Khaosan Tokyo Asakusa Annex

My review of the Annex is very mixed. I think it's an amazing place to meet fellow travelers and also it's very well located. It's in Asakusa area, very close to the train station, though in a quiet place, and from there it's a short trip to every where in Tokyo. They also have their own bar next to it, which is a great place to meet people.
The internet is for free which is also great, and the staff are ok (depends which ones).

The only bad thing is that they suffer (at least right now - October 2009) from bed bugs. The second floor with the "deluxe" beds (the cabin ones) are full of bugs, and almost everyday the staff are trying to kill them, but they still bite. I was there 8 days (6 in september and 2 in october) and in the 2 days in october i got bitten like hell. I heard it spread to other rooms which are normal dormitory. I really hope they will succeed in fighting this problem because it is an amazing place, and if i will travel again to Japan I will want to come back there.

We stayed in the annex for 7 nights in all and it was amazing.Finding it from the metro was really quite easy and when we arrived they were really helpful in getting us settled.
We got kind of the capsule beds that you see in Japan but they were slightly different.More like cabin beds.But they were great because you could lock all your things in there and when sleeping lock all the light out.
The facilities it offered were great,free internet and wifi,big common room,bike rental,free umbrellas,loads of info on things to do,kitchen and they arranged lots of party type things which is cool if you like that sort of thing.
It was the heapest hostel around aswell but that doesnt matter because it was still a really really good hostel.Il stay there again in a shot!

I've read a few reviews of the Khaosan hostels in Tokyo and they seem to vary quite a bit, I think what you've got to remember is your staying in a HOSTEL not a HOTEL there is a world of difference.

The hostel itself is the back streets of Asakusa which i think is a fantastic place to stay as it's far enough away from the hustle of down town that you can escape the crowds. It takes about five minutes to walk to the station and about seven to get to the senso-ji temple and the market that leads up to it. Its also right near the river where you can take a ferry trip, We took one to Tokyo bay on the futuristic Himiko ferry, very cool.

The hostel was a million times nicer then the one we had just come from maybe thats why opinion of the Khaosan is quite high. The ground floor is a big communal area with sofas and chairs arranged around a big TV they have a dvd player and a selection of films that can be watched for free. It's a good place to hang out and meet fellow travelers and make friends especially in the evening when there are lots of people have a cheap night in. There is a kitchen are with all the essentials, i never used any the stuff so I've no idea of the cleanliness. They have about eight pc's that are free to use 24 hours a day, they also have a few headsets so you can talk over the net and they wireless connection to. They have a pay telephone in lobby which we couldn't get to work during are stay, we found another pay phone on the street about one min walk from the hostel which i preferred as it was more private. To find this pay phone turn left out of the hostel follow the road take the first left down the side street the phone should be on the opposite side of the road. Back to the hostel the ground floor is also where the showers are there are four or five cubicles on the ground floor i think some of the other floors also have showers to. I can't really comment on the staff as i never had any need to deal with them other then checking in and out. There are a few lockers to store your valuables which i guess you can pay to use.

Our room was on the first floor it was a four bed dorm which we shared with one stranger who we never got to know as he always seemed to be asleep. The room was of an average size for Tokyo it had two bunk beds with enough room at the end of them to store your stuff the only other things in the room where plug sockets and a light. I guess my only complaint would be that the dividers for the rooms are a bit thin which can be a bit annoying when you've two Dutch guys who like to have a hearty conversation and the ungodly hour of 6am.