Pearl Hotel Ryogoku

The room feels a bit old, but it's still super comfortable. The service was kind, and the location is great, just a few steps from Ryogoku station.

The room was so bad that if I hadn’t been out working all day and only needed somewhere to sleep, I’d have walked out after five minutes. The bed sloped, the light didn’t work, and there was mold everywhere. The walls were thin and flaking, the Wi-Fi barely worked, and the blanket looked like it hadn’t been washed in ages. Even the towels felt like sandpaper. It was an extremely old, musty room with a Showa-era interior, easily the worst hotel room I’ve had in Japan. I’m fine with business hotels like APA, but I hadn’t booked this one myself. It was a business trip, and they assumed I’d want to stay near a JR station because I’d taken the Shinkansen into Tokyo. I wouldn’t recommend it at all.

The location is the best part. Ryogoku JR station is right across from the hotel, with direct trains to Shinjuku and Akhiabara and one or two transfers to other major Tokyo sights. The station has a 7/11, and the Ryogoku river centre is beside the hotel, with a boat that goes near Sensoji temple. The hotel itself is decent, though the rooms are small. We were given a smoking room, but it wasn’t as bad as we’d expected. There’s also a microwave on the ground floor, which came in handy.

There are lots of tasty local places to eat beside the JR station, and the hotel is conveniently close to both the JR and subway stations. It was clean, too. Some staff members weren’t fluent in English, but they tried to communicate using Google Translate. The downside is how close the hotel is to the railway, since you can hear the trains.