Japan's finest hotels have all the facilities and amenities that you would rightfully expect at any world-class hotel. These top-end hotels cater to visiting corporate executives and other overseas guests who can afford deluxe or first-class accommodations. Services provided by English-speaking staff people include 'executive salon' secretarial services and access to computers and facsimile transmission equipment.

The restaurants in these hotels are counted among the finest in the major cities, with a variety of cuisines to choose from. From shopping malls and cocktail lounges to room service and interpreter service, these hotels can offer virtually everything the guest could want or need. Most of them provide direct limousine bus connections to the nearest international airports.

A double or twin room at a deluxe hotel will cost an average of 30,000 yen per night, and around 20,000 yen at a first-class hotel. All member hotels of the Japan Hotel Association maintain consistently high standards of service and facilities.

Business Hotels

A somewhat less expensive accommodation favored by many Japanese business travelers is the business hotel. As a rule, they are smaller hotels with fewer amenities, including no room service. Vending machines dispensing snacks and drinks are installed on guest room floors. There is usually one restaurant on the premises, and the hotel's location is conveniently close to a railway station.

Reception clerks and other staff people do not usually speak English, but the procedure for check-in and checkout is much like elsewhere. Since these hotels are patronized mainly by businessmen, the rooms are usually singles with bath. The room charge is 5,500 yen to 10,000 yen on average.

One way to cut costs while traveling in Japan, as well as have a chance to penetrate below the surface of the daily life you're passing through, is to check into a minshuku. The Japanese equivalent of guest-home type lodgings, minshuku are family-run businesses, with the rented rooms being part of the owners' own home. They are often found in choice resorts and vacation spots, and feature moderate rates.

As befits their "home industry" status, minshuku offer considerably fewer amenities than strictly professional establishments. Guests, for example, are expected to fold up their bedding in the morning and stow it away in a closet, just as a family member would.

Minshuku also don't provide the kinds of courtesies you can expect from a hotel or ryokan, such as towels and yukata. Minshuku rates are about 6,500 yen, which includes two meals, usually served family style.

Pension accommodations generally fall somewhere between the homey atmosphere of a minshuku and the more pampered amenities of a hotel.

They are usually found in areas popular for sports, such as near ski resorts and in mountains and their open-spirited philosophy and unrestricted management styles are usually very accommodating to anyone who is adaptable. The average cost for one night, without meals, is 8,000 yen, or 10,000 yen with two meals