Shinjyuku Okubo House

We were traveling as a family (three adults, two children) and wanted to experience something that a normal citizen of Tokyo would experience, instead of going through the usual like staying in a hotel. We found this place at a very unique area of Shinjuku and decided to give it a try. I honestly did not know what to expect after booking this place, but after the two-week stay I have to say it was a pleasure. The house included everything in the description (except the clothes dryer which is typical for a Japanese household). They also included a mobile hotspot we can used which really came in handy for our trip. Our only complaints were the staircase as the place is located on the second floor, which is narrow with no handrails, and the walls are textured so it would hurt your hands if you tried to use them for support to walk up or down the stairs. We had an elderly with us so this was an issue so something to keep in mind if you have mobility issues. Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at this house. I felt we did get the experience we were looking for. I would not mind looking for this place again when we visit Tokyo in the future.

The property promises to provide access information 48 hours before check in time. We got ours only a few hours before our time after unsuccessful attempts to reach out to the property, but only because we literally had to call ******* to finally get this irresponsible property owner to send us an email (she gave us a broken link to the instructions so we had to figure it out on our own either way in the end). To our disbelief, when we finally opened the door to our room, the inside was completely trashed and littered with what clearly appeared to be other people's belongings. We immediately left the premises as we did not feel safe and attempted to reach out to the property owner again to see why this was happening. No responses came from the owner as usual and ******* had to step in and direct us to a new property to stay at, all the way across the other end of the city. We later received an email from the owner later that night to where she admitted that she had given us the lock code to the wrong room. If we happened to walk into the people staying in the room we unlocked while they were inside, who knows what may have happened. The lady managing this property should not be allowed to run any listings with these insane risks of endangering travelers.

We stayed for 3 weeks and this was the perfect property and the perfect location. This wonderful and well laid out apartment made us feel at home in Tokyo. In the Okubo neighborhood with lots of dining and grocery options as well as close to two major JR Rail lines that we could use for free with our JR Pass. FInally, easy travel to the Bullet trains made our side trips to Osaka and Kyoto very easy.