Keio Presso Inn Ikebukuro

This is a practical city base for divers who would rather spend their time in Tokyo than in a resort bubble. Keio Presso Inn Ikebukuro has 231 rooms, air conditioning, free Wi-Fi and a 24-hour reception, giving you the essentials for a few nights between dives and city days.

The tone is functional rather than theatrical. You can leave your bags with the hotel, use the lift to reach the upper floors and return to a private room with its own bathroom. The café, food vending machine and microwave keep the late-arrival problem manageable too — useful when Tokyo has swallowed the afternoon and returned you hungry.

The hotel is in Tokyo, around Ikebukuro Station. That puts you in one of the city's busy transport and shopping districts, with the street life of Ikebukuro on the doorstep and the wider city ready to be explored by train.

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and Ueno Zoo are among the named places around the hotel. Tokyo city centre is about 4 miles away, so this is a base for moving around the capital rather than a stay built around staying inside the property.

The area suits a diver who wants urban convenience between excursions. You can combine a morning in the city with an evening meal elsewhere, then come back to a hotel that keeps the practical business straightforward.

The room choice is best approached by how you travel. The Standard Single is the obvious fit for a solo diver: air conditioning, heating, a fridge, Wi-Fi, a private bathroom, shower and bath, plus a desk for sorting the day's plans. Tea, toiletries, towels, slippers and a hairdryer are already part of the useful everyday kit.

For two people, the Universal Twin has two single beds and a private bathroom, with air conditioning, Wi-Fi, a desk, hairdryer, slippers and toiletries. It is the sensible option when each of you wants a proper bed rather than negotiating territory in the small hours. The Semi-double room is another option for a more compact stay, with a private bathroom.

A television is available in the rooms, and room facilities vary by category. The air conditioning and heating matter in Tokyo's changing seasons; the fridge is handy for keeping water cool when you come back tired and salt-streaked. This is a room-first arrangement, not a hotel that asks you to make an evening of its facilities.

Breakfast is served as a buffet from 06:30 to 09:30. That early window works for a morning with somewhere to be, while the buffet format lets you keep the meal as quick or as leisurely as the day's plan allows.

There is a café for a pause with something hot, plus a food vending machine and a microwave for the sort of improvised meal that follows a long day out. No restaurant or bar forms part of the hotel's offer, so dinner is an Ikebukuro decision rather than an in-house ritual — which, in this part of Tokyo, gives you plenty of streets to investigate.

Breakfast arrangements depend on the room booking details, so check what is included when you reserve. The hotel keeps the daytime meal simple; the neighbourhood does the heavy lifting once you want something more substantial.

There is no resort programme to schedule around, and that is rather the point here. The hotel gives you a base for Tokyo's parks, streets and city diversions, with parks and refreshment spots among the nearby ideas attached to the area.

For a quieter return, the room provides air conditioning, heating, a television and a private bathroom. After a day spent walking, travelling or diving elsewhere, that combination may be more useful than another activity to fit into the diary. The lift also makes the building easier to use if tired legs are part of the evening's plan.

You can keep the stay low-maintenance: shower, cool the room, put the kettle on for tea and decide whether Tokyo still has one more stop in it. Some nights, the correct activity is simply not going back out.

Check-in runs from 15:00 until midnight, with check-out at 10:00. The 24-hour reception gives late arrivals a useful margin, while luggage storage lets you avoid carrying your bags around Tokyo before check-in or after check-out.

Laundry and dry-cleaning services are available, which can be useful on a longer diving trip when clothes have had enough of pretending they are still fresh. Free Wi-Fi runs throughout the hotel. Accessibility facilities include a lift and wheelchair access.

The hotel does not have parking, so this is a public-transport base rather than a car stop. Payment options include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diners Club, UnionPay and cash, alongside several Japanese cashless systems. Japan uses 100-volt electricity with Type A and Type B sockets; bring the right adaptor for your own equipment.