Hotel Massage Service

I am looking to book a low-cost hotel near Ueno Station. On the website, they mentioned that they provided massage service which I believe should be an outsource service (accordingly to some of the reply I saw in this forum).

I have emailed them a few questions in English but didn't receive any reply.

1) How much is the massage, assuming 60min?
2) Can I do an 30 min extension, if I want to do 90min instead?
3) How many hours/ days in advanced do I have to notify them, to prevent a long wait?
4) Are the masseurs usually male or female?

Can anyone advise roughly the answers to above, in general?

Also, I will be in Japan in July to climb My Fuji, and I am thinking of getting some water-resistant outerwear from NFace, Timberland, or UnderArmour at one of the factory outlets near Tokyo.
Any chances that the winter and spring collection would be available?

Thank you

The massage service in japan, and in hotels are way over the top as compared to prices in other parts of Asia. Japan also is not known for massages and other forms of therpahy.

I think the japanese leaves the hot spring to take care of any ailments.

Prices I saw the last couple of weeks were around Y6,000 for an hour. One of my guests thought it was a bargain compared to UK prices and said it was good (delivered with a couple hours notice by a nice older Japanese lady) - Hotel was in Kyoto.

Higher cost hotels charged more - not sure why, maybe because they can.

Even though I've never used it myself, costs tend to be around 4000-7000 yen an hour but can cost more at higher cost hotels.

My father once had a massage when he did a lot of walking in a day and really enjoyed it. As with the other person, it was an older lady who gives massages because they are good at what they do.

Just to confirm - no need to read into the above comment as anything untoward as I was giving a literal explanation (ahh - the problem of possibly reading out of context....)

The last time I had a massage, it was at Belmont Hotel Asakusabashi, it cost me 26000 yen for 2hrs, and the quality is actually worse compare to those massage I get in hong kong for approximate 3500 yen, at least the girl was pretty.

many of the hotels outsource, and a few actually have there own service, some won't allow you to call for a massage service other than their contractor or use there service.

The easiest way to check is to make a reservation with that particular hotel through www.booking .com , then send a message from their site, you should get a reply within 48 hrs, then either keep the reservation or cancel it, make sure you read the cancellation policy first.

never rely too much on the booking agent's web site, it may not be accurate.

Massages service at hotels can be generally estimated to cost about 1000 yen per ten minutes, with the price going up from there depending on the level of the hotel. The price is not really indicative of the quality, but you can expect a certain level of service as is expected in Japan.

I don't think it's particularly useful to compare the prices services with other countries considering when travelling you basically have no choice but to shop the local prices (well I guess you could always choose to not use a service, but then you don't get a massage ;). Instead I'd compare to the prices for massages outside the hotel, which of course are generally cheaper than room service massages.

What I know from some hotels in Japan (better business hotels and upwards) have been 4000 yen for 30 minutes, up to 7000 yen for an hour or so. Because those massage therapists get called into hotels by the hour and move from one place to another, if you want a relatively long time like 90 minutes, you will need to inform them upfront (you usually book it through the reception). You just contact the reception, and you might get a spot for the same evening, or they might say they don't have anyone available that evening, so how about the following day, etc.

I guess it depends on the hotel (and the individual), but having someone come into my room, having the massage while leaving the door open a bit, etc., has never felt too comfortable, so I tend to look around for a massage salon in a nearby mall instead.

I've only had female therapists (I'm a woman myself, so the hotel reception might have arranged for that).

It's not actually a room massage, but if you are in Ueno, outside the JR station about 3 minutes walk, there is a building called Ueno building, there is quite a lot of massage place, I think it's near the top floor, there is one I have been to, cost about 4000 Yen for 45-50 minutes, quality is very good, and it's a massage from a mid age women.

The building is full of massage palor and only provide proper massage, no special service, majority are Chinese.

Outside of the Ueno station main entrance/exit (can't remember the exit), you will see a corner shop called first kitchen, look further along the road, you can see yoshinoya, just next to it is the Ueno building, there is another place just around the corner from Ueno building, you can walk another 2 minutes around the corner there is another building full of massage place, you will see many sign post, and light advertising stand with prices, all are Chinese, and are rather cheap.