1-25-33 Shinjuku-ku, Takadanobaba, Shinjuku 169-0075 Tokyo Prefecture
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#1 of 1 ryokan in Takadanobaba
Location
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Tama Ryokan provides basic accommodation for a reasonable price in a central Tokyo location. It is about 3 minutes walk from the Yamanote line, and literally seconds from the Tozai subway line. It is also convenient to the Internet - we have a WiFi throughout the building, and 24-hour access to one desktop computer.
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Property amenities
Free High Speed Internet (WiFi)
Wifi
Baggage storage
Currency exchange
Non-smoking hotel
Laundry service
Room features
Air conditioning
Room types
Non-smoking rooms
Good to know
Languages Spoken
English, Japanese
Hotel links
Location
87Good for walkers
Grade: 87 out of 100
667Restaurantswithin 0.5 km
27Attractionswithin 0.5 km
1-25-33 Shinjuku-ku, Takadanobaba, Shinjuku 169-0075 Tokyo Prefecture
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131Reviews1Q+A9Room tips
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Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
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This is a very old traditional family house. There are strict rules to keep the house clean and maintained. This is a family home where the owners decided to open up their home for a hospitality business. If you cannot follow the rules or keep an open mind about other cultures then this place isn’t for you. The rules include: -no street shoes in the house. House slippers are out in the foyer for guests to use. -no house slippers on the tatami straw mats. The mats are fragile and can mold easily. Don’t get water on them, no water bottles on them, and nothing heavy on them. Keep that in mind when you have your luggage. You’ll have to carry it into the closet -open the doors with dry hands. These doors are made out of paper -Keep your luggage as far into the closet as possible. The closet door is made out of paper. Luggage sticking out can damage them -switch into the bathroom slippers when using bathroom -there is a shared toilet upstairs and one shared toilet downstairs. -They have one shared shower downstairs. This is an old residential shower so don’t expect an American hotel shower. I stayed three nights and had a very comfortable and uneventful stay. This place doesn’t offer food, other than snacks when you check in. They do have a hot water pot and tea. I saw a small fridge and microwave outside my room, but never used it. I think those are for the guests. She will show you how to unfold the futon. Since the blanket is nice and fluffy, don’t lay on top or put anything on top of it. The futon is a typical Japanese bed. If you are a side or back sleeper, this bed might be too hard for you. I read that Japanese people like hard beds better because it hardens your body. There is a space heater and A/C unit in your room. I always try to support local business owners. The owner was very nice and spoke English relatively well. It’s well priced for the area. I appreciate the owners allowing us to open their home to share the Japanese way of living. …
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Date of stay: November 2019Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
What an awesome accommodation! This is very traditional Japanese hostel in family atmosphere. I love Japanese culture so I felt like a heaven. This is an old house so you will just need to be careful a bit.
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Date of stay: April 2018Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
First of all, our stay was comfortable. Ms. Eiko-san toured us where the bathroom, shower room, restroom for men and women and told us important rules to follow. The ambiance of Tama ryokan had a traditional feel to it. Paper thin walls, sliding doors, tatami mats, fresh flowers prepared by Eiko-San. Loved the organic feel of Tama Ryokan. If you don’t like stairs, try to request a room near the bathroom/shower room to avoid walking up and down. (I had a hard time walking up and down due to a knee injury from another incident.) Shampoo, bodywash and towels were provided. Oh, and Tama Ryokan is cash only. The website only takes the number of credit card for reservations. Tip: read fine print. Second, There are plenty of places to eat around here. Tama Ryokan is near Takadanobaba station where the setting of Astroboy takes place. Takadanobaba is about a 10 min walk from the Ryokan. Once you step out Tama Ryokan there are bars, grocery store, soba restaurant, yakitori places around. Location is a win-win for sure. Third and last, if you cannot follow rules of Ms. Eiko: If you have issues using slippers, being loud and rude. Do not stay here. Ms. Eiko works really hard by herself maintaining the ryokan. I remember walking down the steps and noticed a rip on the paper wall due to guests who were not careful. Makes me shakes my head because Tama Ryokan is a delicate home. Eiko also gave us a parting gift and we gave her one as well. Arigato! …
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Date of stay: July 2018Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Response from TamaRyokan, Director of Sales at Tama Ryokan
