Many who travel to Japan are unaware of the dozens of accommodation options available in the country; some think that there are only traditional hotels and Ryokan inns. Japan has more than 20 accommodation options that we will explore in this article.
Table of Contents
Ryokan – The Traditional Japanese Inns
Ryokan [旅館] are Japanese inns that maintain a traditional and cultural experience. In this accommodation, everything is traditional, from its structure to customs and environment. Traditional kaiseki food and onsen are available.
In these accommodations, it is common to wear Yukata, be served in the room, and even participate in a tea ceremony. The rooms are on tatami floors using futon. Ryokan usually have gardens and structures that resemble Ancient Japan.
We recommend reading: Tatame – Discover the traditional Japanese flooring
The major disadvantage of these accommodations is the prices, which can start from 20,000 yen and exceed 100,000 yen. Despite the price, it is a unique experience worth having. If you want to know more, read our article about Ryokan.
We recommend reading: Ryokan – The Charming Japanese Inns
Pensões – INNs – Small Inns
Pensões [ペンション] are those famous INNs you find in RPG games. Japanese pensions generally offer dinner, in addition to breakfast, and are usually run by small families.
The rooms are Western-style based on European pensions. Pensions sometimes resemble Ryokans; they are large houses with numerous rooms and often offer Western food and low-cost rates.
Geshukuya [下宿屋] – Refers to Japanese pensions that also serve as accommodations, but are places where students living away from their parents often rent at a low cost. They are traditional in Japanese style, seen in animes like Love Hina.
Minshuku – Family Inns
Minshuku [民宿] – Are family-run inns in the Japanese style. They offer visitors a good opportunity to meet local families and experience traditional Japanese lifestyle. A cheap type of Ryokan can be found for 5,000 yen.
Minshuku are usually located around tourist areas, such as hot springs, ski resorts, and in the mountains. They are also commonly found in small rural towns, villages, or by the sea.
Also read: Small towns in Japan perfect for visiting
Pensions tend to have a higher cost than a Minshuku, so families that inherit or have a large traditional Japanese house create their own accommodation. It can be considered a homestay/inn.
Shukubo – Temple Accommodation
Long before the first Japanese hotel was built in the Edo Period, Japanese travelers always stayed in temples, and this tradition continues to this day. This type of accommodation is called Shukubo [宿坊].
Staying in a temple can be a unique cultural experience. Some temples offer this option and also provide a vegetarian Buddhist meal (Shojin Ryori).
Nowadays, this type of traditional and religious experience can cost more than 8,000 yen. It is worth noting that the temple walls are thin, so you cannot cause too much disturbance in these sacred places.
Capsule Hotels
Capsule hotels are shared accommodations in a kind of round cubicle resembling a capsule. Some are futuristic and innovative with television and other entertainment options. They are low-cost accommodation options and resemble hostels.
There are thousands of capsule hotels scattered throughout Japan. Some offer traditional baths in onsen, resting and entertainment areas, safes for storing belongings, and lockers for other items. A night can cost from 500 to 3,000 yen.
In the past, this type of accommodation was more common for men. Nowadays, it is possible to find female-only hotels, mixed-gender options, or even mixed floors. We also recommend reading our article about Capsule Hotels.
Read more: Capsule Hotels – All about this accommodation in Japan
Hostels – Shared Accommodations
Hostels are cheap accommodations compared to hotels and inns, but the rooms are shared. Most hostels in Japan resemble capsule hotels, with thousands of beds on a single floor.
The prices and amenities are also similar. Most people who frequent hostels are usually students or travelers looking for a cheap place to stay or just to spend the night in a comfortable place.
There are also shared residency-type accommodations, the famous homestay hostels. A popular name for this type of accommodation is GuestHouse [ゲストハウス].
Karaoke, Manga Café, and Internet Café
If you missed the last train or don’t have a better place to stay, some karaoke and manga cafés allow you to spend the night. Many young Japanese even live in these places or spend most of their time there.
A night in a Cyber Café or Manga Café can cost around 3,000 yen, but includes super internet, a huge collection of mangas, unlimited juices and soft drinks, breakfast, and even ice cream.
There are franchises that mix karaoke rooms with manga cafés, offering the best of both worlds.
We recommend reading: Manga Kissa – Internet Café – Cheap accommodation in Japan
Luxury Hotels in Japan
Japan is known for its expensive accommodations due to these luxury hotels that can mislead some. They are great hotels, but the owners take advantage of the fact that Japanese people rarely take vacations to charge high prices for their luxury hotels.
These are giant hotels that stand out in their locality and even offer sleepwear. Prestigious hotels with a gigantic lobby, and that have an elegant Western style. Name, stars, and prominent size elevate their prices.
Luxury hotels in Japan can have rates starting from 30,000 yen, but some easily exceed 100,000 yen. The cheap and luxurious Park Hyatt Tokyo, for example, offers a standard double room for an absurd 70,000 yen.
Love Hotel – Japanese Motel
Love Hotels can be found all over Japan and, as the name suggests, exist mainly to allow couples to have some private time together. It is the same equivalent to motels in Brazil, but with its special charm.
For many, the concept of motels still sounds unpleasant, but in Japan, it is something practical, as most young people live with their parents and grandparents. Despite their initial purpose, many end up staying in a Love Hotel just to sleep.
Many of these Rabu Hoteru [ラブホテル] charge for two or three hours, but it is possible to extend. The rooms of “love hotels” have a flashy structure and fantasy that can be chosen from many options at the entrance when booking the room.
