Where to Stay– category –

Japanese law has no category called a love hotel, and whether one counts as an adult business is decided by the building rather than by anything that happens inside. Here is how the pricing works, how check-in works, and why you still need your passport.

Three of the onsen ryokan English guides recommend in Osaka are not trading right now, and two of them reopen on the same day. Here is what is actually open, why Osaka has more hot spring sources than Kyoto but far fewer ryokan, and the two taxes you pay at check-out.

A 117-room mid-scale hotel a stated three minutes from Tokyo Station's Yaesu North Exit, with six room types from a 10-square-metre single to a 17-square-metre twin, an in-house restaurant that closes for lunch and dinner on weekends, and dynamic per-date pricing that only appears in the official booking calendar.

Asakusa View Hotel is the 24-storey Tsukuba-Express-connected hotel in Nishi-Asakusa - not the boutique Gate Hotel Asakusa near Kaminarimon, and not an onsen ryokan. Sky Tree Side rooms face east across the Sumida River; City Side, on the top floors only, faces west toward Shinjuku and, on clear days, Mount Fuji. Overnight guests use the heated pool, not the gym.

A notice on the Imperial Hotel's English site still says the Tower Building is being demolished from 2024 to 2030 and lists the pool among the closures. The Japanese version of that page is gone, the Tower has reopened, demolition is now targeted at the end of FY2030 - and the new Main Building's completion date has reverted to undecided.

Conrad Tokyo's English page lists afternoon tea at 9,400 yen. The Japanese page lists the same seating from 7,900 on a weekday. The gym and pool are closed to non-guests despite what guides say - with one official exception - and the hotel closes entirely for a day in January 2027.

Aman Tokyo's Japanese wellness page states that spa treatments are open to people who are not staying - and carefully separates that from the pool and gym, which are for guests. The English page says nothing at all. The two versions also disagree on the last treatment slot by 30 minutes.

Almost every English guide says Hoshino Resorts has five brands. There are six: LUCY, a mountain hotel brand, opened in September 2025. The group runs 73 places to stay, KAI alone changed four times in 2026, and the tattoo policy is more nuanced than the internet claims. From the company's own Japanese and English pages.

Tokyo has two Four Seasons, and fourseasons.com/tokyo/ takes you to the smaller one. Marunouchi closed for a full renovation in July 2025 and reopened in May 2026, so most English guides describe a hotel that no longer exists in that form. Otemachi has the 20-meter pool; Marunouchi does not. From the official property pages and press room.

The 8th-floor Godzilla terrace has been closed since November 2023 and still is, so nobody stands beside the head anymore — not even guests. There are four Godzilla room categories, not the two most guides list, and the entrance is at the back of the building with reception on the 8th floor. From the hotel's own pages and Toho's official Godzilla information map.

MIMARU solves the problem Japanese hotels can't: putting a whole family in one room. Every apartment has a real kitchen and dining table, sizes run 38–100m² for up to 10 guests, and ten of its 29 Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka properties hide Pokemon-themed rooms. Check-in rules, the 10%-off membership catch, and what the kitchen actually includes — from official pages.

With 361 hotels and 79,221 rooms, Toyoko Inn is Japan's largest hotel chain by rooms — and its system rewards insiders: free breakfast at every property, a one-time ¥1,500 membership that unlocks 5% off and a free night per ten stays, and a cancellation rule that's free until noon on arrival day. The whole machine, from official pages.