This time, I’ll introduce a hotel I previously stayed at in Osaka called “Business Hotel Mikado.”
This accommodation is incredibly cheap at 1,800 yen per person per night, and while the rooms are small, they’re perfectly fine for sleeping and relaxing.
（Price in 2013）
The rooms don’t have private toilets or showers (they’re communal), but the facilities are well-equipped with a large public bath, sauna, shower rooms, and wireless LAN.
While it has amazing cost performance and high ratings on various travel booking sites, there are a few points that require some caution.
I’ll introduce all of this, including those points, in this article!
“Hotel Mikado” located in Nishinari Ward, Japan’s largest skid row area requiring attention to safety
The “Hotel Mikado” we’re visiting this time is closest to Dobutsuen-mae Station on the Osaka Municipal Subway.
Right away, I spotted a man acrobatically running while holding down cardboard boxes on his cart.
This area has a high concentration of older men doing unclear activities.
Yes, this is on the edge of the “Airin District,” known to those in the know as Japan’s largest skid row and said to be one of Japan’s most dangerous areas in terms of public safety.
Now, let’s head to our destination by turning off the main street.
A street lined with budget accommodations. When I passed through, there wasn’t much foot traffic.
Here it is! It was about a 3-minute walk from the station.
The room is small but adequate. Outstanding cost performance
The front desk service was quite polite, which gave me a sense of why this place is popular.
I got my key and headed to the room.
The room. It’s considerably smaller than a typical business hotel, but it’s perfectly fine for sleeping, watching TV, or doing light work.
There’s proper air conditioning too.
TV and refrigerator as well.
The cleaning appears to be done thoroughly.
It also has communal baths, toilets, shower rooms, coin laundry, and wireless LAN.
For about 2,000 yen, the cost performance is quite high.
Don’t walk around much at night, especially not toward the south
This seems like quite a useful accommodation for budget travel, but as mentioned earlier, this is the Airin District in Nishinari Ward.
Being close to the station and on the edge of the area, I didn’t encounter any particularly strange people, but heading further south or west from this hotel leads to quite deep and rough territory.
It’s not a very good area in terms of safety or sanitation, and I hear there are many offices of “those kinds of people” there.
It’s safer to avoid getting too close to those areas.
Business Hotel Mikado Summary
While there are points requiring caution, “Business Hotel Mikado” has outstanding cost performance.
As long as you don’t make strange detours or wander around aimlessly at night, you probably won’t encounter any dangerous situations.
If you want to travel the Kansai region on a budget, it might be worth trying a stay here!
Comments