Spice Motel - Okinawa, Japan

Recently, we stayed at a super fun and eclectic little motel called Spice Hotel.

 Long story short we wanted a cheap place to stay for the night, since we would be without furniture for one night in our new home. The military lets you use loaner furniture until your HHG (household goods shipment) arrives on the island. The only catch is that you can not have it picked up the same day as the moves bring your large shipment. Makes sense, but it causes the small problem of what you will sleep, eat and sit on for 24 hours. The base hotel was booked, and quite frankly after living there for 3 weeks, I was not super unhappy about it being full.

I wanted somewhere that was relatively close to our house, since we had to be back super early to meet the movers. I found Spice Motel through Hotels.com, which I don't often use but thought it was easy to navigate. Spice was recently renovated and is designed to take you back in time. The original motel was used during the beginning of the U.S. occupation on Okinawa, during the 50's. It was renovated by an architectural design company last year and is now run as a fill time, 17 room, hotel.

Location was OK, not much within walking distance, but as long as you have a car it would be fine. It was easy to find and at the top of a huge hill, so the view was really pretty. We stayed in the Twin Room, which had bunk beds and one twin platform bed. They had no extra pillows or blankets for the platform bed, which was problematic. We luckily were able to go and get some from the house, but someone visiting would have a hard time. It was Luke and the two of us, so it was pretty tight but the ceiling was high and it made it feel much bigger. We have been without TV for over 2 weeks, so the lack of TV was not a big deal to us at all. The mattresses were thin but I think that is relatively common. I am not going to go as far to say they were comfortable, but hey we slept well so no complaints.

The bathroom was large and the shower was big! The soaps smelled yummy and unlike most hotels, they had a huge bottle of the soaps so no need to go small on the portions. It was relatively quiet throughout the night, with some noise towards the beginning but hey not everyone goes to bed at 9PM, so I can't really complain. They did have a community sitting area, along with a community kitchen that was locked. If you were planning on staying for a long period, I think it would be a nice place to eat breakfast or lunch. Complimentary coffee in the morning and beer was available to purchase during the office hours (8AM - 10PM).

All in all, I think it was a good hotel to sleep. Not large enough to hang out throughout the day and no amenities so to speak, but it got the job done and I would 100% recommend it to anyone looking for a small and very affordable place to stay in Okinawa.

Happy traveling,