APA Hotel Asakusabashi Ekimae

The bedding was top notch, though the towels were a little rough. The rooms are typical business hotel rooms, and the area has gotten more touristy lately, which also means more restaurants and cafes around. It’s an almost perfect business hotel for one person or a couple, with a great location near two train stations and within walking distance of Akihabara. I’ll definitely stay here again.

This hotel felt much like the five or six other APAs I’ve stayed at across Japan, which is what I expected. We arrived around 23:00 after flying into Tokyo and found it near the metro on a quiet street. There was a 7-Eleven, other konbinis that were still open, and restaurants nearby. It’s a very quiet area, and while the metro was convenient for the places we wanted to visit, this isn’t the spot for nightlife. The hotel has a newer restaurant that appears to serve breakfast and dinner; we didn’t try it, but it was busy at meal times, so it must be popular despite all the other restaurants around. There’s coin laundry but no onsen that we saw. The room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and it was pretty roomy for Tokyo. Toiletries were included, like at other APAs: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, vanity items, razors, and hand and face soap. I’d absolutely stay again, with easy access to Asakusa and Akhiabara.

The bathroom sink had a puddle of used water in it when I got back to the room on my last night. There were other problems too: the internet was painfully slow and sometimes disconnected, so videos and online games barely worked. The AC kept making a constant tic-tic-tic sound until I touched it, which quieted it for a while. And during housekeeping hours, from morning into the afternoon, staff kept going in and out through the emergency exit, connecting and unplugging things and knocking on the wall. Maybe I was just unlucky to be next to that exit.

We paid ¥80k for seven nights in a superior double room through Agoda, and having enough space to leave all three of our bags open at once, two large and one medium, felt like a big deal for Tokyo at this price. There’s a microwave in the room and the tap water is drinkable. The location is great for food, with lots of small restaurants nearby and a craft beer place right across from the hotel. There’s no amenity bar. Housekeeping leaves a plastic bag of towels, yukata, and other amenities outside the room each day. One thing families with kids should know: adult videos are saved on the TV, so they may want to avoid this hotel chain.