I stayed here twice in November and December 2010, with my younger brother, for 14 nights all up. We decided to hang the expense and have our own private rooms and we paid AUD25/night (about USD25) per room per night. I was incredibly impressed with the service we got for the price we paid.

I'll start with the downsides, just to get that out of the way. Yes, the location is seedy, we kept walking past what appeared to be drug dealers down the alley, but they seemed harmless, There were also a lot of what appeared to be elderly and destitute people in the surrounding area, particularly to the south of the hotel near the supermarket. There were also some sort of ladies of the night (I think) set up in their own individual parlours between the supermarket and the post office (south east of the hotel). Fortunately except for the supermarket and the post office, everything a tourist needs is to the north of the hotel so you don't have to experience this side of Osaka if you don't want to. However, it's an experience worth having, or at least calmly and politely walking past. The locals who lived and/or worked in the surrounding alleys all treated my brother and I with the utmost respect. To this day I can't quite explain just how this neighbourhood works, and how everything here is so affordable.

But the above applies to all of the Chuo Group hotels and other hotels in this precinct, not specifically the Hotel Mikado.

The Hotel Mikado was everything you could expect for AUD25/night. The rooms were small and dated, but were perfectly fine for sleeping in. They were dry and warm. You have a small fridge, a TV, a VCR (and a large selection of VHS tapes downstairs to borrow), an air conditioner, a window that opens very wide (some rooms on the corner have two windows). The bathrooms tend to have 1 western and 1 modified/raised squat toilet on most floors, but some have 2 western and some have 2 squat.

If you have a problem with sleeping in air conditioned air (I prefer fresh air), you may want to ask for (or even bring) your own 2nd blanket. It seems common among Japanese budget hotels that they supply you with an air conditioner and expect you to use it if you get cold. The Hotel Mikado has spare blankets, but I'm not sure how many spares they can give out on a cold night. (And the unrelated hotel I stayed at in Tokyo didn't have -any- spare blankets!). Also, beware of the mode selection on the air con. The buttons are in Japanese and you need to work out which one turns on the reverse cycle heating.

About half of the front counter staff speak English (and those who do are surprisingly good English speakers), so you might find issues in the morning but not at night (or vice versa) communicating with the employees. However, don't let that stop you from trying out your Japanese.

There is a camaraderie that's almost comparable to a backpackers hostel among the English-speaking guests if you spend enough time in the lobby area. Or at least there was both of the times I stayed here. We visited a number of the local destinations with people who we met there and had a great time. We got travel advice from the hotel manager who is an ex-backpacker himself and who was very good at explaining the sort of things we'd need to know to make our way around an unfamiliar city on public transport. (Not that we needed much help, we'd researched the city heavily already).

The facilities in the hotel are dated, but are clean and livable.

That said, by now there should be a brand new private shower in the lobby area. It was under construction in December. The communal showers and sento were a bit of a shock at first (culturally, the facilities themselves were fine), but we got used to that by our 2nd day there, and it helped us get over the even bigger shock of visiting Spa World, a memorable communal sento facility that's a very short walk to the north of the hotel.

The hotel's free WiFi worked fine everywhere except the lobby. There was no WEP/WPA key.

If you're traveling from Kansai Airport, use either the JR Express or the Nankai Express or Limited Express (known as Rapi't). Both companies have a three tier service between Kansai Airport and Osaka (Local, Express/Rapid, and Limited Express). On JR the local and Express/Rapid services will get you from KIX to Shin-Imamiya, but not the Limited Express). On Nankai Railway all three train types will get you to Shin-Imamiya. I'd very much recommend paying the extra 800Y on top of the very reasonable regular fare to use the first class "Super Seats" on the Nankai Electric Railway's Rapi't (Limited Express) service. However, if you'd rather a shorter walk, the JR platforms are about 200 metres closer to the hotel than the Nankai's platforms.

There are 2 subway lines at Dobutsen-mae that are both very close to the hotel. The very busy Midosuji line is very close, and the less crowded Sakaisuji line is also pretty close but a tiny bit further away. The subway fares are very reasonable, and the ticket vending machines are not hard to learn how to use. However, the fares on JR and Nankai trains are even more reasonable if you're going to Namba, Umeda or Shin-Osaka, or some other destination where you have the choice of subway or surface railway.

All in all I liked the place. Sure, if you like the finer things in life, you will not want to stay there. However, if you just want somewhere to stay warm and dry, and mix with some really nice people, locals tourists and expats alike, be near a very good restaurant precinct with lots of affordable choices, and also be in walking distance of Spa World, and have excellent public transport options to get to and from the rest of Osaka, all at a budget price, then this hotel is worth it. And then some.