first of all, this place is very affordable, the staff is very friendly, and it is very conveniently close to ikebukuro’s train station. but in the future i would want to book one more price point higher than this.
now for the stuff i wish someone had told me just so i knew what to expect from a western background.
this is a japanese business hotel, which means it’s meant for quick and cheap accommodations.
size: it is cramped. the room literally only has room for a bed, a suitcase, and a thin desk. the bathroom literally only has room for a toilet sink and a *short* shower space. i’m not very tall and i still had to try not to hit my head on the ceiling. in general, expect to have to squeeze and shuffle by your stuff and your partner.
cleanliness and condition: i’m not sure if the standards of cleanliness are just different in japan, but it was discomforting. the room was crazy dusty. lamps, walls, ceilings, anything not in immediate reach of the sweet old cleaning ladies, had piles of dust. in some cases a few millimeters worth of build up. balls of dust all over the walls and ceiling. we ended up wiping everything down ourselves.
the bathroom, while generally clean, had a little mold in the corners of the rooms, and the toilet had some hidden spots of dark build up too.
there were parts where the carpet didn’t even fully reach the wall.
location: extremely convenient. but there are a lot of girl bars around, making it feel a little sketchy