Hostel Furoya

Travelers, please be mindful that this hostel is in a residential neighborhood. I saw several posters nearby objecting to the hostel because of discomfort with foreign tourists’ behavior. Please sort your trash correctly, keep noise down and wheel your luggage slowly, especially at night, so you don’t disturb local residents. There’s no lock on the building, and someone could in theory walk in, enter the bedroom and go straight to your bed and belongings. That may be unlikely, but if keeping your things secure is a concern, don’t book here. There’s no luggage locker, and you don’t need to check out because the shared room is never locked, so don’t leave valuables behind. The capsule room is spacious and very clean, and there are two shared showers and two shared toilet rooms, though the toilet smelled a bit. It seemed better than most capsule hostels in Tokyo. Some people stay here long term and seemed more at ease using the facilities than short-term travelers, which made me hesitate to use areas outside the capsule rooms. I liked the entrance shoe lockers with their interesting old locking mechanism. There are also two stamps if you like collecting stamps.

There’s a poster at the hostel offering guests a free beer for leaving a review, so I wouldn’t trust the five-star reviews. The long-haired male staff member was extremely aggressive and dangerous, and treated guests as though they shouldn’t exist. One guest, who hadn’t broken anything, touched anyone or insulted anyone, was secretly recorded on audio and video by hostel staff and reported to the police. The hostel did this because, apparently, he said he would leave a bad review. I have multiple complete, solid proofs of this.

During the four days I stayed, I never saw any staff, and it seemed no one was doing anything to improve things. Some long-term guests acted as if they were at home and other people didn’t exist. They used the hairdryer at 1 a.m. and kept leaving the dorm door open while coming and going frequently, early in the morning and late in the evening. This was the worst hostel of my two-week trip in Japan. If you want somewhere peaceful and quiet, avoid it.

It’s easy to meet travelers from all over here, and there’s a grocery store, convenience store, and great cafe nearby. The hostel itself is really nice, with clean, well-kept amenities.