Naoshima Backpackers Guesthouse

The staff were caring, responsive, and helpful, and the hostel is clean and well located. You can rent a bike, with two available. The dorm itself was really uncomfortable, though. The beds are in the entrance hallway, and the “mattress” is just a duvet placed on the wood, on every bed. There’s a curtain for privacy, but it gets very hot inside and the ventilation is poor. The light stays on all night for people going to the restroom. When I asked for a real mattress and a second pillow for my second night, the staff kindly brought them, and they dimmed the light a little.

The atmosphere is good, but the beds are stiff and the shower is shared. You get what you pay for. The Wi-Fi is now named something like aterm, and the password is written on the back of the router in the common area. The owners didn’t give us any notice about that.

The location is handy, right by Honmura port and close to the Art House installations. I paid 3000 yen for a dorm bed, so it suited my tight budget, and I’d stay again if I were traveling alone on a budget. It’s an unstaffed hostel, though you need to tell the owner when you’ll arrive; he comes by briefly to share the door passcode and show you around. There are private rooms as well as four capsule-style beds. It was clean, but the shower didn’t have enough body wash.

It was clean, and the port of Honmura is very close. The hostel felt a bit run down, without much of an atmosphere, and the mattress was too thin. Late check-in costs an extra 1000 yen.