Unfortunately, I was not impressed with Josie or her accommodation. I had chosen this listing due to her good reviews saying that she had helped people traveling alone get to and from the metro, shown them some local places to eat and drink, and was generally very friendly and helpful; however, I didn’t see that side. I was traveling alone, but she didn’t get in touch with me for checking in and finding her house until I had already arrived in Tokyo and gotten on the metro. I had to walk to her place (which is quite hard to find the first time) with all of my luggage, and she was very slow in her replies to help me find her house. I ended up finding it myself and waiting outside because I wasn’t sure which apartment was hers. She did help me carry my luggage up the 2 narrow and twisting flights of stairs to my room, but then I rarely saw her after that check in. (I stayed for 10 days).
In addition to the poor communication, it was quite loud at night. Her listing said that house rules included no smoking in the room and to be quiet after 10pm, but almost every night was very loud in the house until about 2-4am. Some of the noises included hair dryers at 3am, kitchen mixers at 2am, their dog, Tyson, (who I will discuss later) barking and growling any time he heard me, multiple phones ringing after midnight, occasional yelling, and even the doorbell rung and someone coming into the house after midnight. Needless to say, it made resting a little hard. Luckily I’m a night owl, so it wasn’t a huge problem for me, but it may be for others.
Now onto their dog, Tyson. I’m sure he’s a sweetheart, and he was very protective of them, but he was constantly stressed when I was around, barking and growling at me. I don’t think he would ever be violent or attack, but being an animal lover, I felt bad for him being so stressed. I tried to introduce myself to him a couple times when they were home with him, but he was just terrified of strangers. I felt very bad for him, so I tried to stay in my room as much as possible so as to not disturb him.
The other house rule was to not smoke in your room. I’m not a smoker, so it was no problem for me, but either Josie or her daughter is a smoker and smokes in the house. While it didn’t smell of smoke all the time, when it did, it was very strong. One day when I came home from exploring, I walked up the stairs into a smoke cloud, which was startling.
Overall, I was really disappointed in Josie’s accommodation. It was truly just a place to come home, sleep, and pack. If you are traveling light, this would be a better stay, but I was moving from one country to another with some tourist travels in between, so I had a lot of heavy luggage. My room was barely big enough to have my checked suitcase open on the floor, and getting said luggage up and down the tiny staircases was hard. Also, there are 3 rooms on the 3rd floor for renting, so while I was alone while I was there, there can be more. I did have my own bathroom, though which was nice. This would not have been the case had other renters been there though. Now, I may have just caught Josie at a bad time, but I was not impressed with this accommodation. Like I said, I know my review contradicts many others, which is why I was so disappointed. I had expected an experience similar to that of the other renters.