Granny hospitality at Ryogetsu.

When choosing a hotel while traveling, there’s definitely an appeal to going for luxury, staying at a resort property with opulent interior appointments and grandiose amenities, or a high-end traditional inn with a full staff standing by to cater to your every whim. Sometimes, though, the most memorable hotel stays are the ones that, instead of making you feel like you’re staying in a palace, make you feel like you’ve come back to a home away from home.

It was with that in mind that we recently booked a night at Ryogetsu, a hotel in Tokyo’s Tachikawa district that’s located about a seven-minute walk from the north exit of Tachikawa Station. The price of 4,900 yen (US$34) for the night in a private room with its own bathroom is an attractive deal in today’s Japan travel climate, but what really drew us to the place were online comments from prior guests like these:

“Totally relaxing. Felt like I was staying at my grandma’s house.”
“Feels like taking a trip back to my hometown.”
“The granny who runs this place is so sweet.”
“Granny works so hard to make sure her guests have a comfortable stay.”

Tachikawa is a pretty developed part of Tokyo, but Ryogetsu is situated on a largely residential street. Ostensibly to stay unobtrusive, the exterior sign isn’t illuminated at night, but Granny leaves the light on for you in the entryway, which also has signs with the hotel’s name written in Japanese (亮月)

“I’ll be right there,” came a warm, gentle voice from another room as we entered the building. Granny soon emerged from deeper inside the hotel, greeting us with so much smiling warmth that we felt like grandkids coming home for our annual summer visit. “Sorry, I was in the middle of eating dinner,” Ryogetsu’s kindhearted (and camera-shy) proprietress explained. “I left your key on the table in your room, so go on up.”

Making our way down the hall and up the stairs, we noticed that Granny’s place is clean and tidy, with cute little floral arrangements and handwritten notes posted here and there. One of the notices asks guests to be back by 11 p.m., when Granny closes the entryway shutter, though some say you can get around the curfew if you give her a heads-up ahead of time.

We were staying in Room 201, which was at the end of the hall…

…and when we opened up the door…

…it was like being back in a bedroom we stayed in as kids.

Laid out on the tatami reed flooring was a futon, and beyond it were shelves, a desk, a zabuton cushion to sit on, and a compact fridge and TV.

On the shelves were neatly folded towels and a yukata bathrobe, and next to them was the door for the bathroom.

There was nothing fancy, but also nothing lacking. It’s exactly the sort of simple hospitality you’d expect if you were going to visit your grandma, or maybe your parents in your hometown, for a few days. There’s a sort of reassuring relaxation that you can’t recreate with luxury, and this is it.

However, while our room included a private bathroom, it didn’t have shower facilities. Instead, there’s a bath on the first floor that guests take turns using, so we headed back down the stairs to check it out and clean ourselves up.

▼ The Japanese character ゆ, pronounced “yu” and meaning “hot bath water,” marks the entrance to the bath area.

Hanging on the bath area door is a wooden placard, which you flip from “available” (空) to “in use” (入浴中) before you go in.

The bath itself is surprisingly spacious, and is stocked with soap and shampoo, so you don’t need to buy your own and cart it in and out. After showering and rinsing off, we removed the bathtub cover and enjoyed a nice, hot soak.

Relaxed and clean, and with the surrounding neighborhood serenely quiet, we decided to hit the sack early.

We crawled into the futon, happy to discover that Granny provides her guests with pillows and bedding that are soft and fluffy.

Now all that was left to do was turn out the light…

…get out of bed once we realized that we’d forgotten to turn off our bathroom light…

…then get back into bed and fall into an immensely deep and peaceful sleep.

We woke up completely refreshed, and as we checked out Granny told us “Take care” in a tone of voice that felt more like she was telling her grandkids she’d see them next time they came to visit, not just concluding a business transaction.

So while the simplicity of Ryogetsu’s amenities mean that it won’t be getting five stars in fancy guidebooks, it gave us a whole lot of smiles.

Hotel information
Ryogetsu / 亮月
Address: Tokyo-to, Tachikawa-shi, Takamastu-cho 3-25-10
東京都立川市高松町3-25-10
Website (Rakuten Travel)

Photos ©SoraNews24
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