I was able to get reservations at the New Izu Hotel when I landed at Narita and went to the tourist information counter for help. Those ladies are amazing! Even when I got to my hotel that night, I found a personal note one of them had written on a tour brochure with some advice. They did not lead me astray! The hotel was very affordable-$70 US dollars per night. My TINY western style room (#410) was clean & had everything I needed, including a very tiny bathroom w/ awesome Japanese toilet & miniature soaking tub & shower. What I liked best was the big window I could open out to the fresh air! The hotel does allow smoking, so don't complain if you stay there. My room did NOTsmell of smoke- I had requested non-smoking. There was a patch on the bedspread, which I found charming. I would have liked to try a Japanese style room, but considering my arrival on a 3 day week-end was glad to have a room! It was VERY hard to find the hotel at night, in the falling snow. Fortunately, I had the help of strangers (twice!) and when I finally figured out the HAIWA Bank is right across the street and has a huge sign up high--a great landmark. The neighborhood felt very safe. I walked all around with my luggage when I arrived and the only thing that happened is people helped me. The staff is very nice & I hope someday I can return!

Expect clean rooms, but small. The staff are cheerful and helpful. The rooms are surprisingly quiet.
You get what you pay for here.

The amenities are all here:
There is free wifi in the lobby and free.Internet via LAN cables in the rooms. Laundromat service is available too. plus, there's a free massage chair in the lobby too.

The location is fantastic, especially the high speed trains from Ueno station, including a great connetion to Narita airport.

Be sure to check out the cycle hire around the corner, only 200 yen per day! A great way to see Tokyo.

Nice small hotel in a side street close to Ueno Station. We stayed here as a family of 4 (with 2 adult children) in October 2010 for 5 nights. We got the largest room with two doubles and a sofa bed. The room was pretty large, nice, quiet, clean, and exceeded our expectations compared to other hotel rooms in Tokyo as we heard of. Location is very convenient for touring Tokyo and taking day trips outside Tokyo, as it’s so close to Ueno Station, a good base to go everywhere. We took the Keisei train from Narita which brought us 7min walk from the hotel. We didn’t have breakfast at the hotel as they only had Japanese style, but there was a Lawson next door open 24h, and a fridge and an electric kettle in the room. Price was very reasonable for 4 people. Staff was nice and spoke good English. Only drawback was that wireless connection was only available from the lobby, but this wasn’t a big deal for us. Overall we enjoyed our stay at this hotel and will definitely stay here again.

I stayed here the first time 6 years ago via a random pick at the hotel counter at Narita airport. I have stayed a fews times since and year in, year on it has been consistently good.

Staying in Tokyo I want

1 A good basic location. Ueno is 40 mins from Narita by Skyliner so good when arriving and leaving. And also good for staying as has its own attractions (all the museums in the Park etc), and is well placed to visiting other places.

2. Nice area round the hotel. Despite being v close the Ueno station, the hotel is an a quiet side-street, next door to a 24 hour convenice store (a Lawson - come to Japan and discover how convinent convinience stoors can be) with plenty of nice restaurants near by.

3. A clean, well run hotel. The rooms are scrupulosly clean all the times, and the hotel seems very well run.

4 Extremely nice staff. When jet lagged, and culture shocked, the last thing you want is staff with attitude. The staff are all very nice.

5 The stuff that matter when travelling. For me this is computer access and a washing machine with drier. There is nothing more miserable than wasting your holiday trying to find a coin laundry and an internet cafe. There's a washing machine, drier (drier could be quicker, but that's a quibble), a compter in the lobby, and free WAN cable access in the room.

Personally I like the Japanese style rooms, but they have western rooms too.

The guests seem a mix of tourists and business people, with a mix of locals and foreiners. It's not the last word in super-swish, but has good honest rooms, and get's the necessary stuff comlpetely right. Very recommended.