Airbnb in Tokyo

One of the things Mr A and I really enjoy about travelling is trying to experience a country from a localโ€™s point of view. In Japan this meant staying in lots of ryokans (Japanese inns), eating at izakayas (pubs where you can select lots of little courses) and getting to grips with the onsens (public baths) without totally embarrassing ourselves.

So for our first few nights in Tokyo we decided to stay in an Airbnb apartment. Weโ€™d read a lot about life in the city and we really wanted to experience living like a local. We looked at a lot of different options (Airbnb is a good place to start if you are looking for reasonably priced accommodation in Tokyo) before eventually deciding on one in the neighbourhood of Azabujuban, near Roppongi.

After our disastrous arrival in Tokyo without our luggage, we finally managed to leave the airport at 11.30pm. Not a great start to our first venture into the city, but fortunately our Airbnb host Tamami had given us the most detailed instructions ever to get to her apartment. As well as a step-by-step guide of the route from the airport, it also contained photos of every step of the way. It was amazingly easy to find and after a stressful start to the trip it was such a relief that everything was straightforward.

We let ourselves into the apartment using the key safe and had the best welcome surprise ever. Knowing it was our honeymoon, Tamami had gone out of her way to leave lots of special touches in the apartment. It instantly made us feel so at home and was such an insight into the kind, caring people we were going to meet during our trip.

Azabujuban may not be an area many visitors to Tokyo have heard of, but it was the perfect base for our stay. It was so easy to get to all of the main tourist attractions using the subway and we loved staying in a local neighbourhood. One of my favourite things about it was that it gave us the chance to hang out in local restaurants, where we had our first experience of how much people love their pets. (Mr A was very confused that dogs got invited to dinner.)

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All in all it was the perfect start to our trip and we couldn’t have asked for a better Airbnb host.