Evacuations and the smallest room: APA Hotel Review

Tokyo and the surrounding area is home to over 40 million people.  With that many people, instead of building wider, houses, hotels and business’ must be built taller.  This was apparent when I walked 7 stories through a small store trying to find a single item.  Each floor was tiny and only had a few items, so I kept having to go up another level.   And this was especially apparent when staying in the APA Higashi-Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower Hotel.  I knew the room would be small when I booked the hotel, it was listed as only 11 square meters, but I didn’t realize the significance of how small it would actually be.  I’m sure the hotel room at the APA isn’t the smallest hotel room ever, but it’s the smallest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in by far.    We were travelling for over a month and across two climates with a baby, so we had a lot of luggage.  It was a nightmare trying to store it in the room.  Thank god the hotel staff, reluctantly stored our baby car seat for a week, and I’m not quite sure how they fit it because their luggage storage in the main lobby was small too!

Aside from the size, the hotel was a good choice.  It’s hard to find a hotel that is significantly bigger in a good location in Tokyo for a reasonable price, so when we were told by a friend who stayed their earlier in the year that we needed a bigger room, we decided to stick with our choice and keep our booking at the APA Hotel.  We were glad we made the choice to stay because there were many positives including the price.  For a week in Japan, even though we left for 3 nights (we still kept the room so we didn’t have to bring all of our luggage), the stay cost us about $750 CAD.  For Tokyo and in a premium location the price was great.

The hotel was right in Shinjuku and right near the Kabukicho Tower.  Shinjuku is an amazing area; it is out of a movie.  Tall buildings covered in massive billboards, bright lights and a lot of entertainment.  Check out my YouTube short here.  And being by the Kabukicho Tower was an added bonus, cause not only were we in the best area in the city, but we were in the best part of Shinjuku.  The area is loaded with restaurants, bars, shopping, convenience stores and of course the Kabukicho Tower is just a few minutes away.  The Kabukicho Tower has tons of entertainment and restaurants and is a fun place to go eat one night.

Despite being small ASF, the rooms were very nice, modern and clean.  There wasn’t daily cleaning though, but you’d leave your garbage and old towels out each day and you’d return to your room from the day of adventures with a new bag on the door with fresh towels and amenities.  The washrooms were small but the showers were nice, the toilet was heated and it had a bidet.  The technology was on par with that of Japan, extremely advanced.  Most of the controls on the room were located on the headboard of the bed including the many lights to give complete control of the lighting in your room, the temperature and outlets to charge your phone while you sleep.  And despite being extremely crowded with little room between the bed and the small desk, the bed was large and extremely comfortable.  The comforter was warm, soft, fluffy and so were the bed and pillows.  It was the best bed I’ve slept in while travelling. 

We also had a great view of the city and slept with the blinds open  every night.  The bed was literally against the window, so the skyline was right beside us as we slept.  It was nice being on the 14^th floor and the view was phenomenal.  It was all fun and games until we were awoken by a weird sounding alarm with a panicking Japanese voice resonating through speakers in the hotel at 3 AM one night.  When the voice was done speaking in Japanese, it switched to English… “there is a fire on the 13^th floor, please evacuate immediately.”  We were startled and grabbed what we could and had to walk 14 stories down the stairwell with a sleeping baby.  It was a nightmare but an experience to remember.  Luckily, I grabbed our jackets because it was cold.  It was a tough walk, especially since I didn’t manage to put on my shoes and slipped on the bathhouse slippers. 

Yes, there was a public bath at the hotel, but I can’t comment on it because I was not allowed in.  Often in Japan, in the public bath, if you have tattoos entry is forbidden.  This is because of the history with the Yakuza.  But that’s okay our shower was nice and I prefer not to have a bunch of naked dudes looking at my junk.

It was a unique and awesome experience staying at the APA Hotel.  I would definitely recommend it.  And breakfast isn’t common in Japan because most people are busy working so end up eating on the go, but most hotels offer a breakfast for a charge.  I didn’t find any with free breakfast.  On our last day there we decided to pay for breakfast and it was totally worth it.  The food was tremendous.  There were classical breakfast foods like eggs, sausage and bacon and a number of Japanese options like rice, fish, pork and Japanese breakfast buns.  The food was fresh, tasty and a perfect balance of flavours. 

Despite having to maneuver around our luggage and pull it out from underneath the bed every time we needed to open our suitcases the hotel was nice and modern and had a terrific location.  I would recommend the APA hotel to anyone going to Tokyo.  Just make sure you know which APA you are staying at because when we arrived in Japan, we told the taxi driver we were going to the APA Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower.  He punched it into his GPS and dropped us off.  Only when we tried to check in did we realize it was the wrong APA Hotel!  We were at the Higashi-Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower not the Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower.  So we had to maneuver our 7 bags through the streets to the right hotel.  Luckily the girl at the desk helped us and it was only a few minutes’ walk.  It sounds silly, but there are a ton of APA’s in Japan.  I’m not sure how the other ones are but the APA Higashi-Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower was a great stay for our time in Tokyo.

Here is how I’d break down my ratings of the hotel:

Price: Good

Location: Excellent

Amenities: Excellent

Staff: Good

Rooms: Good (I’d say excellent but the size)

Food: Excellent (based off one breakfast meal)

Atmosphere: good