Responded 24 July 2018
We do have signs in the foyer about cash-only payment, but in fact offer other options. They do, however, need to be arranged. For example, we can email you an invoice that can be paid via Paypal. We do wish we could be more comfortable for guests with mobility issues, but the building is old (parts of it are from the 1950s) and some comfort issues really aren't solvable without putting up a whole new building. That's a project we'll never be able to afford at the rates we can charge for our humble accommodations.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Being in Japan, one got to try the older local guest-house style. Close to the Takannobaba station, on a side street, the place is typical converted house into a Ryokan. The lady owner/manager is very particular and will tell you all how to behave in a Japanese house with paper walls! Just great! The comfort is so so but the experience is very valuable! And the neighborhood just a couple of stations from Shinjuku is perfect and priced much lower…
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Date of stay: February 2018Trip type: Travelled with family
Value
Location
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Room Tip: This a Japanese style place with tatami only and share bathroom facilities… Don't go there is...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
My mother and I had the pleasure of staying at Tama Ryokan earlier this month. Michael was incredibly responsive during our booking process and communications were easy and smooth. We wanted a truly authentic and traditional experience in Japan so we really wanted to stay at a ryokan. We found that in Japan, for the very authentic and traditional places, language can often be a barrier (we speak no Japanese at all). Michael comes to the rescue as he speaks better English than my mom and I combined, yet the ryokan itself is as authentically Japanese as you can imagine!!! We felt very lucky to have found the cultural experience that we really craved for, and at the same time having had the comfort/security of knowing that language would not be an issue during our stay. Upon our arrival, the hostess treated us very kindly. We actually enjoyed learning about the rules around the house because to us, that was all part of the cultural & learning experience. The rules were a great insight into how a real Japanese family lives and you can tell a lot about how thoughtful the culture is through its rules. What a rare, fun and interesting experience to take part in a different culture firsthand for few days. The hostess gave us welcome gifts, which was such a thoughtful gesture of hospitality. We also got complimentary cakes (the brandy cake was so delicious that we later bought some for ourselves!!!) The room itself was fun, charming and comfortable. I loved the sliding doors and tatami mats, and the blankets were heavenly comfortable!!! The location can’t be beat. Lots of great food around and it is an easy walk to the train station. On the day that we were checking out of the ryokan, I received a pleasant surprise that I never ever would have imagined. The hosts actually offered us a discount off of the rates that I had agreed to pay, without me even asking, because we had agreed to pay a higher cherry blossom season rate (which season ended early so we weren’t able to see much of the cherry blossoms). I really thought that even at the higher rates that I agreed to pay, the place and the entire experience was an incredible bargain already, so I felt like the gesture from the hosts was such a testament to their sincerity and incredible integrity. Both my mom and I were really touched by the honesty, transparency, thoughtfulness and generosity of the owners. Their sincerity really made a strong impression on me, which is the impetus for this review (I rarely ever write reviews). This was my third trip to Tokyo (my mom’s first). I had previously stayed at the large international chains (Grand Hyatt in Roppongi Hills and Hyatt Regency in Shinjuku) while paying way more than what I paid at Tama (and I remember nothing from those places because they weren’t memorable). Tama, on the other hand, was fun, authentic, quirky, genuine, comfortable and unforgettable.…
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Date of stay: April 2018Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
2 Helpful votes
Helpful
From the first steps inside Tama Ryokan you will immediately feel like you are inside a romantic movie and your adventure is about to begin! We were met by Eiko who treated us with great respect. Every morning we would be waiting for small sweets from her like kids. Location of the place is absolutely great! There are a lot of food places in walking proximity, very close to subway, and a lot of young people around. At the end of our stay, we as a couple, also received little Japanese souvenir from Eiko. We are looking to come back to Tokyo and will definitely stay there again. Thank you for making us experiencing a taste of Japanese life!
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Date of stay: October 2017Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip: Ask for honeymoon sweet! It is adorable!
