Kanazawa hostels/cheap hotels

I'm taking a two month trip to Japan in spring 2008 with my boyfriend. One of our last stops is in Kanazawa.

I can't seem to find any good hostels through the standard hostelworld.com, hostels.com, and a couple others.

I did manage to come upon Murataya Ryokan (a little pricier for us) and Toyoko Inn Kanazawa Korinbo (our price range).

Can anyone recommend any others?

Did you check this hostel?

Kanazawa Youth Hostel
http://www.jyh.or.jp/english/hokushinestu/kanazawa/index.html

I checked out that hostel, but it's unavailable for some of the night's we're there. The Toyoko Inn Kanazawa-eki Higashi-guchi, seems to work best. But when we tried to make a reservation, it asks for my name in Chinese characters, then in brackets it says "Kana in normal size or Alphabet in half-size character". I don't know what that means!! How do I book here? Can I just use regular English?

Sorry for all the questions but it's getting down to the wire because we leave in a less than a month.

(My last resort is the Murataya Ryokan...even though it's slightly above my budget).

Please respond pleeeease!!

I have no idea what they mean by half size character. I assume you are booking via the English page? Just enter your details in English. If you have a problem, get back to me.

I just did a test, using English will work fine.

. . . better than a hostel is the Central Hotel in Kanazawa. I stayed there around 3 years ago for 4800 yen. For that price, the hotel had a decent TV and even an icebox and box of Kleenex. For that price, you rarely get the latter two amenities. I forget if there was liquid soap and shampoo; a small bar of soap is the norm. The hotel is so small no breakfast is served. It's not that far from the station, off to the side.

I booked over the web from Rakutan or some other site.

Okay! That's a load off my mind. I would consider that other hotel...but it's over my budget!! This Tokoyo Inn offers all of that but at 3500 yen per person (7000 for a double room). So...it's like paying for a hostel.

Anyhoo, thanks very much for your guys' help! No more panic attacks!!