Air BnB in Tokyo

Haley R

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Has anyone ever done this? We are wanting to do 4 nights in the city then move to 5 nights at Hilton Tokyo Bay. I'm just wanting some personal experience to see if it is something we should consider.
 
We did an 8 night trip to Tokyo last month a and did an Airbnb. We had a good location in Ikebukuro right off the Yamanote Line On the Japan Rail. The process of renting was super easy. Our host was very responsive, and we liked the fact that our family of 4 could spread our a little. The only downside was the flat wasn’t as clean as we would have liked, and we felt like we couldn’t do much about it. We took the train to Disney on 2 different days, and it was easier than we expected. Lmk if you have any questions, and I would be happy to try and answer them for you.
 


We did an 8 night trip to Tokyo last month a and did an Airbnb. We had a good location in Ikebukuro right off the Yamanote Line On the Japan Rail. The process of renting was super easy. Our host was very responsive, and we liked the fact that our family of 4 could spread our a little. The only downside was the flat wasn’t as clean as we would have liked, and we felt like we couldn’t do much about it. We took the train to Disney on 2 different days, and it was easier than we expected. Lmk if you have any questions, and I would be happy to try and answer them for you.
Thanks for the location info! We wouldn’t be traveling to Disney when we stay at an Airbnb. That would just be for our Tokyo touring and things outside the city.
 
Airtbnb is THE best option for me. I always stay in Asakusa. There are many places with cheap food and it has an AMAZING atmosphere. You miss out on a pool and a gym... but you get taste how it is to live in Japan. My advice is go for it!
 
AirBnB is HUGE in Tokyo- hubs and I are staying in one on our trip in September (most likely). I haven't used it there (didn't exist first time I went, second was a business trip so had a hotel), but I have dozens of friends who have. It's legit and safe. There are a lot of superhosts, if you want to filter for that for an extra layer of safety.
 


Airtbnb is THE best option for me. I always stay in Asakusa. There are many places with cheap food and it has an AMAZING atmosphere. You miss out on a pool and a gym... but you get taste how it is to live in Japan. My advice is go for it!
I think we would be okay without the pool and gym. We will get tons of walking during our trip I'm sure. We are planning on using Airbnb for our Kyoto stay and when we are in the city of Tokyo. When we do Disney we are thinking about staying at the Hilton.
 
AirBnB is HUGE in Tokyo- hubs and I are staying in one on our trip in September (most likely). I haven't used it there (didn't exist first time I went, second was a business trip so had a hotel), but I have dozens of friends who have. It's legit and safe. There are a lot of superhosts, if you want to filter for that for an extra layer of safety.
What are superhosts? I see a lot of apartments on Airbnb, which would be cheaper, but I think we might try to get a house to ourselves even though it will just be DH and I.
 
What are superhosts? I see a lot of apartments on Airbnb, which would be cheaper, but I think we might try to get a house to ourselves even though it will just be DH and I.

Superhosts are people who meet a bunch of requirements that indicate that they're exceptionally reliable hosts with solid BnBs. Details here, including an image of the symbol you'll see on their pictures that indicate that they're a Superhost. When you search can also filter to only see AirBnBs run by Superhosts (it's under "More Filters" => "More Options").
 
My family is planning a trip to Japan as a college graduation gift to our daughter who loves everything Japanese. We are thinking of doing airbnb in Tokyo, Kyoto and maybe Osaka. We also plan to go to Tokyo Disney but plan to stay on-site with disney vacation club points. Would be interested in hearing from others of their experiences with airbnb and what areas are good in those cities.
 
<3 That's awesome!

My first trip to Japan actually had a similar itinerary to yours. We did Osaka + Kyoto + Tokyo. They're all along the same shinkansen (bullet train) line, and foreigners can buy a special JR rail pass that'll save you a lot of money on the shinkansen fares between them. I was just out of college and mostly stayed at hostels, so I don't have a lot of advice on airbnb or specific locations to stay, but the cities of Japan are generally pretty safe across the board.

For Tokyo, Shibuya and Shinjuku are kind of the go-to spots for tourists to stay. They're close to a lot of famous destinations (that big ridiculous crosswalk you always see in Tokyo footage is Shibuya Crossing), and are fairly close in Tokyo so it's pretty easy to get around to whatever you want. Try to stay a close (walking) distance to one of the big subway stations, like Shinjuku, Yoyogi, or Harajuku station-- that'll make it even easier to get places. Just about any station on the Yamanote line is a good bet. Tokyo's "red light district" is Kabukicho, which is in Shinjuku, so unless you're looking to spend a lot of cash on your nightlife, you might avoid that area...but even it's not unsafe, just a little annoying to get jostled by people who wanna get you into a host club.

