{"id":579,"date":"2025-05-26T10:30:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T17:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=579"},"modified":"2025-05-26T10:30:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T17:30:30","slug":"staying-at-this-tokyo-budget-hotel-feels-like-visiting-your-japanese-grandmas-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=579","title":{"rendered":"Staying at this Tokyo budget hotel feels like visiting your Japanese grandma\u2019s house"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Granny hospitality at Ryogetsu<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

When choosing a hotel<\/strong> while traveling, there\u2019s definitely an appeal to going for luxury, staying at a resort property with opulent interior appointments and grandiose amenities, or a high-end traditional inn with a full staff standing by to cater to your every whim. Sometimes, though, the most memorable hotel stays are the ones that, instead of making you feel like you\u2019re staying in a palace, make you feel like you\u2019ve come back to a home away from home<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It was with that in mind that we recently booked a night at Ryogetsu<\/strong>, a hotel in Tokyo\u2019s Tachikawa district<\/strong> that\u2019s located about a seven-minute walk from the north exit of Tachikawa Station. The price of 4,900 yen (US$34) for the night in a private room with its own bathroom is an attractive deal in today\u2019s Japan travel climate, but what really drew us to the place were online comments from prior guests like these:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTotally relaxing. Felt like I was staying at my grandma\u2019s house.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cFeels like taking a trip back to my hometown.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThe granny who runs this place is so sweet.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cGranny works so hard to make sure her guests have a comfortable stay.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tachikawa is a pretty developed part of Tokyo, but Ryogetsu is situated on a largely residential street. Ostensibly to stay unobtrusive, the exterior sign isn\u2019t illuminated at night, but Granny leaves the light on for you in the entryway<\/strong>, which also has signs with the hotel\u2019s name written in Japanese (\u4eae\u6708)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be right there,\u201d<\/strong> came a warm, gentle voice from another room as we entered the building. Granny soon emerged from deeper inside the hotel, greeting us with so much smiling warmth that we felt like grandkids coming home for our annual summer visit<\/strong>. \u201cSorry, I was in the middle of eating dinner,\u201d Ryogetsu\u2019s kindhearted (and camera-shy) proprietress explained. \u201cI left your key on the table in your room, so go on up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Making our way down the hall and up the stairs, we noticed that Granny\u2019s place is clean and tidy, with cute little floral arrangements and handwritten notes posted here and there. One of the notices asks guests to be back by 11 p.m., when Granny closes the entryway shutter, though some say you can get around the curfew if you give her a heads-up ahead of time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We were staying in Room 201, which was at the end of the hall\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026and when we opened up the door\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026it was like being back in a bedroom we stayed in as kids<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Laid out on the tatami reed flooring was a futon, and beyond it were shelves, a desk, a zabuton cushion to sit on, and a compact fridge and TV.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the shelves were neatly folded towels and a yukata bathrobe, and next to them was the door for the bathroom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There was nothing fancy, but also nothing lacking. It\u2019s exactly the sort of simple hospitality you\u2019d expect if you were going to visit your grandma, or maybe your parents in your hometown, for a few days. There\u2019s a sort of reassuring relaxation that you can\u2019t recreate with luxury, and this is it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, while our room included a private bathroom, it didn\u2019t have shower facilities. Instead, there\u2019s a bath on the first floor that guests take turns using<\/strong>, so we headed back down the stairs to check it out and clean ourselves up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u25bc The Japanese character \u3086, pronounced \u201cyu<\/em>\u201d and meaning \u201chot bath water,\u201d marks the entrance to the bath area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hanging on the bath area door is a wooden placard, which you flip from \u201cavailable\u201d (\u7a7a) to \u201cin use\u201d (\u5165\u6d74\u4e2d) before you go in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The bath itself is surprisingly spacious, and is stocked with soap and shampoo, so you don\u2019t need to buy your own and cart it in and out. After showering and rinsing off, we removed the bathtub cover and enjoyed a nice, hot soak.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Relaxed and clean, and with the surrounding neighborhood serenely quiet, we decided to hit the sack early.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We crawled into the futon, happy to discover that Granny provides her guests with pillows and bedding that are soft and fluffy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now all that was left to do was turn out the light\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026get out of bed once we realized that we\u2019d forgotten to turn off our bathroom light\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026then get back into bed and fall into an immensely deep and peaceful sleep<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We woke up completely refreshed, and as we checked out Granny told us \u201cTake care\u201d in a tone of voice that felt more like she was telling her grandkids she\u2019d see them next time they came to visit<\/strong>, not just concluding a business transaction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So while the simplicity of Ryogetsu\u2019s amenities mean that it won\u2019t be getting five stars in fancy guidebooks, it gave us a whole lot of smiles.<\/p>\n

Hotel information<\/strong>
\nRyogetsu \/ \u4eae\u6708
\nAddress: Tokyo-to, Tachikawa-shi, Takamastu-cho 3-25-10
\n\u6771\u4eac\u90fd\u7acb\u5ddd\u5e02\u9ad8\u677e\u753a3-25-10
\nWebsite (Rakuten Travel)<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos \u00a9SoraNews24<\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Granny hospitality at Ryogetsu. When choosing a hotel while traveling, there\u2019s definitely an appeal to going for luxury, staying at a resort property with opulent interior appointments and grandiose amenities,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}