The Six Best Hotels in Tokyo Under $500
From Shibuya to Shimokitazawa, these are the tried-and-true spots that deliver the very best bang for your buck.
A suite at Hotel Toranomon Hills, a property you can also book with Hyatt points.
Source: Hotel Toranomon Hills
When the cherry blossoms started to flower in March, Japan reached a new monthly record: 3 million international tourist arrivals. Every month since, it’s continued to meet—or exceed—that once-impossible bar, outpacing 2019 figures by 10% and doubling the number from summer 2023. And that’s without the full-throated return of Chinese visitors, who used to be a top source market for Japan’s tourism industry but are still down 40% compared with pre-pandemic arrivals, according to data from CoStar.
The tumbling yen, which at around 150 to the US dollar is the lowest it’s been in almost four decades, is one important factor in Japan’s tourism boom. But so are the country’s more perennial draws: a reverence for tradition, fascinating history, cutting-edge fashion and technology and, of course, incredible food.