Tokyo:Nihombashi or Shirakawa
 

Anyone with experience with either hotel to which is one has the better location?
From the hotel description, both are equivalent to amenities and rooms.

I found Nihombashi to be a convenient location once I figured out how to get to/from the subway station, especially the one and only subway station enrance friendly to roller bags.

But it's not quite so easy to figure out. Exiting the station, I had to wander all around (inside the combination of two stations) until I found the one roller-friendly exit, and then I tried to take notes about how I got from that exit to the hotel (and that first time, at night, I didn't get there as directly as I could have, either, the first time). But I still had trouble finding the same exit going in the reverse direction!

Of note, I had no GPS. Probably if I'd had a portable GPS on me then it would have been much easier (once I'd found the exit out of the station, I could tag that, then once I found the hotel, I could tag that, and then I could go back and forth between the two really easily.

I can't comment on the other hotel since at the time I was doing the stay the Nihombashi was the only one availabile on points. So I used it two times (at the beginnging and end of my stay -- in the middle of the stay I moved to outside of Tokyo).

I really like the breakfast buffet at the Nihombashi, there was a large variety of Japanese food to eplore, but also enough Western food that I could fall back on in case I hadn't liked any of the Japanese food.

I wouldn't mind staying there again at all on a return trip to (or through) Tokyo. (But like I said I'd bring some sort of handheld GPS this time!)

Thanks, sdsearch, I was leaning towards Nihombashi since it seemed closer to all the other hotels and that side of the water.

Since I'm facing the same decision, I was wondering if anyone else could share their experiences.

The hotel in Nihombashi seems more conveniently located but the one in Shirakawa is more expensive, suggesting that it's the better hotel.

Thanks in advance,

Quincy

No, the Shirakawa is not more expensive! For the night of Jan 16, 2013, the Nihombashi is starting at 9600 yen, while the Shirakawa is starting at 8200 yen.

What, you say, those aren't the dates you checked? Precisely! I picked those dates because they're far out, on no special date that I can tell, and therefore presumably very lightly booked so far at both hotels.

Hotel rates often go up once a hotel is booked more highly, so one possiblity is that you checked on a date where Shirakawa, for whatever reason, is booked up more. For example, some company whose offices are down the street from the Shirakawa might have booked a bunch of people for a meeting/conference/whatever on your dates, while the Nihombashi didn't have anything equivalent and so for your dates is more lightly booked at this point. That could be the whole and only reason for the price difference that you saw.

(And on points, they're exactly the same right now: 8000 points/night each.)

So while I don't know if one is a better hotel than the other, if the sole evidence you're going to go by is price, I'd say you got it backwards! :)

I would rather stay at Kanda, but Nihonbashi is the next best thing location wise.

There is no award availability at Kanda for the various dates I checked. I ended up going with Nihombashi since it was the highest-rated Choice hotel on Tripadvisor. In fact, Kanda was third behind Shirakawa as well.

I have a reservation for next April at the Kanda location so could you explain why you liked it more than the others?

Any more opinions on Nihombashi vs Kanda? Going to NRT in March.

Thanks

Bump. Still trying to decide between Kanda, Shirakawa or Nihombashi. Anyone?

Cannot comment about the hotels, but did you notice that like many other Choice hotels in Japan, these are NOT eligible for earning points. That is an automatic reject from my perspective.

Ah, but did you notice that all of them are at 8000 points/night now (and all are available as rewards nights for at least some dates in March)?

This is an automatic include from my perspective.

(However, the previous times I visited Tokyo, a few years ago, only the Nihombashi, not the other two, were available on rewards, or else only the Nihombashi, not the other two, were available at 8000 points/night. Which is why I never tried any of them besides the Nihombashi. And thus I cannot help with a comparison...)

You might want to ask the Japan forum about this (I stumbled across this thread while browsing new posts).

None of these hotels has a particularly amazing location, but if I had to pick one for general convenience to tourist spots, I would pick the Kanda one. You can go straight from Kanda Station to just about anywhere of note within 20 minutes on either the Yamanote Line, the Chuo Line or the Ginza Line, and you are also within an easy walk from the Akihabara electronics/pop culture district. Nihonbashi and Kiyosumi-Shirakawa are harder to get to, generally speaking.

If you're coming from NRT with luggage, the easiest access option for any of the three is probably to take the Limousine Bus to the Tokyo City Air Terminal (about 3000 yen) and take a cab from there (another 1000 yen or so). Without luggage, use Google Maps to get directions and do what it tells you to do...

We are landing at Haneda at 10.30PM in the night. How easy is it to get to Comfort Kanda from there?

From Haneda getting to the three properties by public transport involves a similar level of difficulty. Google Maps is good for directions but generally speaking here's how you would most likely want to go:

For Kanda: take the monorail to Hamamatsucho and change to the Yamanote Line bound for Tokyo. Kanda is the first stop after Tokyo.

For Shirakawa: take the monorail to Hamamatsucho and change to the Oedo subway line bound for Ryogoku. The stop you want is Kiyosumi-Shirakawa. Some trains terminate there IIRC.

For Nihonbashi: take the Keikyu train toward Shinagawa. Some trains run through to the Asakusa Line in which case you can ride straight to Higashi-Nihonbashi, just a few blocks from the hotel. Otherwise you will need to change trains at Shinagawa for the next one going in the same direction beyond Shinagawa.

In each case the fare is going to be around 600+ yen total and the door-to-door travel time around 40-50 minutes.