J-Hoppers Lake Biwa Guesthouse — Hotel in Otsu

Excellent COSPA cost performance! Booked through booking.com and got a small discount. Stayed in the 6 bed female dorm, but got to see the western style 2 person room, and the family tatami rooms as well. I’ll make notes on them below.

TLDR: awesome for the price. Bring your own towel, try the Tanuki beer in the vending machine, and take advantage of the onsen and kitchen! BUT it’s not a handicap accessible facility.

General pros: there are both mixed private shower facilities and gendered onsen areas which were clean. There’s a nice 24hrs “shop” with ramen, snacks and other goods near the front desk and a jar for money to be left. There a vending machine with beer as well. You can rent (1 day in advance) a bbq area outside. There’s a cafe which takes advance orders as well. The kitchen on the second floor is awesome. About 5-6 can eat comfortably at the same time. Two big fridges with a label system. Ice. Garbage sorting. Full dishes, pots, pans, utensils you can use and wash and put away. There’s a kids you area there and lots of books and even some adult games as well. There’s a nice balcony too. Free car parking. 5 min walk to beach, 10km to BBQ area. Also within 5 min is a little restaurant and a dessert shop. Love music on the beach at night sometimes too. Free tea and coffee in the kitchen as well.

General cons: all bathing facilities is on the first floor, all rooms are pretty much 3rd floor. So it’s a trek. There’s no elevator at all, so not a handicap accessible facility. If you didn’t bring a towel, you can rent for ¥100 at the desk. Staff spoke little English, but the foreign owner was around sometimes. Some rooms had semi-opaque (shower like) doors. It was a bit creepy.

Dorms:: Pros: very clean, and both the dorms and western rooms were modern. The dorm bed is pictured below. It’s standard thin futon and bean pillow as in most places. There was a light, shelf/lockbox, wifi, USB port and outlet and space to put a small-medium suitcase inside. All occupants got a door key, and the room was well air conditioned and fairly dark in the morning. I recommend the bottom bunks. You had to strip your sheets and pile them in the bed area before checkout. Bathroom (toilet and sink only ) were just across the hall, and an area with sinks and hair dryers was just past the mixed dorm. The kitchen is just below, so it’s convenient. Con: the people in the mix dorm next door did not respect curfew and were quite loud when I stayed, but there were free earplugs in the sink room. Mattress was thin. REALLY needed a towel drying rack of something for bathing suits, and towels. No balcony.

Western room: The western queen bed room was nice. There was a big bed, plugs, chair and table, towel drying rack and clothes rack, aircon, and balcony. Bathrooms also down the hall same as the dorm. Have to strip sheets.

Family 3 futon tatami room: large room, probably 8 tatami plus a closet. Pretty bare bones compared to the western room. Small dry rack in “genkan” and a table plus balcony. The futons looked much better than the dorm ones. Full tatami, raised up from hallway level. All bathroom out in hall.

I hope that helps! They have an...

My Black friend and I stayed here together and experienced some bonafide racist nonsense. Let's get into it ladies and gentlemen. We had a private room booked with 3 futons and were planning to have a third friend come up the following day to join us, which we had already let the staff know about. The evening before, we met up with another friend to swim in the lake and went back to our room for beers. The moment we walked in around 8.30pm, the young Japanese woman at the counter (I think her name is Chi) gave us strange instructions and attitude, saying "he's not staying so first floor only". Her tone was like she was speaking to staff. We had no idea what her instructions meant (there's nothing on the first floor except the showers and the lobby...?) but our room was on the first floor anyway so we said ok and went to our room. We'd been in the room for 30 seconds when the woman suddenly knocked on the door demanding our friend leaves. She changed her tune and started talking about this rule of "no guests after 9pm", which is an insane rule for a hotel/hostel anyway, but it doesn't say this anywhere in the hostel, on their website, or on our booking. It is totally made up. I can only assume she thought we were staff and had to make up something when she realised we were paying guests. She was still being kind of rude to us and wouldn't leave us alone until she saw him leave, so our friend apologised and we all went outside the building to discuss what to do now since we had been basically kicked from our room, but this woman followed us and continued to be rude for no reason even though we did as she asked. My friend at this point started to get angry with her, and she responded with comments like "you can't act like, this is Japan" which is a CRAZY thing to say. After I asked her what exactly she wants from us she realised the answer is nothing and went to her car and called her boss lol. The managers drove down and double down on this made up rule. They didn't even address the random first floor rule, were rude too and tried to insinuate we were sneaking a third person in, even after he literally left, and even threatened to call the police. We were literally just sitting on deck chairs outside the hostel doing nothing. It was so wild. Eventually they realise there is nothing else to say because no "rules" (made up or otherwise) had been broken nor intended to be broken, so they go and sit in the lobby to gossip until we went back to our room. As a white person I've never experienced such confusing nonsense in my life. We were polite from the outset and did nothing to warrant being treated the way we were. I can only attribute the behaviour to anti-Blackness. I will never give this business my money again! P.S. the futons were VERY uncomfortable, I had to pile up 3-4 winter duvets on top of my futon and pillow to get any...

Great hostel! The building has been recently renovated and has very clean toilets and shower facilities. We stayed here with small kids and had no worries about cleanliness. Excellent value and we enjoyed the stay very much. There is no convenience store or supermarket within walking distance but there is a selection of snacks for sale and of course there are drink vending machines (including alcohol). The common space was comfortable and had lots of games and cooking utensils. The restaurant was very good and we enjoyed the food. The hostel staff were very kind and communicated with us very well about meal times and other things relating to our stay. We...