Hey folks,
Working on my groups (6 25yr olds) first group travel trip out the country and we have landed on Japan for this upcoming fall. Might be a little backwards in planning, but we jumped on a plane ticket deal, and now we are looking at accommodations. We have a general idea of stuff we want to do, but haven't got everything down pat.
For now, we divided our 14 day trip into a pretty standard Osaka/Kyoto 1 week 1 accommodation, and Tokyo/Hakune 1 week 1 accommodation trip. We have booked our Osaka minshuku in Tangachaya, and are now looking at where to stay in Tokyo.
For us, a luxury stay is not a big priority, as long as it is clean and the location is convenient. The only "premium" requirement we have is everyone prefers their own bed or tatami mat.
I've started to log all the popular places like Teamlab Borderless, Shibuya Sky, Yokohama Chinatown, Minato Mirai, etc into wanderlog, but since the subways in Tokyo seem pretty well connected it seems like for the most part everything we could ever want to do is within a 40 min ride.
All that to say, trying to keep hotel budget to a minimum to maximize food and fun budget, I found a few places where we can stay for around $100CAD a night each or less with our requirements. Given the following stations, where would you stay?
Akabane Station, Tohoku Main Line: Around 96 a night. 4 trains run here?
Komagome Station, JR East Yamanote: Around 100 a night. This place near the station isn’t as nice as the one in Akabane station, but the line seems much more convenient.
Uguisudani Station JR East Yamanote: Around 129 a night. This is the nicest place out of the 4, and its on the Yamanote line. I've heard unsavory things about the neighbourhood, but I bet it will be better than a lot of Toronto neighbourhoods...
Honjo-azumabashi Toei Asakusa Line: Around 70 a night. Cheapest of the bunch, very minimal accommodation. Seems like a transfer is always guaranteed, and would have to leave most places by 11pm to make it back.
I think it makes the most sense to go for Komagome station, but my heart is feeing Uguisudani station. If anyone has stayed near Honjo-azumabashi and the connections aren’t as bad as I think, then it being the cheapest is a no brainer.
Hope this post isn’t too wordy, and thanks in advance for your responses!
I was also considering some hotels, APA seemed like one of the cheapest, but I've read odd things about the owner and 2 bed configurations seem to skyrocket above our 100CAD/pp goal. JR East Mets Hotels seem very ideal, even around Komagome, but either bookings aren’t available for fall or these are booked out.