About APA Hotel Aomori Ekihigashi

APA Hotel is a Japanese chain that operates across Japan. Known as a budget hotel, it attracts mostly Japanese business people and is found primarily in cities near downtown and business areas.

APA Hotel is a mid-range hotel in terms of quality. Its modern style includes lots of lights and mirrors in the rooms and common areas.

Unlike some other hotel chains at this level in Japan (such as Dormy Inn or Route Inn), it does not have thermal bath/onsen/sauna facilities. Instead, it has a slightly larger-than-average bathtub in every room.

APA Hotel Controversies

I want to preface this part by saying that I chose this hotel before being fully aware of the controversy. I had heard that the owner was right-wing. Let’s face it: how many of the rice elite in any country aren’t right-wing in terms of their country’s version of politics?

I chose this hotel because of its central and reasonable price. Also, as it was a semi-last-minute choice, few options were left.

Ideology

While many hotels are owned by very right-wing people in Japan, most do not advertise that fact. In contrast, APA Hotel’s owner has decided to include revisionist history literature about how Japan was forced to join World War 2 against its will and has denied many of the things that Japan did, including the rape of Nanking. 

Like the Bible in US hotels, it can be found in the desk drawer. As someone left-leaning (radically so on Japan’s political spectrum), I simply don’t touch the stuff, and I recommend that you don’t either. It’s a blatant, transparent reflection of the country’s otherwise more obscure reality: Japan is very conservative, and many people would agree with this information to some extent.

Construction

Due to earthquakes, buildings in Japan, especially larger ones like hotels, must be built to specific safety standards. In 2007, it appeared that APA Hotel had been faking compliance data. As a result, buildings were only 70% as strong as they should be.

Why? Money. It was much cheaper to build hotels without all the necessary measures in place. However, in one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world (for example, see: ‘Slow tremor’ seen off Japan coast could trigger Nankai Trough megaquake: experts), this puts customers’ lives in danger as these buildings are much more likely to collapse. The faulty hotels were forced to close.

Location

Aomori is the capital of Aomori Prefecture. It is located on the northern coast of Japan’s Honshu island and hugs the southern coast of Aomori Bay, across the Tsugaru Strait from Hokkaido.

APA Hotel Aomori Ekihigashi is three streets east of Aomori Station and one south of the bay. Therefore it is very easy to reach both and downtown Aomori on foot. This area has several shopping streets, many restaurants and other entertainment businesses.

Aomori Station is a hub for local trains, especially to Hirosaki, Hachinohe and other small cities in Aomori. You can also get a limited express train to Akita, the capital of Akita Prefecture.

For the Shinkansen, you must go to Shin-Aomori Station, a couple of kilometres/miles west of Aomori Station. Local and express trains to Hirosaki stop at Shin-Aomori Station, one stop from Aomori Station. The Shinkansen can take you north to Hokkaido or south to Tokyo.

Gallery

About the room

The room is average-sized for Japan. A single room has a bed, a desk, and just enough room in between to sit comfortably in a desk chair. Otherwise, there is very little floor space (standard in Japan). There is a small alcove near the door for coats; you can fit a large suitcase in this nook.

The bathroom is also standard for Japan but with a slightly larger-than-average bathtub. In addition to the basic toiletry amenities (shampoo, conditioner, body soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, cotton swab, disposable cups), they also provide hair ties, a disposable cotton face cloth, combs, and more.

The good

Here is what I said on Booking.com:

The location of this APA Hotel is excellent—three streets east of the station and one from the bay. The room was also immaculate, the staff was very polite, and it was effortless to come and go. Checkout is also straightforward, as you drop the card in a box on the way out. It is an easy-to-use business hotel – and you can find APA hotels across Japan.

The bad

Here is what I said on Booking.com:

1) The hotel feels a bit dated. I think it is an older version. While the quality was still ok, it was starting to look tired and will need a renovation within the next few years.
2) I would have preferred not to have right-wing literature denying Japan’s role in the Second World War in my room. This kind of thing (like religious texts in other countries) does not belong in a hotel, which is a place for sleeping and being a home away from home.
3) There is no access to the front besides the stairs, so anyone with mobility issues or a lot of luggage will need to consider this before staying there.

Response to my review

Here is what the owners had to say:

(There has been no response yet)

What I did while there

Verdict

Because of the blatant nature of the propaganda, I would choose to stay elsewhere if the options were available. However, I realise that the only reason APA Hotel is seen as controversial is because of how blatant it is. If the owners did not use it as their pulpit for their ideas, it would be no different from many other chain hotels.

So my verdict: If there are other comparable options, I will choose those first. If not, I will stay in an APA again.

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