My boyfriend and I reserved this airbnb for 2 nights in December 2016.
First of all, Shin was a lovely, communicative and very helpful host. His PDF of directions to his place, including photos of the view at each turn, was indispensable. He replied quickly and offered a wealth of info about Tokyo, his neighborhood, and other sites in Japan we had mentioned we would be visiting. We never met him as he was traveling when we visited, but he left us well prepared.
The apartment itself is very unique and is certainly charming. However, we unfortunately found things a little different than we anticipated. The fourth floor sleeping area is much more precarious than the impression we got from the photos. I somehow thought the futons were on what is actually the third floor and which you can get to by sort of climbing on a bookcase and hoisting yourself up, but in fact there's another floor that you get to by climbing up and then swinging around essentially a ladder, with a 20 or so foot drop below you. It feels safer than it looks, but even so was not something I would have felt comfortable doing or watching my boyfriend do after coming home from a bar (and drinking is quite the thing to do in Tokyo). If you're up to it, it's a unique adventure but we didn't feel the listing accurately portrayed how precarious it really is.
There's also no real place to spend time in the apartment other than the sleeping area. There's an office area, but finding a way for two people to sit comfortably and face each other to talk or hang out wasn't really possible.
As an American, the tiny door-less showerhead/toilet combo could be a bit of a culture shock, but is mostly just cold. Hot water worked fine but the heater upstairs (which warmed the sleeping area very well) never really affected the stone first floor.
Lastly, we found the apartment dirtier than the photos showed. The sink had old used sponges & many surfaces were quite dusty. We both have dust allergies and were pretty badly affected.
I wish I could leave a better review because Shin was so nice and it really is an interesting place, and we loved the neighborhood and the location is truly perfect. If you can handle it & plan to stay sober it would be a wonderful stay. But the danger of the ladder situation and the dustiness made it not the right choice for us unfortunately.