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…
Must-see hotels in Japan
Niseko
This is Japan's only train station minshuku (family-run guesthouse) and it is wonderfully eccentric. It's literally part of tiny JR Hirafu Station: to…
Fuji Five Lakes
Kōan has two campgrounds on the lake, this one on the northeast corner has fine Fuji views, a jacuzzi, a helpful English-speaking owner and an attached…
Sapporo
Located on a side street near the entrance to the Hokkaidō University Botanical Garden, a 10-minute walk from JR Sapporo Station, this charming Japanese…
Niseko
The Hilton enjoys the best location of all – it is quite literally attached to the Niseko Gondola. Spacious Western-style rooms are complemented by a…
Central Honshū
The tatami rooms at this friendly riverside inn with lots of open space to explore are clean, tidy and unexceptional, but for the better ones, which have…
Miyajima
This charming good-value inn is built in traditional style with wooden interiors. There are both tatami rooms with futons and rooms with beds, all…
Hanamuro Inter-Islander's Hotel
Okinawa & the Southwest Islands
Since the building that houses it is also a marine-biology research facility, this minshuku may look a little industrial from the outside. But the rooms…
Noboribetsu Onsen
This sprawling onsen hotel, with its escalators and kiosks and constant buzz, feels a bit like a gaily decorated airport terminal. That's not meant to be…
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…
Kii Peninsula
This old minshuku was recently converted into a hostel by the reliable J-Hoppers team. There are spacious, cabin-style bunks and private Japanese-style…
Kagawa Prefecture
A luxurious refuge after a climb up Konpira-san, this elegant ryokan is about three minutes' walk from the centre of Kotohira. Most of the rooms are…
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…
Kansai
This three-room hostel, in a vacant old house thoughtfully renovated by its young, English-speaking owners, is ideally set up for self-catering, with a…
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…
Ōsumi Islands
This secluded accommodation features Japanese- and Western-style rooms in rustic riverside cabins connected by wooden walkways. Soak up the beauty of your…
Hokkaidō
Six minutes' walk west of JR Naka-Furano Station (not JR Furano Station) at the top of the hill, this hostel occupies a big farmhouse overlooking the…
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…
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…
Kyōmachiya Ryokan Sakura – Honganji
Kyoto Station & South Kyoto
A relatively short walk from Kyoto Station, Sakura has a mix of spotless Japanese- and Western-style rooms as well as a variety of traveller-friendly…
Nikkō
The closest hostel to Tōshō-gū offers a riverside location and a relaxed, friendly vibe. As it's run single-handedly by the English-speaking Hiro, guests…
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…
Kii Peninsula
Fukuchi-in has two standout features: a communal onsen bath, including a rotemburo (outdoor bath), and a garden designed by famous modernist landscape…
Nikkō
In the midst of mountains and rivers in the scenic Okukino region of 'secret onsen' is this rustic ryokan, a serene escape with milky sulphuric waters in…
Shinjuku & Northwest Tokyo
This old standby lacks the designer charm of Tokyo's newer hostels but makes up for it with its multilingual, four-star-hotel-level front-desk service…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Henn na Hotel's USP is that it uses (in this branch's case) humanoid-looking robots at the reception for check-in (don't panic, there are real humans just…
Osaka
This great budget option in the heart of Amerika-Mura has a variety of rooms. Besides four-bed and six-bed dorms, there are private Japanese- and Western…
Nikkō
This grand hotel from 1893 has hosted such notables as Albert Einstein, Helen Keller and King George V in its charming if slightly worn environs. The…
Western Honshū
Tottori's only hostel has smart male- and female-only capsules with thick mattresses, flat-screen TVs, safes and, instead of bunks, cavernous personal…
Southern Higashiyama
In a hidden location a short walk from Gion, Yumiya Komachi is a delightful guesthouse run by friendly owner, Rico. The 100-year-old building is the…
Kii Peninsula
This beautifully renovated guesthouse, with exposed beams and traditional plaster walls, has two Japanese-style bedrooms and sleeps up to six; there's…
Kyūshū
The exquisite 2nd- and 9th-floor rotemburo of this upmarket beachfront ryokan have expansive views and a lovely relaxation garden. There's a broad range…
Ōsumi Islands
This well-run youth hostel is about 3km west of Onoaida, nestled into the forest. Accommodation is in either Japanese- or Western-style dorms, and the…
Kii Peninsula
The fourth-generation Kosaka family of innkeepers opened this modern and polished building in 2015. The current-generation Kosaka-san doesn't speak much…
Sapporo
This is one of Sapporo's new hipster hostels – think raw wood and concrete – inside an old unagi (eel) shop a minute's walk from the subway. The rooms,…
Downtown Kyoto
While you don't have to be a Millennial to stay here, it might help when it comes to the iPod-controlled 'rooms' at this modern take on a capsule hotel…
Kansai
In northern Miyama and surrounded by farmland, this four-room family-run inn started as a pharmacy on the old road connecting Kyoto with the sea; it also…
Hakone
Threadbare but exceedingly homely, this family-run guesthouse offers good-value tatami rooms, indoor and outdoor onsen with divine volcanic waters, and a…
Osaka
Imagine spending the night in a first-class suite of an Airbus A380 – inside an office building. Cabins, closed off by sliding screens, contain private TV…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Hotel Mets is part of Shibuya Station’s quiet south side, with direct access to the JR lines; the location can be confusing at first, but once you get the…
