Capsule hotel-A different stay

This style of hotel accommodation was developed in Japan and has not gained popularity outside of the country, although Western variants with larger accommodations and often private baths are being developed. Guests are asked not to smoke or eat in the capsules. It's is a type of hotel in Japan with a large number of extremely small "rooms" (capsules).

The guest space is reduced in size to a modular plastic or fiberglass block roughly 2 m by 1 m by 1.25 m, providing room to sleep. Facilities range in entertainment offerings (most include a television, an electronic console, and wireless internet connection). These capsules are stacked side by side and two units top to bottom, with steps providing access to the second level rooms. Luggage is stored in a locker, usually somewhere outside of the hotel. Privacy is ensured by a curtain or a fibre glass door at the open end of the capsule. Washrooms are communal and most hotels include restaurants (or at least vending machines), pools, and other entertainment facilities.

Capsule hotels vary widely in size, some having only fifty or so capsules and others over 700. Many are used primarily by men.There are also capsule hotels with separate male and female sleeping quarters. Clothes and shoes are sometimes exchanged for a yukata and slippers on entry. A towel may also be provided. The benefit of these hotels is convenience and price, usually around ¥2000-4000 a night.

Others (especially on weekdays) are often too inebriated to safely travel to their homes,or too embarrassed to face their spouses.With continued recession in Japan,as of early 2010 more and more guests, roughly 30% at the Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 in Tokyo, were either unemployed or underemployed and were renting capsules by the month.

The first capsule hotel was the Capsule Inn Osaka, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and located in the Umeda district of Osaka. It was opened on February 1,1979,and the initial room rate was ¥1,600. It's open 24 hours and you can leave and come back as you wish.

You can store your luggage behind the counter. You pay at a vending machine and hand the ticket to the clerk. They give you a capsule number and locker key and wrist band. When you are in for the night, you change in the locker room and wear the small yukata around the facility. Upstairs is a shower and sento bath. There is a restaurant and small bar as well. Beside that is a TV room with several lazy boy chairs. Technically you could pay only Y1,200 for the sento and sleep in the lazy boy chairs as many people were doing.Since most visitors to a Capsule hotel are Japanese business men who don't have time to go home, there are amenities there for people who didn't plan on staying away from home. You can shave, brush your teeth, take a bath, buy shirts, pants, belts, ties, undershirts. Not sure if there is overnight dry-cleaning.Check out was around 9 and starting at 7am. They made public announcements reminding people to get up and get out.There were about 150 capsules in this facility.

Most capsules are stacked two up in columns of about 8-10. A thin screen can be pulled down for privacy, unless your feet stick out. There are many buttons and knobs in the capsule. One turns on the light and a knob dims the light. One turns on the TV, another button flips through the channels. There is a big red button that costs Y300 to press. That's the porn button. There is a radio and an alarm clock built in. At the end of the capsule there is a screen you can pull down to "lock" yourself in. The entire capsule was about 6 to 6.5 feet long. It actually gets pretty dark inside.

It is built to support people working away from home. A number of "Capsule Hotels" around the city, near train stations, absorb men who miss the last train home or just aren't sober enough to stumble home.Usually there's some place to sleep costing less than 4000 yen nearby (about 30 dollars).The primary drawback here?-belongings were stored in a locker on the other side of the city.

The capsules themselves are about the minimum amount of space required for human dwelling. You can sit up and read, lay there and watch TV. Wearing earplugs helps cut the noise. Sometimes there's a hole providing some air circulation.

A locker key is handed to each guest to keep baggage in a locker outside the capsules. The lockers aren't suitable for large bags. Shower rooms/bath rooms and rest rooms are shared by all guests, but many capsule hotels offer a large public bath or a sauna. Women aren't often allowed in capsule hotels due to security reasons. There are capsule hotels offer seperate floors or areas for men and women guests.

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