Guest House Shinagawa-shuku in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, is offering free accommodation to foreign travelers and students who haven't been able to return to their home countries and have lost their prior accommodations due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
"We have vacancies because of a lack of tourists. I want people who are in trouble in an emergency to use them," said Takayuki Watanabe, the owner of the guesthouse.
"I couldn't work part-time, and I kept my hunger off with water and coffee after I ran out of food," a student from Sri Lanka, who's been staying at the guesthouse, said with relief. "Staff at the guesthouse are nice and I am happy now."
She came to Japan about a year ago. She worked part-time at a restaurant and earned about 100,000 yen a month while attending a Japanese language school in Osaka Prefecture. However, she lost her job due to the pandemic and was forced to move out because she couldn't pay the rent for the dormitory.
She intends to go back to her home country temporarily, but her stay at the guesthouse has been prolonged since she hasn't been able to get a plane ticket.
"I want to study computer at a vocational school and work in Japan in the future. I want to return to Japan when the spread of infection is over," she said with a smile.
Guest House Shinagawa-shuku is a budget hotel that's mainly for backpackers. There is high demand usually in spring from students and new recruits who usually come to Tokyo to look for an apartment, and foreign tourists, according to Watanabe. This year, however, the number of guests has dropped to about 10% and the guesthouse has been in financial difficulty.
Still, when Japanese guests who had returned from overseas told Watanabe about their experiences -- including things like "Restaurants gave me food due to the city's lockdown" and "I had a hard time finding a place to stay when I couldn't get back to Japan from Australia" -- his thoughts were on how he could help. Watanabe thought that there must be many foreigners who couldn't return to their home countries or who have financial concerns while in Japan. So, he decided to offer an empty room for free to people in trouble.
People in the local shopping district, acquaintances of Watanabe and former guests have also worked with him to assist him in his charity.
A man who supplies the rice and other food stuff, said that he was asked to stay at home for two weeks from the Japanese government after returning from his work in Cambodia in April.
"I think people from overseas must be having trouble with money and language. We want to help each other in a time like this," the man said.
Free accommodation is being offered until the end of June. For more information, go to the Guest House Shinagawa-shuku's website (https://bp-shinagawashuku.com/en/), call (03-6712-9440) or email (reservation@bp-shinagawashuku.com).
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
