Komorebi

Only valuables I'll carry ariund are tons of cds I'll be buying. 

I'm looking at hostels with private room though. 

It's the whole "rent a room at a dude's apartment" thing wih airbnb that feels sorta sketchy.

airbnb is overall an interesting experience. there's a split between families/couples who own multiple properties and rent out the entire house/property and those who rent rooms. i personally prefer entire property rentals because i'm shy, it's private and you really only have to meet the owner once usually.

for airbnb room rentals, reviews are key -- most people are doing this as a business and the reviews should reflect that. it shouldn't be sketchy unless the person has no reviews. it will be closer to a hostel situation where you may be doing some cultural exchange with the owner and other travelers. the other thing about japanese airbnb renters is they're almost always bilingual/have extensive travel experience themselves, you can see this from many of their profiles right away. these people might be extremely helpful to you!

you seem pretty concerned about your safety which is a good thing, but honestly so long as you use your common sense you should have no trouble at all. i'm not sure where you're from but as a canadian (which is internationally considered pretty low crime) i felt 100x safer in japan than in my hometown or current city, lol

I'm from Chile and my mother still believes Japan is the center of sex trade and I'll be kidnapped and prostituted...

I want to have a safe-ish accomodation option before she goes all Liam Neeson if I do not text her back immediately.