Sakuragawa no Kokoro Hostel

The price worked for us, and we were happy with the stay. It's near the train, the shared areas are nice, and there were lots of young international guests. The beds have curtains for privacy, though the lights inside each cubicle are very dim.

The shared spaces are huge, much bigger than the rooms, which are a little tiny. It felt closer to a two-star hotel than a hostel. The staff were incredibly friendly and spoke enough English to help with anything we needed.

The room was clean and had the basic things we needed, which felt nice for the price. The staff member waited more than half an hour after 10 pm because I was late checking in, and was still there when I arrived. She also gave me the necessary information. You're close to JR, though the subway is about a five-minute walk away, so I'd suggest taking JR. Thanks to the team.

The old building where the rooms are is separate from the main lobby entrance. The sister hostel in Momodani doesn't have that setup, which is why I gave this one 1 star and Momodani 5. It was also noisy well past 1 am, with guests talking on phones and to each other. The written request to keep noise down after 10 pm was ignored, and there was nobody at the lobby to complain to after that time. I also had a hard time getting directions from Google Maps and had to use its manual map-location feature to walk to the hotel. Maybe there's a glitch in the app.