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How to choose a Hotel in Tokyo
It can feel overwhelming and daunting to choose a hotel when you have never visited a place before, and Japan felt like that times a million. I spent months researching places that were affordable, had good transportation locations, and had good reviews.
One such place that checked all the boxes for us was Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku. We flew into Haneda International Airport to begin our two-week journey and spent four nights in Tokyo. I booked this room seven months before our arrival using Booking.com and had free cancellations up until 24 hours before arriving, which was extremely helpful during the planning stages.
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My research for our first hotel taught me that the airport limousine bus stops directly outside the lobby of Hotel Sunroute Plaza. I have read many horror stories of people getting lost in train stations, so we opted for the bus instead of trying to figure out the train system after 19 hours of travel and with five pieces of luggage. It was so simple, and we will do it this way again in the future. It took away so much stress upon arrival!
Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku
Sunroute Plaza is located in central Shinjuku, a 4-minute walk from Shinsen-Shinjuku Station and JR Shinjuku Station. The Hotel features rooms with satellite TV that we could easily connect to our Netflix account and free WiFi. Drink vending machines, microwaves, and laundry facilities are on-site, and currency exchange is available in the lobby. We loved the added security feature where you needed a room key to use the elevators up to the rooms. Each room includes a refrigerator, electric kettle, pajamas, and slippers! The lobby offers complimentary amenities for hygiene and toiletries like toothbrushes, toothpaste, lotions, razors, and just about anything you could have forgotten at home.
We arrived at Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku around 6:30 PM and were dropped off outside our hotel. Checking into Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku was super easy. There are several computer stations with an English option, and you enter your name and information, scan your passports, and the machine issues your room number and keys. They have staff nearby if you have questions, but the process is easy. We headed up to the 14th floor to room 1443 and were so excited to have a view of the city!
Choosing a Room Type in Japan
First off, hotels in Japan are relatively small. They are known to be just large enough to fit a bed, and that’s about it. Most accommodations range from capsule overnight only hotels to large fancy suites if you can afford them, but for us middle folks, the rooms can seem much smaller compared to even the cheapest ones in the US.
I learned the Pro Tip to always book rooms with two twin beds. They are called Twin beds but are more like doubles and fulls in the US, and because there are two beds instead of one, the room floor print is usually bigger than the rooms with even one king bed. Such a smart hack! We didn’t plan to spend much time in our room but still didn’t want to feel claustrophobic with our luggage and souvenirs, and it worked out great to book this Standard Twin Room. It was perfect for two adults.
Our room was labeled with Japanese and English instructions for the humidifier, A/C, Heat thermostat, and Japanese toilet. It was great and took all the stress away from our jet-lagged brains.
Yamato Luggage Service
Our favorite service of the entire trip was the luggage forwarding service provided by Yamato Luggage Service in the lobby of most hotels. This service is priceless, and we highly recommend it. Navigating transportation with a bunch of luggage in a city you have never been to felt like an impossible task and a massive annoyance to other travelers, so we opted to utilize it for a small fee between each hotel.
On the first day of check-in, we inquired how the service worked, and it was really easy! The staff helped us fill out the paperwork with the correct address of our next hotel, they verified our next reservation, and we were required to have our bags in the lobby one full day before check out. (Each hotel may be different, so always ask on the first day) They attached the tags to our bags, and off they went! Mark and I each kept one small rolling suitcase full of the next three days’ worth of clothing and sent the rest ahead. It was amazing to be free of all the luggage and know it was waiting for us at our next hotel.
Sunroute Hotel Ammenties
Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku features two onsite food and drink establishments. Trattoria Villazza Restaurant and Bar Ku Kon.
Trattoria Villazza serves a Western-style breakfast buffet and Italian cuisine for lunch and dinner. Guests can enjoy a drink or light meal at the stylish Bar Ku Kon.
We dropped off our bags, freshened up, and decided to celebrate our arrival at the Hotel Bar – Kukon. It was a beautiful, softly lit, calm, and tranquil room with views of the city, just what we needed to take the edge off. We were the only two in the bar for a while, but by the time we left, the place was packed.
Sunroute Plaza Breakfast Buffet
The next morning, we enjoyed the onsite breakfast buffet so we could start our day off right! The buffet had many traditional Western breakfast foods, such as eggs, bacon, sausage, bread, fruit, coffee, juice, etc..… but it also featured many traditional Japanese foods, such as soba, udon, dumplings, seafood, and unique local delicacies. Each buffet also had a salad bar and desserts of all kinds. We never ate anything we didn’t like the entire trip – there were plenty of options for picky eaters.
Planning a trip to Tokyo
Overall, Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku was in the perfect Tokyo sightseeing location. It was surrounded by Shinjuku Station Exits, making it easy to get around (once you figured out what you were doing, LOL). It was also walkable to many stores, restaurants, and other Shinjuku hot spots like the neon-lit east Shinjuku, the Skyscraper district, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. You could spend a week or more alone in this area, but we only had two weeks for the entire trip!
I’ll be walking you through each day of our trip and providing information on each Hotel we stayed in, so stay tuned and sign up for our emails!
All of my Japan Travel research was done in Facebook planning groups like “Japan Travel Planning,” “Japan Travel Advice,” and “Tokyo Disneyland Holiday Planning,” as well as Instagram Reels and YouTube. I want to thank my new favorite YouTube channel, Cakes with Faces, for all the information, suggestions, and peace of mind while planning our trip. Check her out! Also, this YouTube video about understanding the Japanese transportation system EXPLAINED helped us so much!
I also live my life by reading reviews, so I got on Google, Booking.com, and Trip Advisor and read thousands of reviews and blogs. We stayed at four different hotels along the way. I booked them all (besides Disney) with Booking.com and had free cancellations until one week before the trip in case anything changed.
I’ll be sharing each of the hotels we stayed in more thoroughly as we write about the trip, but here are the four hotels we chose for quick reference –
Disneyland Hotel Tokyo Disney – I booked this one directly with the Disneyland Tokyo Mobile App.
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I need you for my travel agent. 😀
Awesome research! Beautiful hotel.
Wow, awesome hotel! 🥰