I don't know what exactly is on your itinerary, but you might plot out some of the locations and take a look at what's most central to them...but again, the transit in Tokyo is so good that as long as you're close to a subway you can get everywhere pretty easily. It's hard to choose wrong! Make sure you browse through all the photos on the airbnb listings though, those bathrooms are SMALL and the beds will also be smaller than you'd expect in the west. Their double is a little bigger than an American twin.

I did get one hot tip from a friend who lived in Tokyo until recently: if you plan to go to the Ghibli museum, buy your tickets online BEFORE you go to Japan. They're harder to get in Japan because they try to make sure foreigners can visit the museum and spend a lot of money instead of locals hogging them.
 
<3 That's awesome!

My first trip to Japan actually had a similar itinerary to yours. We did Osaka + Kyoto + Tokyo. They're all along the same shinkansen (bullet train) line, and foreigners can buy a special JR rail pass that'll save you a lot of money on the shinkansen fares between them. I was just out of college and mostly stayed at hostels, so I don't have a lot of advice on airbnb or specific locations to stay, but the cities of Japan are generally pretty safe across the board.

For Tokyo, Shibuya and Shinjuku are kind of the go-to spots for tourists to stay. They're close to a lot of famous destinations (that big ridiculous crosswalk you always see in Tokyo footage is Shibuya Crossing), and are fairly close in Tokyo so it's pretty easy to get around to whatever you want. Try to stay a close (walking) distance to one of the big subway stations, like Shinjuku, Yoyogi, or Harajuku station-- that'll make it even easier to get places. Just about any station on the Yamanote line is a good bet. Tokyo's "red light district" is Kabukicho, which is in Shinjuku, so unless you're looking to spend a lot of cash on your nightlife, you might avoid that area...but even it's not unsafe, just a little annoying to get jostled by people who wanna get you into a host club.

I don't know what exactly is on your itinerary, but you might plot out some of the locations and take a look at what's most central to them...but again, the transit in Tokyo is so good that as long as you're close to a subway you can get everywhere pretty easily. It's hard to choose wrong! Make sure you browse through all the photos on the airbnb listings though, those bathrooms are SMALL and the beds will also be smaller than you'd expect in the west. Their double is a little bigger than an American twin.

I did get one hot tip from a friend who lived in Tokyo until recently: if you plan to go to the Ghibli museum, buy your tickets online BEFORE you go to Japan. They're harder to get in Japan because they try to make sure foreigners can visit the museum and spend a lot of money instead of locals hogging them.
We were going to do Tokyo (in the city), Osaka, and Tokyo Disney, but we ended up switching Osaka to Kyoto. We just found more things we would like to see/do in Kyoto. Now our plan is to stay in Kyoto with day trips to Hiroshima and Nara.

I have found a lot of good info on here about the Ghibli and we didn't even know it existed until reading about it on here. It looks so awesome! We will definitely be buying our tickets ahead of time!
 
Kyoto is beautiful-- you'll definitely have a lot of fun there. :)

My next trip will be the first time I've gone to the Ghibli museum! I hope you enjoy it, I've heard it's awesome!
 
Kyoto is beautiful-- you'll definitely have a lot of fun there. :)

My next trip will be the first time I've gone to the Ghibli museum! I hope you enjoy it, I've heard it's awesome!
I've heard so many great things about Kyoto! The walk along the canal looks beautiful!

I'm really hoping we get tickets for Ghibli. That will probably be the only thing we really plan ahead for in Tokyo so we could be really flexible with dates.
 
I did get one hot tip from a friend who lived in Tokyo until recently: if you plan to go to the Ghibli museum, buy your tickets online BEFORE you go to Japan. They're harder to get in Japan because they try to make sure foreigners can visit the museum and spend a lot of money instead of locals hogging them.

Uhh no, your information is somewhat erroneous. There is one option via JTB that foreigners have over Japanese residents, but the number of tickets available are extremely limited.

JTB sells a limited number of tickets 3 months in advance on the first of each month. They sell out very very fast. I missed getting them for our trip in July because the JTB website was down on 4/1 and I didn't realize this until 4/3 and by then the tickets were gone. These JTB tickets can only be purchased by foreigners and do cost more than the price in yen, particular the children's tickets.

On the 10th of the preceding month to when you wish to visit, timed entry tickets (the JTB tickets allow entry at any time on a specific date vs. a specific time) go on sale on I believe the Lawson website, you can visit the Ghibli Museum website for more information. People who missed out on the JTB tickets and local Japanese are able to buy tickets then. The tickets are cheaper than those via JTB. The majority of entry tickets are sold in this manner.

