Accommodation is all sorted

For the first time, I am taking the night flight from Australia with Qantas, so I should be in Tokyo by 9:00am on Saturday 12th March.

I have booked for 4 nights in K's House youth hostel in Kuramae - near Asakusa. Being an older single traveller, bunking with others can be hit and miss. So I have gone for a single room for the first night, and am on the 'wait list' for a single for the other 3 nights.

I look to the lounges and kitchens to be the best places in hostels to meet other people and share ideas and experiences. The room thing is a minor issue, and it allows conservative old me to go to bed at 10pm.

K's House hostels are great, with 2 in Tokyo, plus Kyoto, Horoshima, Ito, and Hakuba.

After Tokyo, is off to Mito, about 1 hour north by train. These 2 nights in a hotel will be my equivalent of a luxury stay. I will use Mito as the base to get to the football match in Kashima-kinju which is about an hour away on a local train line.

I plan to spend 2 nights at Narusawa Lodge in Nikko. The lodge is a minshuko, or family run bed and breakfast. I am really looking forward to this stay, although it is only for 2 nights. My other stays in Japan have been in youth hostels at one end, then 3 or 4 star hotels at the other.

The last day will be spent in old Narita before flying back to Australia on the night of 20th March.