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
We didn’t feel welcomed during most of our stay here. Owner wrote us messages to coordinate payment and room arrangement that were rude and made us feel uncomfortable. Owner’s wife was evidently distressed when she greeted us at the front door on arrival. We gave her the benefit of the doubt given that she is in the midst of cleaning the rooms. However her behaviours over the next few days stressed us up and didn’t made us feel welcomed. First, she spent a long time going through a list of dos and donts when we checked in. This includes using different shoes for different parts of the building and when not to wear any shoes at all. Second, we had to clean our luggage wheels before heaving it up a flight of steep stairs on to the second floor. Third, she is always floating around in the house to watch our every move (early in the morning or midnight, doesn’t matter she is lurking in the corridor) and to tell us off if we fail to follow the rules. In a nutshell, it is just a little too much control. We understand that this is a family home and the owners are more protective about their place but given that we pay for the room (not exactly cheap for a standard ryokan) it is only fair that we get to enjoy our stay and not have to adhere to a long list of rules. Basic rules such as not making too much noise and keeping the area clean are entirely reasonable but other rules such as having to walk bare feet in the shower is not fine for us (we were told off for using our own bathroom slippers). On the flip side, this ryokan is indeed comfortable, clean and located at a convenient location and the above experience may be partly due to language barriers (we don’t speak much Japanese and the owner’s wife doesn’t speak much English). Be your own judge.…
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Date of stay: February 2018Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Response from TamaRyokan, Manager at Tama Ryokan
Responded 31 Mar 2018
"This includes using different shoes for different parts of the building and when not to wear any shoes at all ... it is only fair that we get to enjoy our stay and not have to adhere to a long list of rules." It's truly astonishing to me that this guest takes umbrage at having to clean the wheels of luggage. We don't make you kneel and grovel to polish them for us as a condition of entry. It only involves just a few seconds per wheeled-luggage piece, rolling it back and forth on a mat at our entrance. How about enjoying your stay BY "adhering to a long list of rules", as if Japanese culture was actually about something? Tama Ryokan is Japanese-style traditional accommodation. It's a pattern of life that evolved under some interesting historical resource constraints, and also with a concern for cleanliness under those constraints. If you aren't up for learning about that, and following those other rules -- all of which exist for good reasons, mostly for cleanliness, but also for avoiding damage to delicate room elements -- it's really better that you stay somewhere else. As for "always floating around", as if my wife's main purpose was simply to spy on guest's to ensure compliance, and as if she had nothing better to do, well ... we do live here, and we do work here, and so we're always" floating around", but especially during busy seasons. What this review calls "floating around" was probably part of getting necessary work done. That said, if you feel no real respect for the rules (as basically confessed by the guest, here in this review), then yes, you WILL be monitored more closely, to forestall property damage caused by your careless behavior. On the matter of being made to feel uncomfortable about my initial contact: if you are not willing to respond to communications promptly and pay reservation-securing deposits willingly when booking for very busy times of year, I will press you hard to either agree to our terms or else cancel. That leaves the supposed overcharging. This guest thinks we're pricey for a ryokan. In fact, between the downward price pressure from AirBnB and the high commissions (10%-12%) now charged by these booking sites that unfortunately have become essential to our business survival, we're squeezed -- and very far from getting rich here. Do costs matter? Yes. We're in a central Tokyo location -- the rates you might pay in cheaper countryside ryokans are no basis for judging a room rate in places where business operating costs and living costs are much higher. That shower where these guests felt so put-upon by not being allowed to wear their own footwear? That's the one my wife and I also use, for lack of a private one of our own. How much cheaper are we supposed to be? A minor point: I am not the owner. The ryokan license is held by a sister-in-law, who also owns the building. Howver, I do have what amounts to profit-and-loss responsibility. Part of upholding the responsibility to the family is to make sure our reviews are good, Part of my job is qualifying the customer: discouraging people from staying here unless I believe they will fully appreciate what we offer, and be tolerant about what we can't offer. Clearly, in this case, I failed.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Position is great and close to two metro lines. It's a cozy and intimate traditional ryokan, with tatami rooms and the two traditional bathrooms. It doesn't get more traditional than this. The hosts are nice and always available for any kind of questions. There is A/C (which is a must-have in the Japanese summer), Wifi, and everything for a super affordable price. Takadanobaba area is lively, with university and a lot of street food options with a lot of English speaking shops. And if your Japanese is good enough, take a walk across the river and get into a non-touristy area of the city!
