Top Five Backpacker Sleeps - Japan

Today’s look at budget digs centres on Japan, where I’ve been living now for two year and first visited in April 2011. Japan has some pretty awesome hostels. Not only are they friendly, with great facilities including kitchens, wifi and more, but they often organise free or very cheap tours and are simply a great place to meet people. Not only foreigners stay at hostels in Japan, but also Japanese people as well. There are usually options between dorms, double or single rooms, with a dorm bed usually costing from $25-$35 US dollars.

Let’s look at my top FIVE budget places to stay in Japan, three are hostels. Of course, remember that these are places I have stayed in, compared only to other places in Japan that I have stayed in!

5. Narakan Ryokan, Tsuruoka

A Ryokan is a traditional kind of place to stay in Japan. You will usually be sleeping on a futon or mattress on the floor of a room covered in tatami mats. This one was charming, run by a lovely lady who didn’t speak any English but was very kind and tried to help me in any way she could – including organising a western breakfast for me when I struggled (shamefully) to eat the Japanese one provided on my first day there.

The room was simple, the shower was shared but there was a toilet and washbasin attached. There is no website for this room, but the price is a little under $40 for a single room. It was clean and comfortable. Tsuruoka is on the west coast of Japan, and not so many people come to visit, especially western tourists but it is handy for the famed hiking trail of Dewa Sanzan.

4. Hana Hostel, Hiroshima

Friendly Staff at Hana Hostel.

Website: http://hiroshima.hanahostel.com/

A single room here was around 4000 yen when I visited, and although the Hana Hostel is smaller than other hostels I stayed at in Japan, it more than made up for that with its friendliness. Situated between the station and Carp stadium – home of the local baseball team the Carp, the location isn’t perfect for downtown although it’s not all that far either and obviously handy for the station.

The staff were exemplary here, always with a smile and all the information I needed including how to get to the beautiful island of Miyajima. There is a small kitchen where you can meet others, and the room was excellent value for money – and dorm beds are cheaper of course.

3. Zenkoji Temple Inn, Takayama (Hide Prefecture)

The working temple at Zenkoji.

Website: http://takayamahostelzenkoji.com/

For a small 3000 yen a single, the Zenkoji Temple might be the best value accommodation in the country. It’s a short walk from the station and you are staying in a working temple complex so it’s an experience as well as a great place to stay, a great place to meet people and the like. The kitchen is really big so it’s great for self-caterers. My room was simple, Japanese tatami mat style, and it was cold in Takayama but they provided heating and plenty of blankets to keep me warm.

Takayama in Hide Prefecture is a pretty, interesting and historical town a little way into the mountains. The train ride to get there is simply stunning. There is a festival in April with some amazing floats which can be viewed in a museum at other times. Not on everyone’s ‘to do’ list in Japan, I recommend Takayama as an interesting and worthwhile diversion from the tourist trail.

2. K’s House Hakuba Alps, Hakuba

Open area for relaxing

http://kshouse.jp/hakuba-e/

K’s House are a chain of hostels located in many places in Japan, I’ve stayed at two of them and they were both excellent. Friendly, full of people to meet and chat with. I stayed in Hakuba, not far from Nagano, back in 2012 in the summer and it certainly provided some much-needed relief from the heat and humidity that grips Japan from July to September.

This hostel looks like a bit of a chalet from outside, was friendly inside even if not full. I again had a single room at around 4500 yen, but again dorms are much cheaper (check website for exact price – starting at 2,800 yen). Spotlessly clean, wonderful common areas including a good kitchen and a wide eating area. Great place.

1. K’s House Kyoto

View from top of K's House Kyoto

http://kshouse.jp/kyoto-e/

Finally, a great city like Kyoto needs a great hostel, and that hostel is K’s House Kyoto. Every good point of other places mentioned goes double for K’s House Kyoto. This was the first place I ever stayed in Japan, and I still rate it as the best. A definite 5/5 experience. You want clean? They were cleaning the grooves the sliding doors run along with TOOTHBRUSHES when I arrived.

Here was my first experience with the Japanese super-deluxe version of the western toilet with the bidet function (for man or woman), warmed seat, flushing sound to avoid embarrassment and everything else you could want in a toilet. Great kitchen, location was great too not far from the station.

There is a bar connected called the ‘Zen Bar’ which is a perfect place to chill and a great place to get a drink at well below the normal bar prices in Japan. A free tour on my first day too! Met loads of people from Japan and elsewhere here, it was the perfect introduction to Japan in the best city in Japan. My room was 3,800 yen back in 2011. Dorm beds presently start at around 2,300 yen.

Thanks for reading today! If you are coming to Japan and you’re on a budget, consider these places when looking for accommodation. I heartily recommend them all! And for more information, tips and experiences on Japan, please consider my ebook:

Short Journeys: Japan

Until next time!

Top Ten Countries - Number Six: Japan [Part ONE]

Miyajima, near Hiroshima.

