Capsule Hotel, Osaka

Jason and I stayed at our first capsule hotel!

For those not familiar with the term, capsule hotels are hotels in which the rooms are small "capsules", just larger than a person lying down. They're usually around one metre tall, one metre wide, and two metres long. Usually capsules are stacked on top of eachother.

 

 
They were originally a cheap accommodation for men on business trips, and so originally were just for men. However, these days, with a growing number of women in the workforce, capsule hotels have begun to accommodate women.

 

Prices are usually around $30 a night.

 

Jason and I stayed at the Shinsaibashi Asahi Plaza Capsule Hotel for roughly this price. I have to say, I was impressed! Of course, it does depend on whether you can deal with small spaces. I, personally, love to sleep in small, enclosed spaces. It strikes me as very comforting, womb-like even. But I know to some it would be a night mare.

 

The hotel was open to both men and women, although they are on seperate floors, for safety reasons. To get into the women's area, you needed a special key, ensuring that there were only women in this area. As you first enter the women's area, there is a large, spacious "powder room", equipped with seats, hairdryers, pre-toothpasted toothbrushes, and samples of moisturisers and lotions.





 

After the powder room there was a baggage room where you could lock your baggage away, as the actual capsules themselves are not lockable. The capsules were located just past this area. All capsules were numbered so that you could find the one you'd been allocated. I was given a ground level capsule which was great because I didn't have to climb a ladder to get in, although being only a metre high, it did mean I had to crawl. The insides of the capsules are sparse. White plastic walls, a small shelf, a charging port, and in some, a small television. There are fancy capsule hotels out there, but this was just a basic, run of the mill capsule.

 

On the fancy side however, this hotel did surprise me by having a spa and sauna included in the thirty dollar price. So if you walk past the women's capsule area, you come to a shower room, a spa room, and a sauna room. The spa was lovely looking! And the showers were private, in little capsules for shy westerners. I didn't get to try the sauna, but it looked nice. I was surprised by the facilities. I was expecting something dingy, but actually it was bright, airy, and fresh.

 

Outside of the locked women's area there was also arcade games, refreshment vending machines and a commen entertainment area.

 

While I enjoyed my stay in the female section, Jason did not have a milar experience in the men's. Jason is quite tall, and found the small boxes stifling. He also found the men's area to be loud. The capsules do not have walls covering the outside part, but simply have privacy screens that can be pulled down to cover the entry to each capsule. This means that sound can be an issue. It wasn't for me, in the women's floor, but Jason said he had a bunch of noisy snorers on his floor. To be fair though, this would be the case in any hostel and I have never seen such good other facilities in regular hostels. So if I'm ever travelling by myself, I'm definitely going to use a capsule hotel again.