If both those methods fail and you are desperate to go, you can pay 15,000 yen a person to do a tour via Japanican (a subsidiary of JTB.)

We're not going since we missed out on the JTB tickets and I'm not in the mood to deal with Lawson's. It was cute, but I don't think the museum is that amazing. I am hoping the new park opening in 2020 in Nagoya is better.
 
I guess I misunderstood (or she did). :)

No problem, perhaps if your friend in Japan wants to go, she can apply via Lawson's on the 10th of the preceding month and get in? I do know of people who have gotten tickets that way and it's actually easier from Japan since you don't have to worry about the time change.

It gets even more complicated because sometimes individual branches of JTB might have tickets and can help you, while larger branches handling general questions can not. A friend was able to get a ticket in March by contacting the Chicago branch while since I needed mine shipped I had to go through the LA branch which had nothing. The NY branch could have gotten me tickets on the April 3rd if I had said I could go in to get them the next day but the LA branch is the one that handles mailing them nationally. JTB branches in other countries also have a set allocated number of tickets, it's not just the USA, so say all the tickets for the USA might sell out, but JTB Australia might still have availability.

Though I am also convinced JTB now holds more tickets back to be able to sell via Japanican for their overpriced tours.

I like Miyazaki movies a lot, (We went as Jiji and Kiki for Halloween and I ran as San for the Princess 10k 2018) but I didn't think the museum was worth the difficulty in trying to get tickets, I am hoping the new theme park will be more interesting and better able to handle crowds. I think it's best if you're looking for cute merchandise.

Instead, I'm going to try to take my daughter to the new Pokemon Cafe: https://kotaku.com/inside-tokyos-newest-pokemon-cafe-1823452990. I also have my heart set on going to the cafe with cloud coffee in Kyoto.
 
Uhh no, your information is somewhat erroneous. There is one option via JTB that foreigners have over Japanese residents, but the number of tickets available are extremely limited.

JTB sells a limited number of tickets 3 months in advance on the first of each month. They sell out very very fast. I missed getting them for our trip in July because the JTB website was down on 4/1 and I didn't realize this until 4/3 and by then the tickets were gone. These JTB tickets can only be purchased by foreigners and do cost more than the price in yen, particular the children's tickets.

On the 10th of the preceding month to when you wish to visit, timed entry tickets (the JTB tickets allow entry at any time on a specific date vs. a specific time) go on sale on I believe the Lawson website, you can visit the Ghibli Museum website for more information. People who missed out on the JTB tickets and local Japanese are able to buy tickets then. The tickets are cheaper than those via JTB. The majority of entry tickets are sold in this manner.

If both those methods fail and you are desperate to go, you can pay 15,000 yen a person to do a tour via Japanican (a subsidiary of JTB.)

We're not going since we missed out on the JTB tickets and I'm not in the mood to deal with Lawson's. It was cute, but I don't think the museum is that amazing. I am hoping the new park opening in 2020 in Nagoya is better.
I'm planning on trying JTB first and then if I'm not lucky I will also try Lawson's. We really want to see the museum so I will make any effort to secure tickets. To me, it's no different than trying to get FPs for Disney World.
 
No problem, perhaps if your friend in Japan wants to go, she can apply via Lawson's on the 10th of the preceding month and get in? I do know of people who have gotten tickets that way and it's actually easier from Japan since you don't have to worry about the time change.

It gets even more complicated because sometimes individual branches of JTB might have tickets and can help you, while larger branches handling general questions can not. A friend was able to get a ticket in March by contacting the Chicago branch while since I needed mine shipped I had to go through the LA branch which had nothing. The NY branch could have gotten me tickets on the April 3rd if I had said I could go in to get them the next day but the LA branch is the one that handles mailing them nationally. JTB branches in other countries also have a set allocated number of tickets, it's not just the USA, so say all the tickets for the USA might sell out, but JTB Australia might still have availability.

Though I am also convinced JTB now holds more tickets back to be able to sell via Japanican for their overpriced tours.

I like Miyazaki movies a lot, (We went as Jiji and Kiki for Halloween and I ran as San for the Princess 10k 2018) but I didn't think the museum was worth the difficulty in trying to get tickets, I am hoping the new theme park will be more interesting and better able to handle crowds. I think it's best if you're looking for cute merchandise.

Instead, I'm going to try to take my daughter to the new Pokemon Cafe: https://kotaku.com/inside-tokyos-newest-pokemon-cafe-1823452990. I also have my heart set on going to the cafe with cloud coffee in Kyoto.
That Pokemon cafe looks awesome! I'm adding it to our list of things to do!
 

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