ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Incredibly sensible and useful post.
Back when I used to have to book a room it was fairly cheap to book a nice flat in Shijuku or something for a couple of weeks . . . but the booking process is definitely not something I could have done as a non-native non-japanese speaker. . . the whole process was unbearably over complicated. The outcome though was free run of a flat in the centre of tokyo for less than a tiny hotel room. This was before air B&B . . . so it seemed quite radical at the time. When my band came to Japan a couple of times we would book these . . .until we discovered the Koenji Guesthouse, which will be wayyy too down and dirty for Sim on a honeymoon but was ludicrously cheap and well located.
I now (sort of) have an empty house in Tokyo which makes things pretty easy for now.
But yeah, avoid golden week like the plague.
I would avoid known poncy areas (like Ginza) as you will be paying more for (in my opinion) a very boring less convenient base. Koenji is Just one JR stop from Shinjuku and is a fairly normal central Tokyo location with lively atmosphere (It's always good to be able to walk home as all transport stops at midnight). I'm probably more drawn to Koenji though because of the shopping area, location to Shinjuku, Nakano and the eating / drinking areas . . . and three of the music venues I tend to go to.
Asakusabashi is not a million miles away from where I stay (shinkoiwa in edobashi). I've run through it several times but don't know much about it. I think it's near the samurai museum and the sky tree, but other than that it's unremarkable (to me) nothing memorable to do or see. Basically everywhere on a convenient JR line is going to be fine. . . I would just prefer to be somewhere like Koenji and shimotokitazawa on the west side where all my friends tend to hang out and the street life is more vibrant. Getting home from Shimokitazawa to Shinkoiwa before midnight is a massive bitch.
