2026-06-28 2 Staying in a Ueno Japanese-Western Room: A Lesson in Perspective on the Road#

The main stops for this trip are:

Since there is no international airport near Karuizawa, we still chose to fly into Tokyo Narita Airport, and for the return trip, we will fly back to Hong Kong from Sendai. However, we do not plan to stay in Sendai; instead, upon arriving in Sendai from Yamagata, we will immediately transfer to the airport.

If we rushed directly to Karuizawa after arriving, the earliest we could get there would probably be 9 PM. To avoid exhaustion, we decided to stay overnight in Tokyo first. We really don’t have much interest in Tokyo and there aren’t any particular attractions we want to see, so “convenient transportation” became our top priority for accommodation. At the same time, not wanting the itinerary to be too rushed, we chose to stay in Tokyo for two nights before setting off for Karuizawa. Ultimately, we picked Ueno: taking the Keisei Electric Railway (Skyliner) limited express from Narita Airport takes only about forty minutes; and transferring from Ueno to the JR Shinkansen to Karuizawa takes just around an hour.

This time we booked the “&Here” hotel. The price was certainly not cheap, but its biggest advantage is being extremely close to the station.

However, as soon as we entered the room, the second challenge arrived!

Hotels in Ueno, especially those close to the station, usually have very small rooms. Japanese hotel rooms are generally small, but some in Ueno are so severely small that it’s unbearable. This room was listed as over a hundred square feet (over ten square meters), which is an acceptable size!

But it turned out to be a “Japanese-Western style room” (Wayoshitsu). This was clearly stated on the webpage when booking, it’s just that at the time, we didn’t quite understand what it meant. To put it simply: it is super minimalist, meaning there is almost nothing.

There is no bed in the room, only two mattresses laid out on the floor (tatami); there are no chairs, only two bean bags. For the two of us elderly folks, sitting down and getting up from this height is quite difficult. What’s even more troublesome is that you must take off your shoes before entering the room, but the entryway for taking off shoes is very narrow, and of course, no chair is provided. Taking off and putting on shoes every time we go in and out became a major hardship for us.

However, recalling the heavy rain and delays we experienced on the plane this morning, isn’t this just another lesson on the journey? Since we booked the “Japanese-Western style room” ourselves, we should bear the responsibility. As long as we change our mindset and calmly accept this fact, we will find that even if it is a bit inconvenient, it is actually no big deal.

Although it’s a bit troublesome, inconvenient, and uncomfortable, it really is no big deal! This perfectly continues the unfinished homework from the plane—when facing unexpected situations, just laugh it off!