The Japan Hotel List
Finally, the 193 most special hotels in Japan.
Holy shiitake, I did it. A few months ago, I almost posted a story saying “I don’t know if I can do a Japan hotel list to my standards.” But here we are. Dear readers, I have dedicated hours each week of the past year to researching this. And spent the majority of my weekends the past three months going deeper than deep. I can confidently say that not only is this list to my and the Happy Hoteling standards, I think it rivals Italy.
ed note: I’m sitting here at 11:17pm the night before, this is already scheduled to go live. I’ve had the hardest week of my life, no exaggeration, but I feel elated. I promised you at the beginning of the year that The Japan Hotel List would go live in 2024. I was going to just do a curation of 50 to start, but I rather do the damn thing really well than not at all. We landed at 193. It feels good when you know in your bones you executed something really well.
I couldn’t have done it without the auto-translate option on Chrome. A fair amount of these names do not appear on any English-speaking site of easy seeking. Or maybe they do, but they’re not translated. Of course, it’s not just super hidden gems. It’s a curation of all of the most special hotels throughout Japan. I’m really, really proud of it. I haven’t been able to find anything that exists quite like it. That was the main motivator, really. Typically, lists are centered around hotspots but leave so much of the country’s beauty untouched. Not here!
I know how much people want to spend time in Japan. Especially my readers. Me, too, of course. I wanted to equip everyone with great places to stay in almost every prefecture. I did it, minus one (Ibaraki). 46/47 prefectures (the equivalent to a state or provenance) are represented. Names that start from under $90/night to well over $1000. Resorts and ryokans, and all the in-betweens. City skyscapers, island hideaways, and cultural corners of the country. Really, truly, something for everyone. 193 hotels.
A lot of onsen. That was key, for me. As was it to, above all, encourage you to go to the places you’ve always had on your list, but also add new, lesser-known gems to the top of the ticket. That’s why I love hotels so much and why I write Happy Hoteling. You gotta do both.
This is way, way, way too long for email so please click on the top to view in browser if that’s the case for you. Also, I’m not usually a stickler, but I would like to ask from the bottom of my heart for you to please not forward this or the map to anyone who is not a paid subscriber. And yes, there is a link to a Google Map of all the hotels listed at the end. The goal is to actually help you plan a lifetime of wonderful trips to Japan. So, even if it’s not on your horizon at the moment, it will always be waiting for you in the archive.
Everything is organized by alphabet, by region and prefecture, with a description for a majority of names and as many photos as possible.
Thank you so much and Happy Hoteling!
P.S. I’m too exhausted to do this properly, but these are my 8 picks of the week: (one 40% off w/ code ONCEAYEAR, two, three, four (extra 25% off w/ code EXTRA25), five (extra 10% off at checkout), six, seven, eight)
P.P.S. I intentionally did not consult any Substacks in doing research. I really respect this community and never want to cross a fundamental boundary of respect. Of course, I know that no thought is original, so I suspect you’ll have seen at least some names before. Many, for all I know!