JR-EAST HOTEL METS SHIBUYA — Hotel in Tokyo

Visiting a new country in a wheelchair is often a fraught experience, and it definitely requires a lot of advance planning when you use an electric wheelchair that weighs 95kg and are travelling on your own.

My search for a truly wheelchair accessible hotel was complicated by places that assumed the presence of a carer who could manhandle you up a step with the help of the hotel staff: don’t assume that the presence of an accessible room is a guarantee of step free access in Tokyo. Fortunately, Hotel Mets Shibuya is fully accessible and has step free access from street and station.

Most wheelchair users will need what the hotel calls a “universal room”. This is located next to reception on the fourth floor, and has enough space to be able to get your chair in and manoeuvre. We did check out whether the single room would work, but the layout leaves a corridor just an inch or two wider on each side than my chair, such that I would either have to reverse into the room, or reverse out.

The universal room is a twin, and you will have to contact the hotel in advance to reserve it as you can’t reserve it online. However, if it is available and you want to pay before arrival, I found the hotel staff were happy for me to book the dates I needed online and then contact them to ensure they allocated the correct room.

My room was spotless, and the various items available on the amenity bar in reception are ideal for anyone who has forgotten essentials like a toothbrush - they have bamboo toothbrushes, rather than plastic, although I’d packed my own - or to grab top ups of tea for the room, or bath salts for the wonderfully deep bath tub. If you want coffee, there is a bean to cup machine available 24 hours in reception.

Staff are friendly and helpful here and also speak some English. I speak some Japanese, so we were able to communicate well enough, especially since I also had Google Translate set up to translate conversations as a back-up for when my Japanese wasn’t sufficient. Overall, this was a good, safe, clean base for my business trip.

A note about disabled accessibility. My experience is that most hotels expect a disabled guest to travel with a carer, so the accessible or barrier free room (as it’s often called) is generally a twin. In the case of this hotel, it also means that the bathroom is not fully accessible by UK standards. I’m fortunate that I can walk a few steps and get in and out of a bath or shower unaided, but a solo traveler who couldn’t walk would have been unable to use the bath/shower unaided. You don’t see many wheelchair users in Tokyo, and I’m told that the accessible room is more geared to travelling with an elderly relative who has limited mobility, than to providing something fully accessible the way it’s understood in the UK. This room and bathroom were fine for me, but ymmv.

Photo shows my chair parked in the hotel room lobby with view into the main room. Bathroom is off the lobby to the left. There is a power point in the lobby so it was easy to...

We stay here for 3 nights on 22 Nov. As we arrived Tokyo by bus and subway, there is no direct linkway from underpass or to the hotel. With all the construction on the Shibuya JR station, it was so difficult to find the hotel and we have to go through Shibuya Stream and exit to the road before reaching the hotel. If you come by JR train or NEX Express, it will be more convenient as you can exit through "New South Exit" to the hotel. As a JR hotel, it collaborated with JR station for hotel guest to use the JR train platform to reach the other side where there are all the happenings and exciting things. You can show your room card to the station staff and they will issue a paper to cross the platform to the other side. This make it easier for us as a tourist who want to explore the happening area. However, the station staff at the "New South Exit" is not always friendly, especially on 25 Nov. We did a early checkout and deposit our baggage at hotel. Hotel staff gave us a hotel white card so we cross the platform for final shopping, but the station staff did not want to honor it and gave us "black face" and keep saying must pay, although finally let us cross the platform. This really affected our holiday mood I will believe this is only temporary measures and after the construction work is done on the JR station, there should be official linkway. The hotel is really convenient if you taking NEX airport train. The NEX train platform is literally just outside the hotel exit. But do take note all happening shops are at the North side of Shibuya station, so quite far from the hotel. With the on-going construction, it was so difficult to walk outside even with google map, and we have to cross the train platform. The guest room is Tokyo standard, quite small, abit dated but clean. Hotel staffs are friendly and professional. I did not take breakfast so cannot comment. There is no public bath. Overall a nice place except...

I've stayed in many "business hotels" in Tokyo and I would rate this one above average for the following reasons:|+ room size is slightly larger than others I've been in. We were able to keep 2 large suitcases open in our room without having it crimp our space.|+ room has HVAC control that could switch between heat and A/C per guests' discretion. Some hotels in Japan switch to winter mode in October and no matter how hot it is outside, you won't have A/C. This hotel enabled us to have the perfect climate control on unusually warm days in November.|+ breakfast (which was included in the rate we paid) was excellent. I love Japanese food and there was a nice selection of breakfast "tapas" type foods along with some western choices, juice, coffee, etc. Served in their restaurant and all looked fresh and tasted delicious.|+ this hotel is at a little-used exit/entrance to Shinjuku Station (Shin-Minami-Guchi or "new South exit") but there are tons of restaurants on nearby Meiji Dori (road) and convenience store right across the street.|+ despite being located next to the train station, we never heard any outside noise and had great sleeps||The only downside is that it is a bit of a walk (as others have described) from one side of the station to the hotel's side and you generally have to walk on Platform 3 - 4 down to what seems like a deserted section to finally reach the hotel. Those who are utilizing Narita Express, however, will find it very convenient as the NEX stops on...