Traveller tips - Kawasaki and Yokohama hotels

Since I'm in the middle of planning my trip, I thought I'd share my process with you. ^_^

Hotels

I love this website: Jalan Net. Compared with English sites, you can find a much wider variety of hotels there, book them online, earn points which can be used in the future, and you can usually find things that are much cheaper than the standard range of 'international' hotels on English sites.

The problem? It's all in Japanese. Happily, with the help of Denshi Jisho, I have enough Japanese to work my way through it, but if you have no Japanese at all, it might be too difficult.

I've been in four different hotels in Kawasaki. The Nikko was the best, but then my company was paying for it at the time. ^_^ For cheaper ones, my favourite so far is 'Hotel The Crane', or at least, I had a good experience both times I stayed there. In my experience, service is efficient, rooms are fairly small but in good condition, but it's not far from the station, there's a bathroom, heater/air con, toiletries and Internet in the room (it's not a hostel, though the prices are cheap), you can get plans that include a simple breakfast, etc. Booking online, you can easily stay for 4000 - 5000 yen ($45-$55) a night.

A nice thing about travelling solo in Japan is that they often have single rooms and you are generally expected to pay per person. Like if you stay in a ryokan; often, one person or two can share the same room, yet each person will pay the same amount no matter its occupancy, which means it's no more expensive to stay there as a single than as a pair. In Japan, when searching hotels, I find it is a lot easier to find single rooms for single-friendly prices.

Staying in Kawasaki is nice too, because Kawasaki itself is a cool city, yet it's a bit less expensive to stay there than in Yokohama and Tokyo. But if you take the Tokaido line for ten minutes in either direction, you'll be in Yokohama or Tokyo.

Hostels in Yokohama

If you want cheap digs in Yokohama, there's a particular district which has a lot of hostels. It's near Ishikawacho station, about ten minutes walk from Chinatown and Motomachi. The street itself is not exactly pretty, but it's in easy walking distance of some nice places. Prices are quite good - you can pay  3000 yen a night! - but you'll get small rooms, shared showers and toilets, showers may be coin-operated, etc.

I have personally stayed at 'A Silk Tree' and 'Yokohama Hostel Village'. They're both cheap and good value for money; rooms are pretty small and basic, but that's what you'd expect, right? Location-wise, those two hostels are on opposite sides of the same street. I would recommend the Hostel Village; it just felt nicer. If you're into socialising in hostels, it's also a better bet. Silk Tree felt a bit drab and quiet, with no real public spaces.

Unless I'm on a really strict budget, I prefer to stay in Kawasaki because it's more lively and more central (also, my friends live there). If you're going to Yokohama station, it actually takes the same amount of time from Kawasaki station than from these hostels near Ishikawacho.

Japanese accommodation

I've mentioned before that I really like staying in ryokan (Japanese-style traditional inns) but I haven't recommended them in the case of Kawasaki and Yokohama. It's not that they don't exist - I assume there must be a few of them - but these are not really 'traditional' cities. If you go to a city like Kyoto, Nara, or Hakone, you feel it's a bit more traditional and natural; if you stay in a ryokan there, you feel like you're indulging in local culture. In Kawasaki or Yokohama, well, I guess you could do it if you wanted to, but since ryokan are often more expensive than regular hotels, I'd rather save them for a relaxing town with a fitting atmosphere. Also, it's really nice to stay in ryokan in towns that have an onsen (hot spring) culture, so you can enjoy the real hot spring baths.

Out of curiosity, I just did a perfunctory search for ryokan in Kawasaki or Yokohama, and the ryokan that came up tended to be rather far from the metropolises that surround Kawasaki and Yokohama stations. As I said, there probably are some in the cities themselves, but I don't know of any personally.

One thing you could do if you want a more Japanese experience is that a lot of hotels and hostels offer a choice of Western-style rooms (with beds, carpets, etc) or Japanese-style rooms (with futons, tatami mats, etc). They're usually the same price, so perhaps you could specify that you'd like a Japanese-style room, so long as you don't mind more sitting on the floor. ^_^