Japanese home-away-from-home hotel rooms reflect the new face of Japan travel.

It wasn’t all that long ago that traveling to Japan was still seen as expensive, inconvenient, and sort of an esoteric desire. As a result, foreign tourists tended to fall into one of two categories: relatively small groups of independent young adult travelers, or less intrepid visitors coming as part of guided tour packages that included transportation to and from a full-service hotel.

Fast forward to today, though, and Japan has become an extremely affordable and relatively accessible destination for international travelers, and worldwide interest in Japanese food and culture is at an all-time high. If you’re someone who’s thinking about taking a trip to Japan, it’s easier than ever to talk friends and family members, even ones from different generations, into coming along, and they themselves might even be the ones floating the idea of tagging along. And as travel patterns shift, so do travelers’ hotel needs, which brings us to Uchiwa Stay Osaka Namba, a new “apartment hotel” that recently opened in Osaka.

The hotel has only six guestrooms, but each has approximately 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) of total floor space and can accommodate up to eight guests, so there’s plenty of room for you to have separate sleeping quarters from your friends, parents, kids, or other travel companions. While booking separate rooms in a conventional hotel would mean being isolated from each other until you’re all down in the lobby and ready to head out for the day, Uchiwa Stay’s apartment-like layout means that your group’s room has its own common-use areas, such as a kitchen and dining room in which to mix and mingle even before and after sightseeing excursions.

There’s even a koagari, a raised seating section with tatami reed flooring, to make the place feel like a traditional-Japanese-home-away-from-home for you during your stay.

Though an unmanned hotel with 24-hour self-service check-in, Uchiwa Stay provides toiletries, towels, and even such creature comforts as slippers, coffee, and tea. And despite the cozy, at-home vibes, staying at Uchiwa Minami doesn’t mean you’re stuck out in the suburbs with a daily commute if you want to go anywhere interesting, as the hotel is located just an eight—minute walk from Osaka’s world-famous Dotonbori canal and entertainment district, and 10 minutes from the convenient Namba Station if you are headed elsewhere in the city.

▼ The walk from Uchiwa Stay to the canal

Uchiwa Stay opened last month, following a total renovation of a vacant building. With Japan having shed its niche-destination status, we could be seeing more such independent group traveler-oriented hotels in the near future.

Related: Uchiwa Stay Osaka Namba official website
Source: Namba Keizai Shimbun, PR Times, Uchiwa Stay Osaka Namba
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Uchiwa Stay Osaka Namba official website
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