Narita Tobu Hotel (Narita) - 2 nights
(a.k.a. shopping hotel)
This hotel provides regular shuttle service (FREE!) to Narita city (or town), Aeon Mall, and Don Quijote, as well as to the Airport (Narita). We took the free shuttle from the airport (Narita) to the hotel.
If you need to take a train, you can either take the shuttle to the Airport (there's a train station there) or to Narita Town.
The shuttles are convenient and lots of people shop at Aeon or Don Quijote, and lug their purchases back to the hotel by shuttle. The second to last bus from Aeon Mall (2040hrs) was CROWDED. We got on at Narita Town/Train Station stop, and there were only one other passenger. At Aeon, there was a long queue and standing room only in the bus when we left. There is one last bus at 2345, but nobody wants to wait for 3 hours for that next bus.
Free Wifi, no password needed. Connection was good.
Smile Hotel, Asahikawa - 3 nights
(The conveniently located hotel)
There is an Airport Bus Shuttle to various hotels and the Asahikawa Train Station from the Airport.
The bus stops RIGHT IN FRONT of Smile Hotel. Convenient.
I use Agoda.com to book my hotels. For Smile Hotel, Agoda was not able to pay the hotel for me in advance. So I had to pay up front when I arrived. It was 24,600 yen or a little over S$300 for 3 nights.
Also Smile Hotel is near Aeon Mall (5 min walk), right on the Heiwa Dori shopping street, and near Tokiwa Park. The bus terminal at Aeon/JR station is we catch the bus to Asahiyama Zoo. Also, Nippon Rent-a-Car is next to the train station.
Free Wifi, no password needed. Good connection.
Mombetsu Prince Hotel - 1 night
(The first of "quiet towns" hotels)
Charges 20 Yen for tea and 50 Yen for coffee in room! BUT they do provide extra pillows on a first come first serve self-service basis. Also you can help yourself to extra toiletries in the lobby.
But Wifi (needs password) was unreliable and was unable to connect to the internet.
Best part was the "formal" yukata provided. Very smart. But had no occasion for it.
Hotel Route Inn Abashiri Ekimae - 1 night
(Our second "quiet town" hotel)
Free Breakfast - Japanese-Western buffet.
Incredibly, this hotel has USB ports for your charging! None of the more "modern" hotels has this! Also nice - quilted yukata. Very warm and comfy!
Kushiro Prince Hotel - 1 night
(Another "quiet town". Prince Hotel was literally in the docks)
This is the only hotel which charges for parking, but the Front Desk will validate your parking. Before I knew that, I was trying to pay for 6900 yen of overnight parking. When we went in to change for 1000 yen notes, they validated the parking ticket, and I did not have to pay anything.
Has an in-house convenience store. No food around as far as we could tell, so we ate at their Top of Kushiro restaurant. It seems rather posh, and only had western fine dining, and a view of the sunset. Reasonably priced, though for a posh western style restaurant.
Hotel L'avenir Biei - 1 night
(The incredibly quiet town hotel!)
Quiet, One Mainstreet town.
Free Breakfast (or included).
The hotel is locked after 11 pm. But there is nothing out there anyway.
Room had a balcony. We were on the top floor - the second storey. Yes, it is a two-storey hotel.
Hotel Areaone Chitose - 1 night
(The "generous" hotel. In terms of free beverages - tho located at the front desk)
Raid the front desk! There is coffee, tea, and even consommé soup in instant packs (just add hot water). Free!
BUT... I only discovered it when checking out! We love the tatami section of our hotel room. The room was spacious. Extra pillows on self-service basis.
Hotel Mystays Haneda - 1 night
(Our "transit" hotel.)
There is a free hotel shuttle from the Airport. You just need to get to the Bus Pool area (across from Bus bay 11 - there's a crossing) and wait at the stop. Check the schedule at the bus stop. We had a heck of a time locating the bus pool to catch the shuttle. (We asked bus drivers, bus stop staff and the information counter. Eventually we concluded that we needed to cross the road over to the bus parking lot where there is a bus shelter with no bus bay - just a bus parking space. So what happens is the bus arrives, and reverses into that parking space to pick up passengers. And they usually arrive just a few minutes before they are due to leave.The room was... odd. See picture.
There was a pillar right in the room, and they had tried to use to space by providing a desk. Nice idea. I could appreciate it even as it was completely useless to me. We made use of the odd space in the corner for our luggage (we just had one for this stay. See "Tak-Q-Bin".)
Double bed was a little small for 3 of us (two adults and a 4 year-old) but not too uncomfortable. I did not have to resort to sleeping on the sofa.
It is quite close to the Anamori-Inari train station (5 min walk or less), so that's convenient when we took the train to Nippori (Ueno) for our last hotel before we flew off.
This was a "transit" hotel for us. Our flight landed at about 6 pm, and I didn't want to be dragging my kid around in the cold and dark looking for another hotel. So we took one in Haneda. Just a few minutes from the Airport.
Hotel Lungwood (Ueno/Nippori) - 2 nights
(Where we walked a lot.)
The first challenge for me is usually finding the hotel. We were a little challenged by this one, but not too much so. We found it in about 15 minutes after we left the train station (Nippori). We passed a fire station (first one we have seen in Japan), cross the road, found a "Family Mart" (IIRC), and turned left.
We were early, so we left our luggage at the front desk, and went to the Ueno Zoo... after looking for a St Marc Cafe for Choco Cro (Chocolate Croissant. My kid loves it for breakfast.)
That was another adventure in getting lost with google maps.
But this is about the hotel. At check in, they had moved our luggage into the rooms already! Yeah!
The next day, our other luggage that we had sent by Kuroneko (Tak-Q-Bin) was to have arrived. I checked at the front desk, and they had also moved the luggage into the room! Great service! (This is NOT always done by the hotel, even in Japan. Or maybe in those cases, they hadn't had time. I won't judge.)
The room was also odd, but big. The king-size bed was two twin pushed together. There was lots of space for our luggage to be sprawled out for final packing before flying off.
The Keisei Skyliner express train for Narita airport leaves every 45 minutes or so from Nippori, so it is VERY convenient and one important reason I booked this hotel.
And that's the brief review of hotels during our May 2019 visit to Japan.
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