Business Hotel – Business Hotels
Business hotels are the opposite of traditional inns. They are modern, functional, but bland, just a cheap hotel to spend the night, not a place for relaxation and vacations.
The rooms are usually small and minimalist, with the bed taking up almost all the floor space, and a tiny private bathroom in each room. It is the closest we have to cheap hotels in Brazil.
Single rooms in business hotels usually cost from ¥ 5,000 to ¥ 10,000, including breakfast. I personally have stayed in hotels with large rooms and bathtubs for less than 2,000 yen, near a train station in Hakone. I don’t know if it’s worth it.
Accommodation in Onsen – Super Sento
Most Ryokan are onsen, but not all onsen are Ryokan. Did you know that some Japanese hot springs, both natural and sento, are popular spots for Japanese people to spend the night? Even those that do not offer sleeping facilities are popular accommodation destinations.
Some of these onsen offer yukata right at the entrance, rooms with comfortable reclining chairs, tatami to lie down, and various relaxation and food options are available on-site. You can always see someone sleeping in an onsen.
Although there are expensive baths, some are as cheap as other conventional accommodations. If you have never spent the night in a bathhouse, try to experience it for at least one day. I spent a large part of my trip in Japan in sento and onsen.
Also read: 7 onsen to visit in Japan
Accommodation on Trains
The Japanese sleep so much on trains that there are some types of trains that offer accommodation. Even with the existence of the bullet train, there are some rare night lines that offer sleeping places, or you can simply sleep on empty trains.
Also read: Inemuri – Japanese napping in public places
Accommodations on trains cater to a wide variety of prices and corresponding levels of comfort. Many night trains have seats, but a much more attractive economical option is the traditional Japanese way of sleeping on the floor.
Some trains also offer shared cabins with bunk beds and private single or double rooms. Some even have baths and other amenities of traditional hotels. Some trains that offer accommodation are called Cassiopeia, Nihonkai, Sunrise, but some have already been decommissioned.
Doya – Simple and Cheap Accommodations
Doyagai [ドヤ街] – Doya is the name given to simple accommodations in suburbs and slums, neighborhoods where day laborers gather like Kamagasaki, Yamatani, and others; these neighborhoods are often referred to as Doya city due to their large number of accommodations.
We recommend reading: Kamagasaki – All about the Largest Slum in Japan
Kiyado [木賃宿] – Literally means wooden rental, it is a private facility where you can stay for a very low price, without meals and with an advance accommodation fee. The doya can be considered a type of Kiyado.
Many Japanese literally lived in a Doya until they found a job and moved out. The rooms were shared or private with a tatami space. With reforms and the emergence of other types of accommodations, it is now impossible to distinguish a doya from other cheap accommodations.
Rider House – Motorcyclists’ Accommodations
A Rider House [ライダーハウス] is a relatively simple accommodation mainly aimed at travelers with motorcycles and bicycles, and there is no clear definition of how they are managed, but they are generally run by local volunteers.
Most of them are shared rooms between men and women, and sleeping bags are used. Most facilities are exempt from commercial lodging legislation as they do not provide bedding.
The prices are cheaper than inns, pensions, and hostels, sometimes even free. Some restaurants and souvenir shops allow you to stay overnight if you eat or shop there. These houses are mainly found in Hokkaido.
Tankin Chintai – Weekly Mansion
Tankin Chintai are short-term rental mansions, usually for weeks or months, intended for temporary stays. The prices are cheaper than hotels and condominiums. They resemble AirBNB houses quite a bit.
Also read: Days, Months, and Years in Japanese
The number of beds ranges from single to double with some amenities and appliances installed; they are generally used for long-term business trips and short-term use by single individuals.
The weekly and monthly differences are mainly classified by the number of days of the contract. There are cases where the hospitality has been licensed and cases where it is treated as a rental house. It refers to long-term stays with discounts.
Other Japanese Accommodations
There are other Japanese accommodations that we did not go into detail about, probably because they fall under a category that has already been covered by some of the previous ones. It could be a second name or category of accommodations in Japan.
Couchsurfing – A site that allows you to find free accommodations in native families’ homes. There are other sites and ways to find family home accommodations. We recommend reading our article about HomeStay.
WWOOF Japan – A type of agricultural exchange where people receive accommodation and food in exchange for working with Japanese farmers for about 6 hours a day. There are similar programs like helpx.net and workaway.info;
Kokuminshukusha [国民宿舎] – An accommodation and rest facility built in some natural park, national resort, or natural recreation area. A cheap and accessible option for everyone.
Camping – You can simply set up a tent and camp in some forest or mountain; there are specific camping sites that are free or paid.
Dormitory [ドミトリー] – Dormitories can be rooms, shared rooms in a hostel, guest houses, or cabins in the mountains. The original meaning is literally “a place to sleep.”
Roomshare [ルームシェア] – Means that a house is shared (i.e., rented or shared together) with other people who do not have a family or romantic relationship.
Kappo Ryokan – A place that serves meals with multiple dishes for dinner. Also called a culinary inn.
My Experience with Cheap Accommodations
To conclude, I will leave a video about cheap accommodations in Japan and my little experience with them. Unfortunately, this video is a bit old; I had many other experiences involving a cheap Ryokan, Internet Café, and a great Hostel in Ueno.
We also recommend reading: Cheap accommodations in Japan
I hope you enjoyed this extensive guide! If you liked it, share it with friends and leave your comments.
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