Well I wouldn’t still be living here if I didn’t like the place, would I?

My visit to Japan was in 2011, in April not so long after the March 11^th tsunami and earthquake which had caused so much devastation. However, this first time I didn’t head north of Tokyo. I flew into Kansai Airport and enjoyed an amazing week in Kyoto. Tourists at the time were scarce in Japan, only natural I guess, so accommodation wasn’t so hard to find.

Let me start that I don’t think I like a place better in Japan than Kyoto. Kyoto is just brilliant, another city up there with the best cities in the world (oh I think I can feel another top ten coming on). It’s a friendly place – I stayed out K’s House in Kyoto, and I have to say it is possibly the best hostel I have ever stayed in in my life. This is where I first encountered the special toilet seats and just how clean people like places to be hear.

Kinkankuji.

The toilets at the hostel, like many in Japan, have the special heated seats for cold bums, and bidee functions too. As if that wasn’t enough the staff at K’s House Japan kept the place incredibly clean, absolutely spotless. There were free tours to the Geisha district, I saw a Geisha performance at a theatre, I met so many people at that hostel too, it was really a magic week. I knew straight away that it was not a mistake to come here when I got to Kyoto.

There’s even a train museum in Kyoto, not to mention wonderful temples, with the crowning glory being Kinkakuji, the golden temple in a lake, almost like the Japanese answer to Amritsar’s Golden temple in India. Everywhere people wanted me to be in pictures, it was a strange ol’ experience, one I will never forget. It’s got a wonderful culture Kyoto, a great soul. There was the Manga Museum as well, that was really special with lots of cosplayers and exhibition on this artform, so very very popular in Japan. The Arashiyama Bamboo forest was also a highlight, a delight to explore and walk around for a few hours on paths weaving their way through the tall bamboo.

Cosplay at the Manga Museum.

Then there were day trips. One to Nara to visit the amazing Nara-Park, and the impressive Todaji, where in sits a giant Buddha. Takarazuka was another day trip from Kyoto, where I visited the Osamu Tezuka museum one cold, rainy April’s day. Tezuka created ‘Astroboy’, known originally as Atomu, and is a national treasure. His museum was a lot of fun and very interesting. He created many more comics than Astroboy – Black Jack and a comic/animation version of Hitler in the 1980s.

Temple in Takayama.

But I couldn’t stay in Kyoto forever. Well maybe I could have but that ship has sailed now! I went across to a place called Takayama in the Hida district. With a wonderful, old-world feel and beautiful streets, Takayama lights up a couple of times a year for a festival. At other times of the year, like when I was there, there is a museum which showcases the floats of the festival amongst other things. Actually I had only just missed the festival, which is held around the middle of April each year. There’s also something of a curiosity museum showcasing things from principally 1955-1965 and the Takayama Showa-kan. It’s full of movie posters, houses set up from that time period, and some amazing nostalgia as well. Well, hard for me to be nostalgic about it I guess, I hadn’t been born, but I did enjoy the place.

It’s pretty quiet at times, and one of the best things was the accommodation. I stayed at the Hida Takayama Temple Inn Zenko-ji, part of a temple. It was really cheap and I had my own room. There is an impressive prayer room as well and it’s a unique and special place to stay.

The A-Bomb Dome.

Hiroshima was a fair hike southwards, in fact it’s near the very south of Honshu. It’s another place that will take your heart. There’s the A-Bomb Dome, the only building (or maybe there is one more) remaining after the nuclear bomb was dropped. Not so far away, over the river, is the humbling Peace Memorial Museum, which visitors to Hiroshima should not miss. You’ll find out just what the people of Hiroshima went through that fateful day in 1945.

There are a lot of beautiful parks in Hiroshima, and April is just about the perfect time to visit the city. I went to

Baseball in Hiroshima.

a baseball game there too. Sadly the Hiroshima Sparrows (yes, really) didn't do so well, but it was a great atmosphere. Not to mention the cherry blossoms are out in full force too! It’s really beautiful, so why not take a short boat ride to Miyajima and see the temples and pagodas there, and take a wonderful walk around the island. Several interesting shops can be found as well, but this is a most beautiful island, with a big red gate standing out in the ocean which can be walked to when the tide is out. It’s justly famous as a place of great beauty.

Hiroshima

I headed up to Tokyo from there, but I had an afternoon in Osaka. There I only visited the Aquarium, not too far from a big Ferris wheel. The Aquarium is outstanding, full of fun and oh so many fish. A little different from the places I usually visit, but well worth it.

And then it was time to head to the big smoke! To Tokyo, the Daddy of all cities…

But you know what? I think that’s best saved for the next blog! The next blog will feature Iwate-ken, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagano and a couple of other places. Seems I have a bit to write about when it comes to Japan… see you then!

Night-time in Kyoto.

Please Note – I am yet to release anything on Kindle about Japan, you can expect that sometime next year. If you are interested in my travel writings, please visit my webpage –

dhakatodakar.webs.com