Lai's house is really cozy, value for the money and located in a good location. It is super near sunshine city, which has Pokémon center, j-world, Tokyu hands and many ladies fashion store. If you go there on 1 Jan, just make sure your money is ready to buy the happy bag/fukubukuro/福袋 in sunshine city/ parco/ p'parco. Ikebukuro is really nice place to stay and I highly recommend lai's house for 1 or 2 people.