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I'm interested in finding the absolute cheapest place to sleep overnight in Motobu, Okinawa.

There doesn't seem to be any hostels on the usual websites but I've noticed that there seems to be a kind of "flophouse" in Okinawa that I've never encountered in other parts of Japan. In fact I'm staying at one now in Naha for 1,000 yen per night (roughly $10). I think some of these call themselves "share houses" in English. But outside Naha they might not use English? Most of the guests are middle aged Japanese staying long term. Others including backpackers stay a night or a week.

I don't know what these places are called in Japanese, how common they are, or how people normally find them.

For the purposes of this question I'm not too worried about luxury or quality. The place I'm in now is messy and even in some respects a bit dirty, but the people and atmosphere are great.

I'm interested in any type of cheap accommodation including campgrounds.

(I know I could sleep outside or try CouchSurfing or a similar website, but I don't consider those to be what this question is about.)

The reasons are there's a ferry that leaves from Motobu and that I'd enjoy staying a night or several in a part of Okinawa where there are no tourists.

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    Our off-topic text reads Questions on price-shopping for specific goods or services are off-topic as prices and availability change frequently in many locations. yet this seems to be a clear example of price shopping, and it strikes me (and apparently everyone else) as a good question. Does our off-topic text need to be revisited?
    – Flimzy
    Mar 29, 2014 at 1:21
  • Perhaps our text in that section needs to be improved. The idea of good vs bad shopping questions orignates in the Stack Exchange blog post from a couple of years ago titled Q&A is Hard, Let's go Shopping! Reading this will clear up which kinds of shopping questions should not be on the site. Basically subjective recommendation questions, which this is not.
    – hippietrail
    Mar 29, 2014 at 9:41

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Yup, Okinawa has lots of cheap lodgings, it's where all the Japanese hippies, surfers and dropouts go to hang out. ゲストハウス (gesutohausu, "guesthouse") and 安宿 (yasuyado, "cheap inn") are the usual terms. ¥1000/night is largely a Naha thing though, it's not going to be easy to find that elsewhere in Okinawa.

Here's a handy listing of (close to?) all places in the prefecture where you can spend the night for under ¥2000. In Motobu there are three listed:

  • Okinawa Motobu Guesthouse has dorms for ¥2000/night. That home page is ancient (2008!) but they're still on Booking.com.
  • Niraisou, same deal.
  • But the winner is Yoshika, their men-only dorm "type A" goes for ¥1,500. Note that said room is 11 sq.m. and I can't find anywhere that says how many people they cram into it...
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  • My place now is men only and they could cram eight into my dorm but it's the low season and hasn't been full in the over four weeks I've been here. (-:
    – hippietrail
    Mar 28, 2014 at 12:34

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