What is it like staying overnight in a Japanese capsule hotel?

Andrey Moskvin aka positivefly writes: “In Japan, as in other countries, I flew quite spontaneously, without planning a trip at all. An hour before departure, I started looking for a hotel on booking sites and came across an unusual occupancy rate for Tokyo hotels - 98%. The beginning of April is the busiest season, cherry blossoms. There were two accommodation options: super cheap and super expensive.

Without thinking twice, which is typical of me, I rented a beautiful capsule about two square meters. And flew to magnificent Tokyo.

(Total 24 photos)

1. Without difficulty I found this outwardly quite ordinary, but inside fantastic red building with the same bright red sign. It tempts me so...

2. Ordinary entrance to a cheap hotel.

3. Although these two elevators work, the system is rather complicated. On the right elevator you can only get to the 6th floor: there is a reception, there you need to take off and leave your shoes in the locker, and only then, without shoes, you can ride the left elevator from the 6th to the 2nd floor.

4. It follows from the picture that this hotel does not accept guests with tattoos and homemade paper boat caps on their heads.

5. Reception department. The hotel has a sauna, and while I was waiting for registration, 3 poorly dressed Japanese people walked past me. According to the signs, photography is prohibited. But it never stopped me.

6. First joke. You cannot take luggage into your room. There is no room for luggage, you can leave your luggage here. Behind the reception desk everything is littered with suitcases.

7. I was given a room key (as I thought), and I took the elevator without shoes to the 4th floor. The key to the room turned out to be the key to the microscopic locker in the locker room. There was a towel and a bathrobe in the locker. My backpack with a camera and a laptop did not fit there - I had to take it to the “room”.

8. This is a common wash area for everyone who lives on my floor. It seems clean and friendly, and most importantly - while not crowded.

9. Toilet. He is only male. I forgot to say: the hotel is for men only.

10. Throughout Japan, the sale of drinks through such vending machines is popular. And, of course, there were 3-4 vending machines on each floor of our hotel. It is interesting that some drinks fall out of such devices in a heated form.

11. To the side of glamor. This is what the living quarters look like. A series of capsules leaving the horizon. A light is on to the left - someone is settling there, sleeping in closed cells. It immediately reminded me of air transportation for animals.

12. And here, in fact, are the compartments themselves. Climb up the stairs, as in a reserved seat.

13. Home, sweet home! Bed, table, chair? Sure sure.

14. View from the inside. We see all the legs passing by.

15. Nanotechnology capsule multimedia system. Here you can find the clock, set an alarm and connect headphones or charging. The fact that in Japan there is not 220-volt voltage, one should have read while in Russia, but this is already figs with him. None of my neighbors have headphones, before going to bed the whole corridor listens to different TV programs from different capsules. And in the morning the alarm clocks yell like a car alarm. From about 6:30, the entire corridor of the 4th floor alternately wakes up.

16. Respectable apartments are equipped with a mirror.

17. Let's try to sleep. The door to my room is a snot-covered bamboo net that separates the capsule from the outside world. It lets light, smell, sound and ... petty thieves through. Therefore, it is recommended not to leave anything in the room.

18. This is my favorite photo! It will have a backstory. I flew to Tokyo from Oslo, overcoming time barriers: the body continued to live according to Oslyatsky time - and this is minus 7 hours to Tokyo. On my first night in Tokyo, I only managed to fall asleep by 8:00 am, because in Oslo I usually went to bed around 1:00 am. I rented a capsule for 3 days and was calm for my three days of sleep. But exactly at 10 in the morning the cleaning lady wakes me up and grits: “Freedom, capsule, zalusta, mista.” It turned out that in this hotel everyone must vacate the rooms before 10:00 in the morning for cleaning.

19. Only then did I see a sign that "check-out at 10" and "you cannot extend your stay at the hotel." In addition, you cannot leave things in your locker: you need to return the key and check in again after 15:00. At the same time, they can give you a new key to a completely different box and on a different floor.

20. Okay, I didn’t manage to sleep, I’ll go wash myself. And then another surprise. Exactly as shown in the photo, the process of ablution takes place. You go into the shower room. There are no showers in the usual sense, the Japanese sit in a circle on stools and wash themselves from basins. What should I do? And I sat down. And thoughts themselves began to develop the story of the priests who sat on this stool before me.

21. Photo for those who have not considered the previous one. The intriguing postures of the Japanese make one wonder if they are washing or doing anything else. What to do: there is no privacy anywhere in the capsule hotel - neither in the room, nor in the shower.

22. After washing, dry your hair.

23. There are a lot of people in the hotel, most of them left before 10 am. But even at 10 am there is a queue at the reception - they hand over the keys to the lockers. By the number of shoe boxes, you can understand that there can be a great many potential guests here.

24. Great hotel logo: it accurately depicts my first impression of staying here.

Cons: 1. It is impossible to eat, sleep, bathe and generally live in the hotel. 2. The "snail" room is inconvenient because there is practically no ventilation system in it. Well, “door” is one name. At night, you hear everything, including what the average Japanese does before going to bed. 3. I have an unusual feature - I like to wear clean clothes every day. But the rules of the hotel forced me to go up to the reception to my suitcase 5 times a day to get/put away some small change or linen. 4. Room relatively expensive: 4 thousand yen or 1450 rubles per night, i.е. in fact for 2 hours of sleep, as it was on the first day of my stay.

The rating system on the booking.com website was not entirely clear to me. For example, the Moscow Holiday Inn Vinogradovo has 7.3 points, some Hiltons score less than 8, and the Japanese capsule hotel scores as much as 8.0. And someone else scolds our electoral committee.

Pros: The hotel has a cool logo