Just before I arrived, Yoko had an unexpectedly extended business trip meaning it was just Aki, me and one other guest in the homestay. This was tricky because Aki spoke very little English, but I was excited at the chance to try my Japanese skills. On the first night, Aki decided to tell me his political views on controlling immigration to Japan, and how he believed Japan was still paying reparations for the second world war. I was surprised to hear his views but I figured that perhaps the current North Korea situation had got him a bit scared so I just listened as politely as possible. After that things were pretty normal for a couple of days, Aki made a nice breakfast in the mornings for me and everything was generally comfortable and nice. At about 11 one night I was eating cake with the other housemate to celebrate her birthday, and one of us accidentally dropped something which made quite a noise causing Aki to come downstairs from his bedroom. I think it's fair to be annoyed about that, and I immediately apologized. However, despite me calmly apologizing throughout, he continued to shout very loudly for 15 minutes, grab me and push me towards the stairs - refusing offers to translate using my phone as we'd done previously. His behaviour caused the other guest (a 17 year old girl) to feel sufficiently unsafe to seek embassy assistance in moving out the next day which she fortunately received promptly. While I couldn't understand everything in the shouting (it was too fast for my Japanese ability), it was made clear that the house was not in fact my "second home in Shinjuku". He repeated "Aki's home, not your home" and similar phrases many times. He asked me to leave the next morning. Obviously being made homeless in a foreign country disrupted my plans, caused me a great deal of stress and wasted my precious holiday time, as well as costing me a fair bit of money to get alternative accommodation at short notice. Once she was back, I met Yoko who confirmed it was never her intention for me to stay whilst she was away. She was very apologetic, and told me that she usually diffuses such situations. I suspect the two don't agree on how the homestay should be run. If they decide to continue hosting guests, they need to make their rules and expectations much clearer up front since their current page is very misleading about the nature of their homestay. With Yoko there, maybe it'd be OK, but it's too much of a risk given how many other nice homestays there are, therefore I cannot recommend the homestay, especially to minors!

Yuri and Chihiro were both lovely and really made me feel part of the home. They speak excellent English, and were very clear up front about the (few, simple) rules of the homestay, e.g. Not smoking, and being quiet after a certain time of night. I had the freedom to come and go, doing what I wanted with my trip, but also the comfort of casually chatting with Yuri and Chihiro when we were all around, which was perfect for me! There are plenty of food places nearby in the direction of either station which are about 10 minutes walk away. The home is exactly as shown in the images - modern, clean and reasonably spacious by Tokyo standards. Usually I always try to go to new places even if I travel back to the same city, but in a 6 week trip travelling Japan, this was my favourite place I stayed and I'd definitely go back there.