Name: Hotel New Umeya
Address: Yatabe 5650-1, Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Tsukuba, 305-0861, Japan
Rating: 7

Air conditioning

Smoking areas

Smoke-free property

Heating

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Family room

Hairdryer

Flat-screen TV

Rooms

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Vending machine

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Transfer services

Transfer

English

Japanese

Languages Spoken

Bike rental

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Beach/pool towels

Pool and beach

Fax and copy machine

Meeting and presentation facilities

Business

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Ibaraki Airport

Narita International Airport

Tokyo Sky Tree

Sensoji Temple

Tokyo National Museum

Ueno Zoo

Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Imperial Palace

Tsukiji Fish Market

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Tokyo Tower

Meiji Jingu Shrine

Hotel New Umeya

Tsukuba

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

I want to preface my review by saying that I really wanted to like this hotel—I tried hard to, even.  But in the end, the cons outweigh the pros by 2-to-1.

First, the things I liked about it:

(1)  Friendly staff.  The gentleman that greeted me expected my arrival and had the paperwork prepared and ready for check-in.  The manager (due to his attentiveness and manner, I assume the owner of the property, too) at the front desk was genuinely friendly (not just polite and hospitable), a regular Hiroyuki who cared about his trade and was doing his best to make a living.  He and his reception staff spoke good English, and did their best to make me feel welcome and comfortable.  They were well-prepared for an English-speaking guest.

(2)  Room was clean and spartan.  Hotel has Western- and Japanese-style rooms—I had the latter, by choice.  As with any ryokan with tatami [mats], it smelled of fresh straw (wonderful!).  Low coffee table and chairs for tatami-room use, per the custom.  Bedding also per the custom.

(3)  Pitcher of hot water waiting on the table for my arrival, along with two teabags of sencha and a traditional pot to brew them in.  A nice touch.

(4)  New air conditioning unit.  Always a plus!

(5)  Price:  ¥4300 for my stay.  Taken by itself, it's hard to beat.

(6)  Yukata…actually fit!  I’m 5’10” @ 180, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the yukata provided actually fit me comfortably.  I would have bought such a size for myself.

(7)  Parking:  free!  If you're unfamiliar with driving and trying to find available and affordable parking in Japan, you may not realize that this is a big "pro."

(8)  Room size:  Not your standard Japanese shoebox hotel room.  Plenty of room to stretch out.  A small thing for a solo traveler, but noteworthy at least.

Now, for the cons.  Unfortunately, these outweighed the pros not numerically but substantially.

(1)  Very uncomfortable and thin pillow.  I woke up several times because my arm/shoulder were going to sleep.  No neck support.  Extra pillows in the closet, but without pillow cases, which rendered them (to me) unusable.  It was difficult to sleep for more than 60-90 minutes at a stretch.

(2)  Public bath area closed at…22:30 (10:30 pm)!  Yikes.  I got back from a night dining and shopping at 22:36 and was not able to bathe.  Now, in all fairness the staff were up front about the public bath hours during check-in.  My complaint here is that 22:30 is, to me, too early to close the only shower/bath area.  Midnight or 01:00, but 22:30?  For the Western-style rooms, I am unsure whether they have a private shower; this "con" may be irrelevant if they do.

(3)  Unwelcoming exterior and unkept grounds.  This is a big deal to me because when I drove up, my very first thought was, “Oh boy, this is my hotel?”  I almost drove away, prepared to sacrifice the 100% cancellation fee (¥4300), to find a new hotel.  But I am nothing if not frugal, so I resolved to stay, hoping that what counted was on the inside.  But if first impressions are everything, then this hotel needs to clean up its exterior.  I am not kidding when, upon first driving up, I thought the place might be abandoned.

(4)  Crummy location.  Downtown Tsukuba is 16 minutes away by car.  An expensive cab ride if you don’t have a rental.  Nearest train station is a 40-50 minute walk.

(5)  Shabby interior and old amenities.  The property is desperately in need of renovation.  Carpets throughout the lobby are ripped and held together with black tape.  Vinyl chairs in the lobby are cracked and showing age; similar use of aforementioned black tape.  And so on.  The hotel was probably built in the 80s or (at the latest) the very early 90s, and doesn’t appear to have been renovated since.  In my room, the handles on the closet were loose, the closet sliding door had a grapefruit-sized hole in it, the sink was somewhat detached from the wall (it wasn’t installed that way), and…a loud, dirty, rotary-dial phone…seriously?!  New room phones are like $10 for a cheap one, maybe $20 for one that has the extra wiring a hotel needs.  Old air conditioning unit in the room that is not in use still oddly installed.  Towel:  small, old, and thin from so many wash cycles.  The towel was clean, to be sure, but for a hotel, this towel was past its lifespan by at least 5 years (generously).  

(6)  WiFi…sucked!!!  When I could get a signal, it was sloooooooow.  Frequently timed out.  Took forever to load a single webpage on my computer, and I eventually gave up and typed this review on Apple Notes for future posting.  Also, the wifi automatically times out after inactivity, and you don’t have be inactive long.  The wifi was free, but I'd have happily paid a few extra yen for better wifi.  

(7)  Hot water...what hot water!?  There is a sink in the room, but hot water is not on tap.  Against my conservationist proclivities, I tested whether the water would ever be hot by letting it run for about 7 minutes.  Nope.  I was only on the 2nd floor, too.  At best after 7 minutes it was just under room temperature and wasn't heating up.  My guess it that the water in the room is going to be as hot as ground water is during that season.  Beware of winter water!

(8)  No baggage rack or place to store luggage.  I packed light and still had trouble finding a place other than the tatami mat floors to put my backpack and overhead bin-sized suitcase.

(9)  Check out:  at 07:45 when I left, there was no one at the front desk.

I'm not irked about my stay so much as disappointed.  As I said, there are things to like about this hotel, but ultimately I would not stay there again (and I will be back in Tsukuba City again next year).  For sure I would not want to bring my wife there, and it is not a place I would take kids.

2 Stars...yet I really wanted to like this hotel

Definitely an older hotel. Very courteous staff who speak English decently. Free parking! I had a traditional room but they give you extra sleeping mats, which was nice. The AC worked very well. For men, there's a traditional bath in the basement with several small showers and a giant shared tub. For women, there's a smaller version on the second floor. They offer breakfast and dinner, which looked good, but I didn't have time for. All in all, for a traditional style room at that price, I'd do it again. I stayed here during a race at Yatabe Arena and it is very close to the track, about 5 minutes.

Hotel New Umeya

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