Toyoko INN Uguisudani Station — Hotel in Tokyo

I have a membership with Toyoko Inn and have frequented their chain of hotels nearly every time I have come back as a tourist. This is my first stay at the Uguisudani branch.||||Firstly, I must admit I have sort of braced myself by reading other reviews prior to coming. Still, when I turned up, I was surprised how inefficient they used the space. Let me just clarify - This hotel and the room I stayed in isn't very much smaller than most of the previous Toyoko Inn rooms I have stayed in. In fact, it's probably the same size. However, their poor space planning lead to inefficient and uncomfortable use of space. opening my luggage is a minor chore and, if you're the clumsy sort when you wake up, you are likely to trip over your bed to the bath room.||||Secondly, it's summer and it certainly doesn't help the situation here. At times throughout the day the lift inside the building and the corridor space just outside my room is hotter than the air outside the building!!!||||Also, considering that this hotel is almost the same size as the other Toyoko Inn chain here in Tokyo, I am baffled as to why there is only ONE washing machine and ONE dryer!||||However, once I got myself settled in and kept to a routine of keeping things very neat and simple, It's really the same old comfortable hotel in a very interesting neighbourhood. ||||It is right next to the train station, for starters, so it's great. However, due to the need to use a set of stairs, this is not very accessible friendly. It's about a 5mins walk to the train station, bypassing a konbini. very very convenient.||||what makes this an even more convenient space is that it is surrounded by food places. just downstairs, there's an udon shop, a ramen shop, a "western" cafe and other variety of noodle shops. At night, when the seedier side of town awakes (lots of love hotels here), the Izakaya (local idea of pubs) opens, giving you more variety of food - which i think is awesome for a traveller who might be very jetlagged for a few days. ||||There's even a game store here that opens till 2am!||||Still love their free breakfasts and very...

I have a membership with Toyoko Inn and have frequented their chain of hotels nearly every time I have come back as a tourist. This is my first stay at the Uguisudani branch.||||Firstly, I must admit I have sort of braced myself by reading other reviews prior to coming. Still, when I turned up, I was surprised how inefficient they used the space. Let me just clarify - This hotel and the room I stayed in isn't very much smaller than most of the previous Toyoko Inn rooms I have stayed in. In fact, it's probably the same size. However, their poor space planning lead to inefficient and uncomfortable use of space. opening my luggage is a minor chore and, if you're the clumsy sort when you wake up, you are likely to trip over your bed to the bath room.||||Secondly, it's summer and it certainly doesn't help the situation here. At times throughout the day the lift inside the building and the corridor space just outside my room is hotter than the air outside the building!!!||||Also, considering that this hotel is almost the same size as the other Toyoko Inn chain here in Tokyo, I am baffled as to why there is only ONE washing machine and ONE dryer!||||However, once I got myself settled in and kept to a routine of keeping things very neat and simple, It's really the same old comfortable hotel in a very interesting neighbourhood. ||||It is right next to the train station, for starters, so it's great. However, due to the need to use a set of stairs, this is not very accessible friendly. It's about a 5mins walk to the train station, bypassing a konbini. very very convenient.||||what makes this an even more convenient space is that it is surrounded by food places. just downstairs, there's an udon shop, a ramen shop, a "western" cafe and other variety of noodle shops. At night, when the seedier side of town awakes (lots of love hotels here), the Izakaya (local idea of pubs) opens, giving you more variety of food - which i think is awesome for a traveller who might be very jetlagged for a few days. ||||There's even a game store here that opens till 2am!||||Still love their free breakfasts and very...

I have nothing against the Toyoko Inn chain, and stayed in them almost exclusively during my time in Japan. ||||It's just that this one had the smallest room I've ever stayed in. Normally I can leave my luggage not, but not this time - I had to slide it under the bed simply to get from the bed to the bathroom. It was pretty much a matter of putting something away to get something else out. A bit frustrating at first, but once you get a routine sorted you're OK.||||No complaints about the breakfast - it was the usual Toyoko offering of miso soup, rice cakes, pickled vegetables, sausages or meatballs (depending on the day) and salads, with tea and coffee to drink. It's nothing to write home about, but gives you a good start to a day's walking and exploring.||||The only real downside is the location - there are some dodgy looking bars and a large number of 'love hotels' in the streets behind the hotel (towards the train station). I never had any issues, but a friend of a friend accepted a street hawker's offer of "cheap beer" and ended up being dosed with Rohypnol and having his credit cards stolen. So be aware of what's around you, don't accept offers that sound too good to be true, and you should be OK.||||Aside from that, there are good restaurants around, and I had some excellent food from a little BBQ type place at the bottom of the stairs where the road goes over the trainlines (towards Ueno Park and the south exit of the Uguisudani station). You can't miss it after dark.||||Speaking of the trains, the hotel is on the Yamanote line, so it's a breeze to get to places such as Shinjuku, Tokyo Central,...