Hotel Review: MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho, Tokyo

The first-time visitor to Tokyo will no doubt be overwhelmed with the choice of where to stay. I’m here to help with my review of the excellent apart-hotel; MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho.

In November 2024, we finally managed to make a long-time dream come true by visiting Japan for the first time and, as mad as this might sound, brought our two year old daughter along too! I have so much to say about our time in Japan that I could talk indefinitely about it but I’ll keep it short and sweet here. Me, my wife and our two year old spent 14 nights in Japan travelling to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo and, honestly, it was incredible like beyond words incredible. Our final eight nights were spent in Tokyo in a range of different hotels in different locations to try and maximise, as best as possible, our time in the largest city in the world.

When first planning our trip to Japan, I was overwhelmed when it came to choosing a location and hotel in Tokyo but I’m so glad that I found the apart-hotel; MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho, in an area just a short walk from Ginza. When travelling with a little one, it doesn’t always make sense to book 5-star hotels with rooftop bars and private onsens. Once over this is exactly where I’d want to be spending my time but nowadays I need something much more practical. Somewhere with space to allow a toddler room to play, space for suitcases to live out of and, if you’re really lucky, a kitchen to prepare meals yourself and your own laundry facilities to take the pain out of multiple washing loads when you return home. Thankfully I found everything we needed for a stress-free introduction to Tokyo in this apart-hotel and I’m here to tell you all about our stay.

I stayed two nights at MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho of which one night was complimentary in exchange for a review and social media coverage. As always, all opinions are my own.

MONDAY APART PREMIUM GINZA SHINTOMICHO

THE ROOM

Up on the 9th floor of the hotel, we checked into our Superior Family Room with its twin beds, foldable bunk beds, a little kitchen , dining table, laundry area and a separate bathroom and toilet. All of that, a home away from home, spread out over approximately 33m² – much larger than most of the rooms on offer across Japan. As soon as I opened the door into our room I knew we’d found a good one; crashing almost immediately onto our beds after a long day travelling from Kyoto and exploring Shibuya.

I found the room extremely clean, the beds comfortable and the shower powerful. This is a hotel that prides itself on being a home away from home; it’s simple, it doesn’t have to be anything but simple, and it works. I felt nothing but comfortable within this hotel and I know our little one did too. It really helps when travelling as a family knowing you have somewhere spacious and familiar to relax when you come home from a busy day exploring; you always want the best for your toddler mid-meltdown right? Ha!

The bunk beds are a great addition too especially for families with older kids. Evelyn ended up sleeping in our bed but there was still plenty of room to ensure we all had good night sleeps.

Another great addition to this room was your own private washer/dryer. There were instructions helpfully provided in English which meant we were able to get most of our clothes freshened up though the drying of said clothes was a little more complicated! I can imagine if you stayed here, or in the brand’s other locations, throughout your stay in Japan access to laundry will really come in handy especially if you pack light in the first place. Hint – you should definitely try to pack light, no-one wants to be carrying heavy suitcases up and down stairs and trying to squeeze them onto packed subway lines or buying a third suitcase to fit in all of your purchases!

Hopefully we get another chance to visit Japan and I’d love to stay at one of MONday’s apart-hotels again, dependent on which cities we visit next, as it really is the perfect place to settle down for a good few weeks at a time. Even just heading back to explore Tokyo for a week, we wouldn’t change hotels as much and would opt to stay here for the entire time.

LOCATION

This hotel is actually more conveniently located than you might think at first glance. It’s situated in a very quiet area of Tokyo just a twenty minute walk to the south-east of Ginza. It’s worth highlighting that, whilst we’d only been in Tokyo for half a day before arriving at the hotel, I really appreciated just how peaceful the surroundings were. No large crowds here!

Alongside being well located for walks to Ginza and Tsukiji, I found the hotel perfectly located nearby three quiet metro stations. We used the Hatchobori station on numerous occasions thanks to it being on the Keiyo Line, just one stop from Tokyo Station; opening up the entirety of Tokyo within just a six minute walk!

Our first afternoon in Tokyo was spent in Shibuya, on a Friday, so you can imagine just how busy everything felt. We couldn’t bring ourselves to travel along the ever-popular Yamanote line so, thanks to Google Maps, we found a much quieter route from Shibuya to Shin-Kiba before heading back to Hatchobori. Anything that gets you away from super crowded subways with a two year old is a god-send. It also really helped when moving on to Tokyo Disney Resort with two suitcases as we didn’t need to navigate Tokyo Station (and the incredibly lengthy walk through to the Keiyo Line); we were straight on at Hatchbori and straight off at Maihama. For the two nights we spent at this hotel, we couldn’t have wished for a better location to explore Shibuya and Shinjuku – further on the train but the quieter area allows for a bit of rest, relaxation and recharging before tackling more of Tokyo with a little one.

My key must-haves then when trying to narrow down where to stay in Tokyo are simply; close to metro station with quick connections to a ‘main line’, quiet area & somewhere to explore within walking distance. MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho puts a big tick in each of those boxes and therefore I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this hotel is in an absolutely great location, if you don’t mind a bit of travel to get to the ‘hotspots’ and favour somewhere more peaceful.

OUR EXPERIENCE

We stayed at MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho over the course of a weekend; Friday to Sunday. On the Friday, we travelled from Kyoto on the shinkansen before gazing out over Tokyo atop Shibuya Sky. A great introduction to this mega-city. Thanks to the unrivalled service of Yamato our luggage was waiting for us when we arrived after the sun had set. We couldn’t face any more walking so we used Google Maps to find Sristi, an Indian & Nepalese restaurant, literally about a minute walk away. This was a great find in a (probably) 1970’s basement, full of Japanese salarymen presumably celebrating the end of another working week, but with space for our little family and we happily tucked into a delicious Indian meal. I know we probably should have eaten Japanese food each and every day but sometimes it just doesn’t work out like that and you sometimes need the closest place you can find that doesn’t mind kids!

On Saturday, we took a taxi straight to Yurakucho station so we could take the Yamanote line to Yoyogi Station for an early morning wander through Meiji Jingu and its surrounding parkland. We then walked along Cat Street to Shibuya before heading across to Shinjuku.

Sunday was the day we spent exploring Akihabara and Ginza before collecting out luggage from the hotel and travelling to Tokyo Disney Resort.

As you can see, we managed to fit a huge amount of exploring into just a few days all from our base at MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho.

PRICE

As I said above, we received one night complimentary but paid 46,000 JPY for a Saturday night in November 2024. This is approximately £240 or $304 which, on the face of it seems expensive, but when you consider comparative hotels in Tokyo, this is a really good deal and very competitively priced.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s no doubt that visiting Tokyo, and Japan in general, as a first time visitor is overwhelming (both in terms of planning and whilst you’re there). I found that our time in Japan was like a whirlwind and has taken a few weeks or so just to process what an incredible time we had. I keep thinking now, did we really do that? Having a relaxing and comfortable hotel room to come ‘home’ to each and every night makes the trip so much better and I’d not hesitate to recommend staying at the MONday Apart Premium Ginza Shintomicho in Tokyo whether you’re visiting for the first time or the tenth time!

BOOK YOUR STAY AT MONDAY APART PREMIUM GINZA SHINTOMICHO HERE!