A couple of months ago, we were still talking about a Christmas trip to Shanghai but things changed in a hurry in mid November following our family meeting. With everyone desperately wanting a trip to Japan, I (with my soft heart) wound up dropping more than a few extra bucks just to keep all of us happy.
Because of my late start in planning out this trip, I soon realized that the choices for accommodation were very limited at that point. While my first choice would be to stay in the Ginza area again, it would have cost me an arm and a leg for two rooms. At the end, I had to settle for Akasaka instead.
One huge advantage of staying in Akasaka is its geographical location in the middle of Tokyo’s metropolitan area. Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza are all within a few metro stations; and our choice of hotel, Hotel Mystays Premier Akasaka falls right between the Chiyoda (C) and Ginza (G) line. Not bad, right?
While I like the quiet neighborhood surrounding Hotel Mystays Premier Akasaka, none of us was really impressed with what the hotel had to offer.
For one, everyone was complaining about the size of the room. Yes, in Japanese standard, 25 square metres wasn’t bad but it was the layout of the room that had us shaking our heads.
First and foremost, it was wasteful to have a small and narrow corridor leading to the toilet and bathroom. It wasn’t a very good design at all.
This left the bedroom with very limited space. And we were already having one of the biggest rooms in the premise.
Very standard Japanese-style bathroom.
Toilet.
Apart from the design of the room, there were also other miscues. The heating system wasn’t really adjustable to guests so there were only two options, leave it ON or OFF. We had it ON on our first night and it was like sleeping in an oven. With that not working out for us, our only option was simply leaving it OFF.
That brought us to the second problem. I thought the windows did a terrible job of insulation which was really not doing their job to keep cold air from getting through. After making the tough call to switch the heat off, I ended up catching a cold after battling the cold air during our 8-day stay.
Despite the aforementioned points that were mostly negative, I really thought Akasaka is a nice area to stay for tourists. The hotel was about a 5-minute walk to half a dozen of ramen shops and many more boutiques and cafes. As said before, the metro stations (two lines) were about a 10-minute walk at most, and we could reach most tourist attractions without changing lines. I also like the fact that the area was not crowded and touristy like Shinjuku and Ginza.
All in all, is Akasaka worthy of another shot you ask? I would say yes. Hotel Mystays Premier Akasaka? Most definitely not. My family would likely kill me if I dare to try.
Rating: ❤❤
Price: ￥￥
Address: 2-17-54 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan
Tel: +81 3-6229-3280
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