Super Hotel Shinagawa Shimbamba — Hotel in Tokyo

Room: Small, but everything seems to be very new and the bed was comfortable. And actually being able to control the temperature in the room was very nice! But be warned, the bathroom is absolutely tiny and the room has no views at all. Sitting down on the toilet meant that my knees were almost hitting the wall. And interesting enough, they don't use a room card/key system here. Instead, you get a number when you check in, which you punch into the keypad every time you enter your room. This has its pros and cons, but I liked it quite a bit. I memorized the code after entering it several times, and being able to not worry about a key was quite nice. Plus this means your room doesn't lose power when you leave, so you can leave stuff charging in your room.||||Location: The hotel is located in a rather quiet area with a lot of tiny shops all around. It's about a 8 minute walk to Shimbamba station, and from there it's a 2 stop/2 minute train ride to the rather large Shinagawa station, where you have access to the Shinkansen, Yamamote, and several other lines. It's not the best location I'd say, but still pretty good because it gives you easy access to the big spots like Shibuya and Shinjuku.||||Facilities: They have three washers and dryers here. And one loads costs 100 yen. With free detergent. That's freaking amazing. And the dryers actually work and dry clothes, which is unusual in Japan! Wow!||||Free breakfast: The buffet is actually pretty damn good. I wasn't expecting much since it's free after all, but I enjoyed every breakfast during the 3 days I stayed there. I'd even say that it was better than some of the paid breakfast buffets I've had. And just being able to start off the day without worrying about what to get for breakfast really helps. But don't expect Western food like bacon or sausages with pancakes.||||Service: Even in Japan, there's customer service that ranges from polite but rather useless, to super helpful and enthusiastic. I'd say the service here is more towards the latter. They were always smiles and helped me with any questions I had. Hirata-san in particular did a great job with helping me send my luggage to my next hotel. Thumbs up for the staff here, flawless in my book.||||Overall, I enjoyed my stay here. If you're looking for a hotel with magnificent views of Tokyo, this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a budget friendly hotel located in a quiet neighborhood to serve as your base while you're out exploring Tokyo, this is a pretty...

Room: Small, but everything seems to be very new and the bed was comfortable. And actually being able to control the temperature in the room was very nice! But be warned, the bathroom is absolutely tiny and the room has no views at all. Sitting down on the toilet meant that my knees were almost hitting the wall. And interesting enough, they don't use a room card/key system here. Instead, you get a number when you check in, which you punch into the keypad every time you enter your room. This has its pros and cons, but I liked it quite a bit. I memorized the code after entering it several times, and being able to not worry about a key was quite nice. Plus this means your room doesn't lose power when you leave, so you can leave stuff charging in your room.||||Location: The hotel is located in a rather quiet area with a lot of tiny shops all around. It's about a 8 minute walk to Shimbamba station, and from there it's a 2 stop/2 minute train ride to the rather large Shinagawa station, where you have access to the Shinkansen, Yamamote, and several other lines. It's not the best location I'd say, but still pretty good because it gives you easy access to the big spots like Shibuya and Shinjuku.||||Facilities: They have three washers and dryers here. And one loads costs 100 yen. With free detergent. That's freaking amazing. And the dryers actually work and dry clothes, which is unusual in Japan! Wow!||||Free breakfast: The buffet is actually pretty damn good. I wasn't expecting much since it's free after all, but I enjoyed every breakfast during the 3 days I stayed there. I'd even say that it was better than some of the paid breakfast buffets I've had. And just being able to start off the day without worrying about what to get for breakfast really helps. But don't expect Western food like bacon or sausages with pancakes.||||Service: Even in Japan, there's customer service that ranges from polite but rather useless, to super helpful and enthusiastic. I'd say the service here is more towards the latter. They were always smiles and helped me with any questions I had. Hirata-san in particular did a great job with helping me send my luggage to my next hotel. Thumbs up for the staff here, flawless in my book.||||Overall, I enjoyed my stay here. If you're looking for a hotel with magnificent views of Tokyo, this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a budget friendly hotel located in a quiet neighborhood to serve as your base while you're out exploring Tokyo, this is a pretty...

Beginning with the delightful entryway punctuated by two classically sculpted miniature pine trees, continuing on to the warm, friendly and accommodating greeting by Miss Maeda at the front desk, and in consideration of a peaceful and relaxing public bath in addition to the "cozy" but immaculate bathroom facilities in the room, a large (for Japan) and comfortable bed, a quiet and clean room, and the continuing attentive and gracious services of all the staff, and in particular, Miss Maeda and Miss Shimokawa, I can recommend this hotel highly to the traveler looking for something typically Japanese in an out of the way local neighborhood, still easily accessible to a major train station. ||The neighborhood in which this hotel is situated is truly unusual, in my experience, for a big city hotel. The neighborhood is anchored by not just one, but two long shopping streets intersecting very close to the hotel. With numerous local eateries, small specialty "wagashi", or Japanese sweets shops, drinking/eating establishments, all typically Japanese with the exception of an Indian restaurant, a couple of Chinese and one or two Italian restaurants, this is a great place to really soak up the local flavor of an older period in Japanese history. ||In fact, directly across from the hotel are the remnants of part of the historic Tokaido road (virtually an alleyway, but one tat connected the two ancient capitals of Japan). A short walk in on this walkway one finds a very sweet, neighborhood public park devoted to children and supervised seven days a week by trained professionals. ||All in all a very unique and special place to stay, well managed and fairly priced. ||Highly...