MEGURO MIDORI HOTEL

I've stayed 10 nights at different capsule hotels so my comparison is based on all the places I've stayed. The Good: 1) Location: 5-7 mins walk from Meguro Station. Nearby, there are several options for restaurants, light shopping, and supermarkets. Meguro Station is pretty good place for shopping and going to Haneda Airport. It's on the green JR Yamanote Line (loop) so to the west, Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Shibuya are a few stations away. To the east, Ginza and Akihabara are also a few stations away. To get to airport, you take subway a few stops east to Shimbashi Station and then switch to the airport fast limited express train there. It's more south than Akihabara or Tokyo Station or Shinjuku, so takes less time. 2) Facilities: This place was renovated recently so all the facilities are clean and newer looking. There are washers and dryers if you need to do laundry. 3) Baggage Storage: Check out time is 10AM but they let you leave your luggage (at your own risk) if you need to. I did that at every lodging and never had any issue. Of course, I didn't have anything valuable in my bag worth stealing either. 4) Neighborhood: There are decent number of options for food/coffee, light shopping, convenient store, and supermarket. 5) Capsule: Inside the capsule, there are two power outlets and the Internet is good. The Bad: 1) Showers are in the basement and not on the same floor as your sleeping floor. 2) There is a public usage refrigerator + another small one but for the number of beds this location has, it's too small. They need to put additional larger refrigerator. 3) Co-Ed: This hotel is completely co-ed so you have both males and females staying next to each other. I'd have preferred same-sex floor or have 1 floor women-only, 1 mixed, and 1 men-only. I feel more comfortable in same-sex floor. I'm a male but I think same-sex floor might be better for women, too, for additional safety reason. 4) Space: Compared to some other hotels, I felt a bit cramped in this hotel. Due to packing so many capsules, the hallways are narrow and there's not much space to open and pack your luggage. Common room is also rather small.

The capsule hotel is very close to Haneda Airport making it a great first stop as it is approx 150m away from the JR Train station. 250-300m away is the metro that can also take you wherever you want to go if you know how to change subway lines to get to your intended location. McDonald’s is close by as well as many cheap food eats. There is an Atre mall for shopping. The only downside for me is that somebody was eyeing my luggage and stole my unlocked padlock which I left unlocked on purpose so I didn’t have to open it in the morning and could just enter in my luggage code and open my suitcase. They must have assumed that could guess my 3 digit code whilst I was out all day everyday. Luckily I had a spare padlock. My capsule was in the corner where there was no CCTV. I recommend that you leave your luggage in an area that is covered by the CCTV. So due to the cheap costs the accomodation may attract desperate people who may be looking for easy targets. A shame that this ruined an otherwise great stay. One more thing, the walls are made of thin wood so you will likely share your nights with snoring middle aged men and that can cause vibrations in your capsule. The key is to wear yourself out exploring all day and take a very hot shower and just collapse in your bed. ;)

I was looking for a cheap hotel. This hotel is the cheapest around the area with excellent location (only 2-3 mintes walk from JR Meguro Station). I chose Cabin room. When I checked in around 10 pm, there is a receptionist. Meeting this receptionist at checkin was really helpful and comforting to me as I was not sure about this cheap hostel. (most of the time, this hotel does not have a receptionist, there is a tablet to checkin/checkout). She instructed me to take a photo of the 4 digit code and my room number. There is a locked door on the 1st floor and also basement floor. Both requires 4 digit code. Cabin was on the first floor. Opening the door, there were 6 cabin rooms which is so tiny like Unagi no nedoko. Yet, just about enough space for the luggage. The room does not have door to lock. At first, I was feeling so unsafe because the area is unisex and also no door. So I carry my valuables all the time. As time goes by, I started to get used to this hostel. People are surprisingly considerate and civilized. One time, there is one guy who was making a bit of annoying noise at night. And Only one big complaint is big door bang sound that people make when they enter/leave the bathroom floor. Almost everyone bang the door, which made me so annoyed. Only a few Japanese people are very considerate. Some foreigners also. But most does not pay attention to close the door quietly. If anything to prevent the banging noise, it would be great. There is a pantry with hot water, microwave, fridge, and plates, cups, chopsticks. Coin laundry: 300 yen, detergent 100 yen, dry for 30 mins 100 yen. This is the first time for me to stay in UNISEX hostel in Japan. When I was in the bathroom area, several times a man walked in and looked puzzled. They asked me "where is the man's bathroom?". Apparantly some people did not know this is UNISEX hostel. If you don't mind the unisex and no door, I would recommend this hostel. (I booked for 6 nights, but I acturally booked and stayed another hotel for two nights as I needed some good sleep and a hot bath time. the Meguro Midori hotel environment made me always at vigilant, so I could not have a good sleep) Generally, people are so disconnected each other in this hostel. There is no greetings exchanged. Some people we vowed to greet. However, I have opportunity to make conversation with two young people of their 20's. This kind of encounter was fun. If you are happy to make conversation with others, take action! At least say "hi", "good morning".

short trip is okay, but anything more than 3 nights i wouldnt. location is convenient from the station.