What is a Japanese capsule hotel?

Since my very first trip to Japan in 2009, I dreamed of staying in a capsule hotel. When I finally had the chance to try it six long years later, I realized how much expectations can differ from reality.

The phrase "capsule hotel" always sounded to me like something from sci-fi films about space. I imagined rows of chrome cells on some huge starship with futuristic lights and various automatic elements.

In 2015, returning home from a long Asian trip through Tokyo, I finally spent the night in such a hotel. To my surprise, it turned out to be old-fashioned rather than futuristic. However, there are still some interesting points. Let me tell you. Most of the photos were taken in April, during my last Japanese trip, when I spent the night in Tokyo on the way to Hokkaido.

Most capsule hotels are designed for men only. As a rule, these are white-collar workers and middle managers who need to spend the night in the city and who do not want to shell out for a full-fledged business hotel. They are located in city centers, near railway stations. As a rule, these are multi-story buildings. An important aspect worthy of advertising is that the hotel has a sauna (in fact, this is a traditional onsen).

Proper use of the hotel begins with an elevator. You need to go up to the floor where the reception is located. After all, this is Japan, and it is not necessary that the entrance will be at ground level, because it is expensive! In this case, we need to climb to the fourth.

A sign prohibiting people with tattoos hangs right in front of the elevator. In Japan, such tattoos are a symbol of the yakuza. Everyone goes to onsen naked, and the administration does not want to cause discomfort to other guests by the proximity of a dude from the local mafia.

The first thing that meets us at the reception floor is such small cells.

They are in order to remove and leave street shoes. You can’t walk inside the hotel. We remove the sneakers, put them in the cabinet, close it with the key.

Slippers are right there, but you cannot walk inside them. The inscription explains that these are slippers only for riding in the elevator between floors. Well, about the fact that the Japanese have a special relationship with slippers, we have already spoken.

So the front desk. Here they will check your reservation and send you to pay for the capsule in the next machine.

Obviously, the reception staff is not trusted with cash, so payment is made in such a machine. Today's capsule costs 2,500 yen, i.e. about $ 23. Interestingly, there is no such button on the machine, you have to pay separately 2,000 and 500.

I give the reception employee a receipt for payment and a shoe key. He puts it all in my cell, and in return I get a numbered key from my locker. I can’t leave the hotel with this key (not barefoot!), It will first have to be exchanged for a shoe.

Here he is, on a plastic bracelet, so as not to lose in the bathhouse. My number is 7F63, that means my capsule is on the seventh floor. The key does not open the capsule itself, it is only for the locker, where I will leave things, so that, in which case, the staff knew what number I was paid for.

Before you go up there, it's time to look around, what is there near the reception. There is a standard for Japan drinks machine and a little less standard with cigarettes.

Nearby everything that may be needed by an office worker who did not spend the night at home is sold: ties, white shirts, black socks. But Celeriman will not wear the same thing for two days in a row!

There are also umbrellas and units for ironing trousers. In short, you can come to the office dressed neatly and freshly.

There is also a computer corner. Hotel guests can check mail on shared laptops.

And in the end there is a special machine in which combs are sterilized! Does this mean they are used several times ?!

Well, it's time for me to go change. My key opens one of these drawers. Here I will have to leave all my street clothes, because you can’t walk around the hotel in it. Here you can leave small things.

For suitcases and large bags, there is a specially designated place where they are stacked on open shelves by attaching a tag with the number of your capsule in advance.

A hotel uniform awaits me in the locker. These are spacious trousers and a shirt with a tie. The latest fad - everyone goes like this. Near the changing room washbasins - here you can wash your face, brush your teeth, shave, and in general, put everything in order in every way.

You can even wash!

But if you need a shower, then for this we will go to the onsen. Before entering, instructions for use for the Japanese and gaijins.

They tell how to sit in onsen.

Onsen himself did not shoot - it is full of naked men of completely different stripes. But there are shower stations nearby. You sit down on a stool and water yourself, wash, rub, shave. Each person must wash before climbing into the water of the onsen.

If after the steam room you are still reluctant to sleep, that is, a floor with a salon. Here you can get comfortable, watch TV and even smoke. With the Japanese, smoking is not like human beings. They banned him on the street and allowed him on the premises!

And also, if you want to relax, there is a small library of local porn comics in the salon.

It's time to go to sleep. Slippers, an elevator ... I go up to my seventh floor, and there is just the futurism that I originally expected. Neat rows of capsules stretch along the floor.

They are divided into blocks of four. Capsules are arranged in two tiers. Higher, probably, it would be dangerous to get down.

There she is, a capsule. Clean, neat ... The size of a single bed, about a meter in width and height.

Any hints of futurism instantly disappear when you see that an old-fashioned TV with a pipe from the 20th century hangs from the ceiling. In the morning I will hit my head on him and be glad that I got off cheaply.

And here is the back of my chorus. A pillow, a bed, and on the side - a radio, a clock, one earphone (for a radio, TV and alarm clock). There are switches for light and a fan (its grille is on the left there).

There is also a socket and a shelf for various little things. You can lay out a watch, a mobile phone, glasses ... In my last capsule there were more than any switches and handles. See - the top of the technological progress of the 1980s:

Neither eat nor smoke in the capsule. It turns out you can drink?

There is not much space here, but I managed to sit up without banging my head on the ceiling. Maybe a taller person would be harder.
While I'm here, you can climb through local wi-fi and check your mail.

But it’s too late, and tomorrow is an early rise. In short, it's time for me to sleep. There is a socket in the capsule, all devices can be charged. And instead of the door there is a dense curtain that goes down and blocks you from other curious guests. But it lets air through, allowing you not to suffocate overnight in a capsule.

Tomorrow the whole process will have to be reversed: shower, teeth, dressing room, locker, exchanging a cupboard key for a shoe, snatching out sneakers, and you can safely go for a walk around Tokyo.