In abstract: I'm a first time traveler going in November; I have a place that is in walking distance from Akasaka-Mitsuke Station, and a slightly cheaper place ($85 less over 4 nights) directly across from Ikebukuro Station. Both locations seem to be pretty great in terms of getting around the city, but I want as many perspectives as I can get my grubbly little mits on before the end of the month.
After much deliberation, I have narrowed down my hotel choices for my first trip to Tokyo to the 4-Star Hotel Metropolitan in Ikebukuro (a JR East-owned chain) and the 5-Star New Otani Main Building just north of Akasaka.
Thanks to a rather generous "four nights for the price of three" sale at the Otani I was able to get it for just over $200 a night after factoring in a foreign transaction fee for having to use my debit card (because the special rate required a MasterCard). The Metropolitan comes in around 181, pretty comparable.
I don't plan on using a lot of amenities at these places (pools, spas, etc). More of a bed and a home base for my travels within the city. So the Otani might be more luxury than I actually need. But I'm more interested in the train accessibility. Ikebukuro is on the Yamanote line, while the Otani has a smaller station complex (a boon for first time travelers, I'm told) with a number of metro lines running through it. If one of these places is considerably better than the other (which doesn't seem to be the case) I can make my choice based on that rather than the lavishness of the amenities.
My points of interest are all over the city so I can't be of much help as to picking one side of town or the other. Shibuya, Ueno, SkyTree, Sunshine City (even if I don't wind up staying in Ikebukuro proper), Meiji Jingu. A very vanilla trip to Tokyo. I would like to hit up Tsukiji Market and Odaiba as well but I might do that on my return to the city towards the end of my trip. I'm flying into Haneda and departing for Kawaguchiko through Shinjuku.
by KraakenTowers