The hotel is a 10 minutes walk from Shinjuku Railway Station (one of the largest stations in Japan) which is also one of the stops of the Limousine Bus Service from Narita (and Haneda). However, the most direct and quickest route (when using Google Maps) is using a large overpass which crosses over a main roadway and, obviously, involves a steep stairway.
I had my family and we each had a large suitcase but even without our suitcases, when we went out each day, it was still a struggle in the 38 C heat!
We did find an alternative route which excluded the overpass but that wasn't until a few days into our trip. I'd love to have been able to tell you what this was but, as I'll explain, I never managed to get it right!
Although the Railway Station is 10 minutes away, there was an access to the subterranean level about a 3 minutes walk from the hotel, which takes you down to a network of connections between nearby buildings and, eventually, leads to the Railway Station.
However, it's not direct and adds both time and distance through crowds and is very easy to get lost. We never went the same route twice and eventually gave up trying after a few days and just walked on the street level instead, using Google Maps.
Even on the street level, we kept getting lost so ended up returning to the hotel by different streets because Google Maps kept losing us - likely due to the number of high rise blocks around us.
Anyway, the hotel is well located for transport and there were a good number of places to eat all within a few minutes walking distance, for every budget and type (we even ate at a German themed restaurant as well as an 'American' steak house).
Strangely enough, there were comparatively few sushi restaurants in the vicinity and those few were very busy. The hotel is also not far from the 'entertainment' area where the karaoke bars and pubs are, if that suits you better, but my family and I never even turned there so can't comment.
As to the hotel itself, it has a small cafe by the main entrance which is like a Starbucks or Costa Coffee with hot and cold drinks and sandwiches or toasties. There is a small restaurant in the basement floor which serves a buffet breakfast but we never used it and went out to eat each day, instead.
There are luggage lockers to the side which are free for guests to use on the day they check in and out - you put your suitcases in and shut the door and set the numerical combination lock.
Check in is from 3pm and check out is at 10am so the lockers came in handy and allowed us to explore without dragging suitcases with us.
We had reserved with a booking website and our details had been transferred onto the hotel's systems. The staff speak good English and helped us check in on the 'machine' which is situated by the Reception Desk.
You enter some details and scan your passport and the machine gave us a keycard for each guest and went up in the adjacent lift and into our rooms within a few minutes.
As you'd expect from Japan, the room was quite small (by European standards) but it was immaculately clean and functional. It felt almost like living in a caravan where everything had a purpose but I noted that there was an abundance of plastic furnishings (this seemed to be the case for other bathrooms we used so can't mark the hotel down for that).
Aside from the great air conditioner (a Godsend in the summer heat!), the room also had an air purifier but we just switched it on more as a precaution rather than because of a drop in the air quality.
Our view was of the office block across the street, next door, and as well as net curtains, the windows had sliding shutters which blackened out the room, in case you want to sleep in!
The room had a double bed which was very comfy, and small table and sofa chair as well as a towel rail to hang clothes off and very small storage area behind the entrance door.
There is a TV on the wall opposite the bed but that only had 6 Japanese channels and no English speaking channels, so wasn't of much use. I did try to get some of the multi-function abilities to work (screen mirroring, etc) but there were no instructions and I couldn't work it out so gave up.
Our corridor had a laundry room next to the lifts, with washing and drying machines, but I never used it and only popped my head in when I was waiting for my lift.
I have to mention the soundproofing - it was phenomenal! I have no idea what the Japanese use but I didn't hear any of the other guests or the outside traffic.
As you'd expect, the staff (we really only saw the Reception staff) were very helpful and were keen to assist us.
Checking out was even easier with us selecting that option on the machine by the Reception Desk and then inserting our keycards (Reception staff by my side!). It took about 3 mins to check out 4 people in 2 rooms!
We were only in Tokyo for a week so barely scratched the surface and will have to return in the future. When we do return, I will have no hesitation in returning here to stay.
