Help my poor friend in Tokyo find a cheap place to stay!

Seldom

I have a friend who's been in tokyo for about a week now, with not a whole lot of money and it would be fantastic if he could find some cheap places to stay. he's currently been sleeping in parks with a hammock.

we're trying to research cheap buddhist monasteries or temples that offer cheap lodging.
or, for that matter, anywhere else that offer cheap board.

any help would totally be appreciated! help for living in tokyo cheaply, like places to eat, would also be really appreciated!

i know this is kinda vague but any help would be awesome!!

edit: and places where he can pick up free wifi! he's having heaps of problems getting onto free wifi as it all requires paid accounts - he's using internet cafe's at the moment which continues to sap his cash

simonwolf

Can you define what you mean by "cheap"?

Seldom

like, we were looking at monasteries where you can lodge and learn buddhism that cost about 1000 yen, that would have been amazing, but they were too far out of tokyo and the train costs would have outweighed the cheap accommodation.

pretty much, i'm talking super cheap. i'm appealing to all the student backpackers with no cash that have done tokyo and japan and have any insight they can shed for me and my friend!

admanb

You're gonna want to look at hostels: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=tokyo+hostels&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

You're probably pretty fucked with regards to wifi. Japan's cellphone culture crushes the call for open wifi.

DarkPrimus

Stay at a hostel, expect a really small bunk bed in a room shared with up to 5 other people.

But it's cheap, and it's not like you'll be spending much time in your room anyways right?

Caramel Genocide

http://www.couchsurfing.org/ ?

I haven't used it myself, however some of my relatives have, with good results.

NightDragon

Caramel Genocide wrote: »

http://www.couchsurfing.org/ ?

I haven't used it myself, however some of my relatives have, with good results.

My friend has hosted a number of people through this site, and went to Ireland earlier this summer and stayed with people through this site. I'd say it's definitely worth a shot. I think I remember seeing some older woman there who had an entire apartment for her couchsurfers, and requested just a small donation. I think she was in Tokyo, but I can't be entirely sure.

Reiten

I've almost never seen free wifi in Japan. However, you don't necessarily need net cafes, which can be expensive. Some normal coffee shops around Tokyo have internet access for the price of a drink. I've used Japanese websites to find them in the past. If your friend can read Japanese, that would be his best bet.

Unearthly Stew

Hostelworld.com is what I used when I was in Japan. They have places starting at 20$/night or so. The place I stayed in had a couple of computers (they were old and kinda crappy) for interweb browsing. How much longer is he going to be there?

MagicToaster

I stayed at the Sakura Hostel in Asakusa, its REALLY cheap if you get one of those shared rooms. Also, the local food is also dirt cheap and within walking distance. You can also have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the hostel for like ¥200 each. Granted, it wasn't very good, but... hey.... ¥200

Improvolone

Couchsurfing.com would have been great for him to use before leaving. You need to make a profile, go through some verification process (first level is e-mail, second is donation, third is physical address verification), and contact people.
Last minute while already there... might not work.

Gabriel_Pitt

I'm pretty sure most McDonald's offer wifi access, and there are always plenty of those around. 100 yen menu is also pretty cheap, if you're that desperate.

MoSiAc

Mcdonalds in Japan has no free wifi, it costs a bit. People are right when it comes to needing internet the cell phone does it all for the folks that have em.

There are some net cafe's that you can crash there for a while for around six hundred yen an hour. Honestly if you're enjoying Tokyo I would pop into there for four hours find one with a shower clean up and be on your way.

Seldom

thanks for all the input guys!

mosiac - he's currently rocking the internet cafe's and managing to get a bit of sleep in the bed they provide and have free drinks. that's probably what he'll keep doing.

it's summer there, and he'd prefer to kick back in a park and a hammock then pay for the hostel experience, so i guess for the time he continues to stay in tokyo, he'll just have to manage with the internet cafe's and the parks over night. unless there's some little gem anyone knows about in tokyo that he can hit up. i think it's a bit late for him to try and organise a couch surf, i'm not sure?

he's google savvy, and found a free wifi locator for tokyo and mapped out all the locations he can get it, so he's generally managing with wifi now, and continues to make a pit stop at an internet cafe every now and again.

i'm not sure how soon or later, but i he heads out of tokyo and into the country for an organic farming program he's on, and i think that's free board and food, on the condition he works a bit, which is great. i'm not sure when that starts, or where abouts it is that he's doing it.

anymore help and advice is welcome, thanks for all the input so far

MoSiAc

Do you know what part of the country he would be going to from Tokyo? I spent most of my time in the country and if he has questions about a specific area I might be able to help more.