24 hours after the many nights feeling absolutely at home, the gentle scent of tatami flooring still lingers.
For my family of 4, this entire house offered abundant space, a luxury, i suppose, for most tokyo dwellers (having a toilet and a bathroom entirely separate was just right). Transportation is superb - being able to walk under 20 minutes to Ueno is a real treat. The supermarket and a convenience store a stone's throw away made cooking and reheating in the adequately equipped kitchen a breeze.
The biggest lifesaver during our trip was the laundry facility (wash, tumble, dry, 3-in-1), it made the consecutive rainy days most bearable.
Miss Keiko and her willingness to go an extra mile is the jewel on the crown. The basics were needless to say, the amenities she prepared, her punctuality when a time is set, and her hospitality to us guests. She even started to point our footwear outwards behind the door when she was leaving after the check-in (it is to facilitate putting on your shoes when leaving the house).
I suppose my family and I were just incredibly lucky to book Miss Keiko's appartment as our first attempt at Airbnb. She was kind enough to take on the risk of accepting a first time user and showed us the difference in choosing the alternative of a hotel.
In future, I am sure the sight of neatly arranged footwear outside one's door will bring to mind the most pleasant 7 nights spent in Tokyo, in a house which felt like home, pervaded with the fragrance of tatami.