Most travelers book Japan hotels the same wrong way: they pick the most-reviewed option on a booking site, realize the location puts them 40 minutes from where they actually want to be, and spend three nights commuting across a city that would have been fine if they’d stayed somewhere central. Location in Japan is everything. And the country’s hotel market is genuinely strange — a ¥50,000 budget hotel in Tokyo and a ¥50,000 luxury ryokan in rural Shimane are completely different propositions. This guide covers the hotels actually worth booking, the traps to avoid, and what to expect at different…