Two years ago, Ippei Seto opened the Nara Ugaya Guesthouse in the center of Nara City, aiming to offer dormitory-style, affordable lodging for visitors. His guesthouse occupies a rented, two-story wooden building that is around 40 years old and formerly housed a pharmacy but is now his 20-bed inn — with the pharmacy's massive old medicine drawers converted into bookshelves.
With its entrance-window panels nicely decorated with images of lotus flowers, an elephant and other creatures, the place has a quaint, neo-Japanese feel that continues through to the lobby area, where guests can relax and exchange tips with other travelers surrounded by shelves full of guidebooks, manga and magazines.
Ugaya, where a night's stay exclusive of meals costs ¥2,500 to ¥3,500 per person, was the first guesthouse in the city of Nara, where most other inns and hotels charge more than ¥10,000 per person per night. Now, as Ugaya has became popular with tourists — especially Westerners — a few more guesthouses have sprouted up in the area, making Nara a far more affordable place for budget travelers than ever before.