Cheap Guest House Tokyo |
While looking for a new place to stay in Tokyo, I collected some data in a spreadsheet like a good little boy scout should. Now you get to benefit :) For comparison purposes ¥1 is currently about 1.2c in Australia.
Basically, you get what you pay for. You can get private accommodation from ¥1200 / night if you don't mind squeezing through a hole to get into your 'room'. Your room in this case is just your bed. Any livable space is going to cost ¥2000 / night at the very least.
November / December seems like a pretty good time in terms of prices. Several of the guest house agencies were having specials, so I managed to get a place at a pretty good price, and without paying a deposit. How? Well, I first I went through the following directories:
Cheap Guest House TokyoThe guest house agencies have pretty handy websites and give you plenty of details about the rooms and locations. The locals advertising on Craigslist and individually managed places are more or less hit an miss as far as I can tell.
Here are the rooms I investigated. The rate column is monthly rent, fee is a once off non refundable management, cleaning or other fee (i.e. tax), and, being somewhat sceptical, I made two total columns. The second one presumes your landlord runs off with the deposit after your one month stay. Mats is the size of the room in Japanese tatami mats, which are about 1.6m² each.
| Listed | Building | # | Rate | Fee | Deposit | Tot (min) | Tot (max) | Location | Mats |
| Roomfinder | Asakusa Crib | 10 | 27000 | 10000 | 27000 | 37000 | Asakusa, Taito | 2 | |
| Roomfinder | Tataba Crib | 36000 | 35000 | 36000 | 71000 | Tataba, Kita | 4 | ||
| DMOZ | Yoshida House | 50000 | 0 | 0 | 50000 | 50000 | Oizumi, Nerima | 4,5 | |
| Craigslist | Urawa Home | 50000 | 0 | 20000 | 50000 | 70000 | Urawa | 6 | |
| Craigslist | Asakusa GH | priv | 52000 | 0 | 52000 | 52000 | 104000 | Asakusa, Taito | |
| DMOZ | GH 1965 | A | 57000 | 0 | 20000 | 57000 | 77000 | Higashiogu, Arakawa | |
| Oakhouse | Ueno-nishi | 103 | 59800 | 0 | 0 | 59800 | 59800 | Uenonishi, Taito | 3,7 |
| Oakhouse | Akabane | 102 | 59800 | 0 | 0 | 59800 | 59800 | Shimo, Kita | 6,4 |
| Craigslist | Waseda | 54000 | 6000 | 0 | 60000 | 60000 | Waseda, Shinjuku | 8 | |
| DMOZ | Kaminarimon | I | 62500 | 20000 | 62500 | 82500 | Asakusa, Taito | 3 | |
| Sakura | Morishita | 105 | 53000 | 10000 | 30000 | 63000 | 93000 | Tachikawa, Sumida | 4 |
| Craigslist | Ogikubo | 54000 | 10000 | 30000 | 64000 | 94000 | Asagaya, Suginami | 5 | |
| Roomfinder | Modern Asakusa | 202.2 | 68000 | 56000 | 68000 | 124000 | Asakusa, Taito | 4,3 | |
| Sakura | Narimasu 2 | 105 | 59000 | 10000 | 30000 | 69000 | 99000 | Akatsuka, Itabashi | 7,5 |
| Sakura | Machiya | 202 | 59000 | 10000 | 30000 | 69000 | 99000 | Machiya, Arakawa | 6 |
| TOHTO | Kami-Itabashi | 202 | 65000 | 10000 | 0 | 75000 | 75000 | Kami-Itabashi | 6,2 |
| Sakura | Meidaimae | 102 | 67000 | 10000 | 30000 | 77000 | 107000 | Izumi, Suginami | 4,5 |
| MGHL | Asakusa II | 202 | 56000 | 30000 | 86000 | 86000 | Asakusa, Taito | 4,3 | |
| Borderless | Iidabashi | 2F | 82000 | 5000 | 15000 | 87000 | 102000 | Koraku, Iiadabashi | 5 |
In the end, I took the Ueno-nishi room, and lucky for me one of the guests decided he preferred the small room, so I got the larger room, 101 at the same price. It's awesome, in my favourite Tokyo city and right near Ueno park. Being a good boy scout really paid off this time.
About Roger Keays
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Roger Keays is an artist, an engineer, and a student of life. He has no fixed address and has left footprints on 40-something different countries around the world. Roger is addicted to surfing. His other interests are music, psychology, languages, the proper use of semicolons, and finding good food. |
