１０月4-5日
After a couple nights in NihonBashi Villa and exploring Tokyo it was time to try out a capsule hotel I had picked out in Akihabara. They had a full website in english and sounded like they where trying to pull in some tourists who wanted to have a night in one of these hotels, but it seemed nice and they said they had internet access in the lobby which is a big plus. When you enter the building you leave your shoes in a locker and turn in the key to the front desk, which you can then use to get a key to a locker which is also associated with a capsule. The cost was 4,000yen or about 40usd. I had a special I was paying at NihonBashi Villa which was about 50usd, so not much of a save but it’s the experience that counts. The receptionist spoke excellent english so I guessed she had helped foreigners through this a couple times. Later on I met a man from france and about 5 others who where from England. There where several of the expected Japanese visitors and business men as well though, so at least it wasn’t all a tourist trap. The bathroom and washing facilities could have been better, a lot of the showers looked like they had been broken and refixed a couple times and the washroom was so small it made dressing/undressing a little difficult (but I managed not to rub anyone too much so all is well). The locker room also has about 8 video cameras, which is great for security, but these feeds are fed directly into the lobby behind the reception desk where any customers can see. This could provide for some slightly revealing shots if you time it right, so it’s probably good that they where the really small black and white screens that you couldn’t make out much in anyways.

Once in the capsule you could watch TV or listen to the radio. The controls looked like they where taken straight out of the 60’s but after a little tinkering I managed to figure everything out. There where about 10 channels and one playing my favorite “human tetris” game you can see on youtube. The worst thing in the capsules (assuming you have no problem with tightly enclosed areas), is that whenever you or someone else accidently hits a limb against the side of the wall it gives a nice hollow *thud* which at least a few of your neighbors away can hear. I did this a couple times and I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a big foreigner trying to lumber around in there. I’m 5′7” and I fit almost exactly head to toe in the capsule. (If they did this in America they’d need to size it for different people and charge accordingly).

I’ll probably try another capsule hotel to compare with but I think I can probably do better than this one. It is nice that you can come and go from this capsule after checkin, as I’m not sure if other places offer this or not.