Tokyo
In creating this contemporary ryokan in the heart of Tokyo, Hoshinoya has barely put a foot wrong, overcoming a location boxed in by office towers…
Must-see hotels in Tokyo
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Tokyo
Overlooking the Imperial Palace from atop Ōtemachi Tower, this outstanding hotel incorporates natural materials – including dark stone walls, blonde wood…
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Asakusa & Sumida River
About 2km north of Asakusa, the contemporary Andon Ryokan is fabulously designed in form and function. It has 20 tiny but immaculate tatami rooms,…
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Ueno & Yanesen
A project of Tokyo University of the Arts, Hanare offers five immaculate tatami rooms in an old dormitory house, which has been tastefully upgraded to…
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Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo
This eyrie atop a Tange Kenzō–designed skyscraper in west Shinjuku looks no less tasteful and elegant than when it opened more than 20 years ago, and it…
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Ueno & Yanesen
Sawanoya is a gem in quiet Yanaka, run by a very friendly family and with all the traditional hospitality you would expect of a ryokan. The shared cypress…
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Apartment Hotel Mimaru Akasaka
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Opened in 2018, Mimaru has beautifully designed rooms with fully equipped kitchens and proper bathrooms (no pokey unit baths!). Its apartment studios,…
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Tokyo
The Bakurochō area has exploded with flashpacker hostels in the last few years – this is one of the biggest and the best. The trendy young staff are very…
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Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Mustard is the most exciting of Shibuya's new crop of hotels. The glossy white interior is the work of design firm Tripstar, and there are a variety of…
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Kōrakuen & Akihabara
Five different artists and artist groups have brought their creative visions to the studio apartments here. Designs are influenced by colourful street art…
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Ueno & Yanesen
Opened in November 2018, this super-stylish hotel ups the ante on midrange digs around Ueno. Fronted by attractive greenery and with a very pleasant…
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Ginza & Tsukiji
One of the cheapest places to sleep in chic Ginza is this capsule hotel, which is suitably contemporary in its stylings. For a bit more headroom than in…
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Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
While the beloved original 1962 hotel has been demolished to make way for a new building (set to open in September 2019), the Ōkura's elegant South Wing…
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Ginza & Tsukiji
Kudos to the Park Hotel for commissioning 31 artists to decorate 31 of its 31st-floor rooms. The results are very impressive with all-Japanese themes…
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Kōrakuen & Akihabara
A standout among Tokyo's new breed of flashpacker digs, Unplan offers comfy dorms in Scandinavian wood tones. The private rooms are very pleasant, and a…
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Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
The various styles of room at this boutique property capture the arty design spirit of Roppongi. Some of the more expensive duplex-type rooms have…
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Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Occupying a former ryōtei (geisha house), Kaisu is a flashpacker hostel with mid-century-modern and surfer-chic stylings. Dorms offer wooden bunks with…
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Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Occupying the top six floors of Toranomon Hills, this sophisticated hotel exudes class and offers panoramic views all around. The best of Japanese…
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Tokyo
This industrial-looking hostel ticks all the boxes, with a super-convenient location above the subway and a relatively short walk or taxi ride from…
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Asakusa & Sumida River
The rooms at this well-run hotel with English-speaking staff are typically small but come with tatami floors (even though you sleep on beds) and other…
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Asakusa & Sumida River
In a former warehouse, this stylish hostel has rooms with high ceilings, translating to bunks you can comfortably sit up in. There's also an enormous…
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Tokyo
With its prestigious address, the gorgeous Palace Hotel offers the refinement and elegance that its name suggests. Sniff the botanically perfumed air as…
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Ueno & Yanesen
This is your chance to stay in a beautiful wooden building (which dates to 1920) that has been turned into one of Tokyo's most attractive hostels. Dorms…
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Asakusa & Sumida River
This is one of the most stylish of the several Tokyo hostels that combine a cafe or a bar open to the public in the foyer with a hostel above. Bunka…
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Tokyo
Kikka offers decent, wooden-box-style dorm bunks but it's the good private rooms with their own bathrooms that are the draw here. In what is now a tried…
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Asakusa & Sumida River
This boutique-style hotel is an appealing mix of retro and contemporary design. Each room is decorated with subtly different decor, but all have decent…
Harajuku & Aoyama
Part of Tokyo's new wave of boutique hotels, Trunk's main selling point is its proximity to fashionable neighbourhoods Harajuku, Aoyama and Shibuya. And…
Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo
The big draw of this huge (970 rooms!) hotel is the enormous Godzilla statue atop it (you, and taxi drivers, will have no trouble finding it). It's fairly…
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Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo
If bookstores are your happy place you'll feel right at home at this hostel where the beds are fitted into bookshelves. The capsule-style bunks have…
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Tokyo
This is a rare opportunity to sleep within one of Tokyo's most eccentric architectural landmarks. The two apartments – one has one bedroom sleeping two,…
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Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo
One of Tokyo's cooler concept hostels has beds tucked inside bookshelves (most books are in Japanese, but some are in English). 'Compact' bunks have 80cm…
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Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
This new Shibuya capsule hotel has cabin-style rooms: single-decker, divided on the sides by walls, but with curtains for doors; they're literally the…
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Asakusa & Sumida River
Anne is an efficiently run and friendly operation. Spacious dorms (with between four and eight beds) offer broad bunks constructed from sturdy steel…
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Tokyo
Maximise your Japan experience by shacking up at this rambling traditional lodge in an 80-year-old building. Rooms have tatami floors, sliding paper doors…
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Kōrakuen & Akihabara
Sitting right on top of well-connected Iidabashi Station, this clean, well-managed hostel has fantastic transport access. It also has luxury-hotel-worthy…
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Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
The 10 rooms here, with walls the colour of the ocean at night and slate, glass-enclosed bathrooms (the work of Suppose Design Office), are beautiful, but…
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Tokyo
Following what is now a common hostel format in Tokyo (conversions of old office buildings with a cafe-bar on the ground floor), Grids adds to the mix by…
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Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
The long-established Otani new 'Shin-Edo'-style rooms, though only 26 sq metres, pack in plenty of style and amenities, including cypress-wood bathtubs…
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Tokyo
Representing a return to the classics, the Tokyo Station Hotel has brushed up handsomely as part of the heritage building's restoration. Rooms are…
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Kōrakuen & Akihabara
This capsule-hotel brand makes a statement with its cool contemporary architecture and clean design. This eight-floor branch features a kind of atrium on…
