com showed Westin Tokyo starting at 25,000 yen/night.

Well located depends on you. Tokyo is huge, but the transportation network is excellent. You might want to check expedia.com to get an idea of what's available and location, then go from there. There isn't a great reservation clearinghouse type website for Japan like asiahotels because most Japanese still depend on tours and/or use a travel agent to make travel arrangements, and most international tourists are also on tours or business trips where hotels are arranged for them.

glorialf: I will toss this one to you. I almost booked for our upcoming (and first) trip to Tokyo through/a discount service that a Japanese friend of mine recommended. It is at www.2tocoo.jp/english/
I looked at two hotels in particular, Ginza Tobu (across st. from Higashi Ginza-eki station, Hibiya-sen and Asakusa subway lines) or Shin-Hankyu hotel Tsukji, (5 min. walk from Tsukji-eki station, and Hibiya-sen subway line). Their rates are good. Shin-Hankyu looked particularly nice, and Ginza Tobu is a Renaissance Marriott property. The rates are available from btwn. 60 to 30 days before your intended stay. I eventually decided to use hotel points to stay at Westin in Ebisu, but both of those hotels were on my short list, and the Club Tocoo prices are significantly less than the hotel websites if you can get availability. They have other Tokyo hotels also. Just an fyi-- as I said, I have no first hand experience w/them, they were recommended to me.

i forgot to add that my notes show that Shin-Hankyu hotel is also availabel on asiahotels.com, but at significantly higher price.

emd: would pls. verify the web address you provided, I cannot enter to www.2tocoo.jp/english/
thnks

Some Tokyo hotels are available at priceline.com

Try http://www2.tocoo.jp/english/ for emd's site.

Use asiahotels to book the Mansions at Roppongi. You won't be sorry!

I also looked at Mansions at Roppongi due to very good recent reviews on here. It looks wonderful, like a contemporary large apartment and even has washer/dryer in each unit which is pretty impressive. Nice website and appears to be good value. I had some concerns about the Roppongi area due to the intense club hawkers described in a recent trip report (as I will be w/my son and don't want a Japanese French Quarter atmosphere, if that makes sense) but that isn't described by people who talk about the hotel area.
Thank you mrwunrfl for clarifying the other site.

tripadvisor.com has very good reviews of Mansions also. I forgot they also have kitchens in the units.

We actually saw more of the club guys in Shinjuku and Harajuku than in Roppongi. You'll know who they are- they tend to be big guys that stand outside the clubs. Most of them are not Japanese.

I had read the comments about Roppongi being a questionable district, but if seems to be quite different these days. We felt it was very safe, especially since the Mansions are about a 2 minute walk from the subway to the hotel lobby at most. In the other direction, towards the RH center, we saw more well-dressed young people than club
types.

We were with our two (very attractive and hip looking, if I do say so myself!) teenage daughters and none of these bouncers ever said anything. They mostly just stand outside, and talk with each other or watch the cars.

We had no fears letting the girls walk alone from the subway or from Roppongi Hills center in the evening, and our 20 year old japanese girls also had no reservations about being there.

BTW- I went to 2.tocoo ...Their hotels seem to be well priced! I actually recognized a couple in Tokyo and Kyoto. Good locations.
thanks for the tip!

Roppongi a "questionable" district? Roppongi has always been the gaijin quarter of the city, where westerners have felt quite at home. If by "questionable," one means raunchy, then I think there's far more of that in Shinjuku.

But raunchy does not equal unsafe or dangerous-I don't think there are such places in Japan. I've walked around Tokyo at all hours, and never not once, have I ever felt the least bit unsafe-or any other major city in Japan I've been in either.

As far as "well-located" hotels in Tokyo, that is of course subjective, depending on what your preferences are. I love the Asakusa district, but it's in the far northeast part of the city, at the end of the Ginza line. Others like to be more centrally located around Shibuya, Akasaka/Shimbashi and the like.

One hotel very near the Imperial Palace you may want to look into is the 4 star Grand Palace Hotel. The location is quite central, and I believe there are at least 2 subway lines within a 5 minute walk. check hotelsjapan.com to see if there are any good discounts.

Shinjuku, generally, is a very nice area. The red light district that in the area is called Kabuki-cho and is across the street from the East entrance to JR Shinjuku station.

Shinjuku Gyoen is accessible from the south east and south exits. Those exits are not near the East exit. &quot;Nishi&quot; means west in Japanese and you will see that the addresses of several nice hotels (e.g. Tokyo Hilton, the Park Hyatt of <i>Lost in Translation</i> fame) are in Nishi-Shinjuku. The northern part of the JR station blends right into the Odakyu station and Keio station and the depatos above them. Nishi-Shinjuku also has several skyscrapers with nice restaraunts over 50 floors up. Nishi-Shinjuku is separated from Kabuki-cho by an above ground subway line. The underpass/ tunnel below that rail line is a distinct border between Nishi-Shinjuku and Kabukicho. It's not at all like turning a corner and bam there you are. Even when you do get there, to Kabukicho, it kind of creeps up on you, it seemed to me. You can get the gist of the neighborhood and see where you are headed before you get the raunchier part. It's quite safe, in any case.

Same thing, I think, of Roppongi. On my very first day in Japan I was in that area and saw a lot of nice restaraunts and bars, but I was also faced by a Japanese woman who went into great detail of what money could buy (not food). In Kabukicho, there are black guys from Nigeria or Jamaica inviting gaijin guys into the clubs. Except for those two places, though, their clientele is Japanese men. It is big business and not in their economic interest to bother twenty year old girls or a mother and her son.

If you see a group of twenty-something Japanese men standing around well dressed in black suits and overcoats, then take a look at their hair. If it is black, then they are probably waiting for their dates or drinking buddies. If they have shag haircuts dyed brown, then they are touts (that lucy referred to as bouncers) for the clubs. (I'm being only slightly facetious here). These areas are in every Japanese city, I believe, including smaller cities like Kumamoto and Kanazawa.

Mrwunrfl is absolutely right on with his description of the Shinjuku area - my impression as a visitor to Tokyo staying in the Tokyo Hilton in Shinjuku was just like his. We were absolutely comfortable there walking about, even with our then not yet 2 year old.

He is also right about the areas and bars and shops being everywhere. In Kanazawa, after dusk there are dozens of male touts flashing picture cards and quoting prices to passersby...but they completely ignore me, whether I am alone or with my now daughter (now she is 7). No one avoids the areas where there are touts. It is just accepted. Those who want to partake do so. Those who do not wish to partake simply ignore the touts. They don't waste their time accosting people or bothering anyone who isn't interested. They have a good eye for someone who might be interested, and approach them. Occasionally, my husband is approached, but he is never hassled...when he either says no or ignores (depends on his mood) that's the end of it.

By and large, Japan is very safe. I feel much safer here in Japan than I do in any American city. BUT, don't let that fact allow you to become complacent. As anywhere, there ARE pickpockets who will take your wallet if they can...just not as many as other places. Murders and childsnatchings happen here, but not often. There is crime, of all sorts, so you should be aware...the touts are the absolute least of your worries though. I'd pay much more attention to my wallet in a crowd.

Yep, Kim is absolutely right (as usual). Our excellent private guide in Tokyo had had her wallet &quot;lost&quot; in a Tokyo subway the weekend before we met her. Looks as if careful is best.
As for the &quot;ladies&quot; when my husband asked street directions from one in Matsumoto, he was ignored. They know who are the customers. No problem, but we were still lost.