Stayed here with my family for 4 nights.
The room that we got was good for 3 pax with 2 beds (1 double & 1 single). The room still had ample space for our luggage and area to move around, compared to the room that we had during our Osaka vacation.
The location was superb since it is just a 10 minute walk to the the Kamata station.
By the way, don't miss out Mutsumiya Restaurant which is a few meters from the hotel. Their ramen and gyoza are to die for.
JAPANiCAN
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Stayed here with family in two rooms for 4 nights in May '16. Hotel was easy to find having looked at google maps prior to arrival and reading other reviews on how to get there. From the west or south exits of Kamata station it's about 5 or 6 minutes walk to the hotel.
Check in was easy, friendly staff understand and speak some english making the process smooth. Due to rain we were handed small towels to dry off and bottles of water. Elevator is a tad tight so with luggage only 3 of us would fit at a time but not a big deal since you only take your luggage up/down once.
Room, although dated, was still clean and had three beds as was needed. The AC unit wasn't as strong as expected but sufficient given that the weather wasn't overly warm. Beds were comfortable and had no issues sleeping at all.
Bathroom was clean, no issues there aside from the low ceiling and small space but that's to be expected in Japan unless you spend a ton more on a western type hotel.
Across from Vista Kamata is a bowling alley and mini arcade. Plenty of eating options within 10mins walk of the hotel. 7-11/Family Mart very close to Kamata station for basic needs.
The area around Kamata station is a lot more lively and busier than I originally thought. Pachinko arcades, souvenir shops, drugstores ,100yen stores, it's all there. Moreover, there is a multi-floored building connected to the station that offers all your shopping needs. The grocery/bakery store on the lowest floor has some very tasty items, definitely worth checking out.
Getting to main areas like Ginza, Shibuya, Ueno, Ikebukuro all were around 15-30mins to reach, an unexpected bonus given that Kamata on the map looks like its far away from everything.
Overall enjoyed my stay. Location provides the most value for sure.
PS: Kamata station train music is really catchy. The song I believe, is called "The Fall Guy" if you search it on youtube :)
Although this hotel is a small walk from the train station, it is worth it. We could not find any faults with this property. The room was larger than the Japanese average, had everything we required, the staff were great.
I went here on a school art trip. The room was shared between three of us, it was a bit of a squeeze but all part of the experience away form home. There was good wifi available throughout the hotel and the showers provided shampoo, conditioner and body wash although there was no hand soap. The breakfasts were satisfactory, a wide range of food but different to what I'm used to at home. The hotel is in an amazing area, everything is within walking distance with a huge range of restaurants and shops nearby as is the train station. One small thing to mention, whenever the shower was used the water would come underneath the bathroom door and soak the carpet outside although I'm sure it's nothing that can't be fixed. Overall I had a great trip, definitely one I'll remember for years and years to come.
My travel companion hated the room. I was ambivalent about it.
She didn't like the fact that the pillows had buckwheat in them (I didn't like them, but it was only lumpy on one side). She thought the beds were too firm (I like my beds firm). She said it smelled funny and went to buy an air freshener (I had a cold so couldn't smell anything).
The room layout was odd. There was a random section of the room that jutted out, causing the room to feel awkward. The room was a bit warm (which isn't a bad thing in the winter, but the fan/air conditioner didn't work). Windows worked, so we opened them up for some fresh air.
The hotel is pretty close to the airport. We had an early flight, and the first hotel bus leaves at 5am. We called a cab and took it to the airport at a cost of approximately 3k yen.
So there is a review on here with some great instructions to get here (Reviewed September 28, 2015). Take the bus from stand 11 at HND International terminal, no need to get tickets from the arrivals level. Last stop is JR Kamata. You have arrived at the east exit, go up and over to get to the west exit. Go out of the west exit, turn left (yes that small alley street you can just see) and follow the small street along side of the railway line. Look for the bowling ally. Its easy to find, keep looking up and you will eventually see a huge bowling pin on the buildings to the right. Turn right past the bowling ally and the hotel is right there.
A picture of the bowling ally is attached and an annotated map from the train station to give you an idea. Its pretty easy once you know which way to go, especially at 11:30pm.
Overall travel time for us was 45 mins from HND, and that included lots of reading maps and asking people. Probably take 30 mins door to door. As the hotel is right there by the station theres lot of places to eat, supermarket and shopping area. We had a great breakfast for less than US$5 a head about 2 mins walk away.
The hotel itself is one of those typical small Japanese places. We had 3 beds in our room, they were all singles even though the room was supposed to sleep 2 adults and 2 kids. Cozy sleep for 2 at least. The size of the room, well it was a challenge to get our stroller (Japanese sized one, not american) and large suitcase into the room. The bathroom was one of those that has the raised floor and has no outlets for power, i am sure when they build these hotels these bathrooms are dropped in as modular units. There's a small fridge which is always good to have but the room was to warm and the AC controls did nothing. The window was the only answer. This was a bad point, even though its cold outside the room was a sauna.
Staff where polite and spoke English which was good after the adventure to get here. Pretty quick at checking us in and we all got a bottle of water.
Cleanliness of the room, well that was another matter. One of our party went into the bathroom and, well, lets just say the toilet had some interesting finds on the seat and the shower and floor had hair over it. And to top it off there was a nice collection of hair on the duvet with some other dusty mess. Not right for a Japanese hotel in our view especially when one of the party is Japanese and was not happy either.
Would we stay again, budget traveler yes.