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Date of stay: July 2017Trip type: Travelled with friends
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
I've been coming to Japan for 10 years, and Tama Ryokan has been my favorite place to stay. Eiko-san and Michael-san have been welcoming, friendly and communicative hosts, and coming to Tama Ryokan feels like coming home. The rooms are beautiful, and capture the simplicity of old-world Japan. I love the tatami mats, sliding shōji doors, and fluffy down blankets. The bathrooms have washlets, and the shower room is spacious and comfortable. The rooms have remote-controlled AC, and an entertaining selection of books. The location is amazing. Takadanobaba is a bustling student neighborhood. The Tokyo subway is a 15-second walk across the street. The Yamanote Line is about 4 minutes away by foot. Lots of food is available well into the wee hours of the night, and the Starbucks that's right on the corner (a 30-second walk) somehow makes the best quiche I've ever had. Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya are all just a few minutes away by train. One of my favorite things about Tama Ryokan was the sweet kitty, who sadly passed away this year. I hope that Tama Ryokan gets another cat. I always look forward to my stays at Tama Ryokan. I've recommended it to at least a dozen friends over the years, and I'm excited to keep coming back.…
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Date of stay: August 2017Trip type: Travelled with friends
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
I wanted to write about my experience at the Tampa Ryokan. When I checked into the hotel, the owner strongly recommended that I don't lock the room. She said it was safe and more likely that I would lose my key. When I went out later, I LOCKED my room as I would at any other Hotel. When I returned 10 to 20 minutes later, I unlocked the door, entered my room and there was a strange man inside. I asked him what he was doing in my room but he didn’t respond. Instead the owner suddenly appeared and said he was her son and was resting in my room because his room was too hot. Later she came and told me she was lucky that I was Japanese or she would get sued. She came back again later to offer me a gift box saying she gives to every guest. At that time she kept asking me if I would write a negative review about my experience with her and her son. She kept begging me not write anything over and over until I asked her to leave my room. This incident was very strange.. Hopefully this is not what they do to all of their guests.…
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Date of stay: July 2017Trip type: Travelled solo
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
Response from TamaRyokan, General Manager at Tama Ryokan
Responded 31 July 2017
This is definitely NOT what we "do to all our guests." My wife's son has recently returned home after his restaurant business failed. He's using a room that doesn't have A/C and it's true that it does get too hot in there. But when I read this review, I had a hard time believing it. I wasn't told about this at the time, or else I would have offered a full refund, and apologies. I have just now verified this incident with my wife. It makes me angry because she and her son did have other choices at the time. It also makes me angry because this is how I found out about it: from a TripAdvisor review, long after I could have interceded to make amends. My wife is correct about the relative safety here (though I would never insist to a guest to leave a room unlocked if that was not a comfortable choice). But in this decision, she made a mistake and -- when I asked her what happened, after seeing this review just tonight -- she admitted it was a mistake. The reason we don't have a policy about this at Tama Ryokan is that it never occurred to me in the first place that she (or her son) would do such a thing. Also, the part about her assuming that there'd be no legal action because the guest was Japanese is ridiculous -- "Japanese-American" (my guess here) is not the same as "Japanese." Yes, some Japanese apply racial stereotypes in this way. And it seems my wife is one of them. I can only hope that this guest accepts my personal apology and the offer of a refund.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
PRICE RANGE
USD 56 - USD 71 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
tama ryokan hotel shinjuku
LOCATION
JapanKantoTokyo PrefectureTokyoShinjukuTakadanobabaShinjuku / Shinjuku / Nakano / Suginami
NUMBER OF ROOMS
7
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Frequently Asked Questions about Tama Ryokan
Which popular attractions are close to Tama Ryokan?
Nearby attractions include Takadanobaba District (0.3 km), Jazz Spot Intro (0.09 km), and Waseda Shochiku (0.1 km).
What are some of the property amenities at Tama Ryokan?
Some of the more popular amenities offered include free wifi, laundry service, and baggage storage.
What are some restaurants close to Tama Ryokan?
Conveniently located restaurants include Trattoria Dai Paesani, banh mi Sandwich, and Cafe - Today is my life!.
Is Tama Ryokan located near the city centre?
Yes, it is 0.3 km away from the centre of Takadanobaba.
Which languages are spoken by the staff at Tama Ryokan?
The staff speaks multiple languages, including English and Japanese.
Are there any historical sites close to Tama Ryokan?
Many travellers enjoy visiting Tokyo Central Railway Station (6.3 km), Nezu Shrine (4.9 km), and Yasukuni Shrine (3.9 km).