Living In Tokyo's Capsule Hotels

afabbro writes "Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 once offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home. Now with Japan enduring its worst recession since World War II, it is becoming an affordable option for people with nowhere else to go. The Hotel 510’s capsules are only 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide. Guests must keep possessions, like shirts and shaving cream, in lockers outside of the capsules. Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas says, 'It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep. You get used to it.'”

Comments

Sounds like the Navy.

[xxuserxx]

I did 6 months of that multiple times. Its not too bad.

Re:Sounds like the Navy.

[StikyPad]

The "bunks" (racks) on a ship are affectionately known as coffins. They're about 72"x30"x18" (unless you take the top rack, which typically has no "roof") and they've got little airplane-style vents near your head to keep you from suffocating.

On the older 688 LA Class attack subs, most of the TMs (torpedomen) don't even get that luxury -- they sleep on mattresses in the torpedo storage area with no separation between them. They put down some plywood over the steel torpedo cradles, and then put their mattresses on the plywood. And about 18 inches above that is another rack of torpedoes. Of course, there are often actual torpedoes in said storage area, and when there are, the crew sleeps on the floor in the "hallways" on either side.

That's just for TMs though. Most of the rest of the crew gets to hot rack.

Re:Sounds like the Navy.

[Opportunist]

Now it makes sense that a friend in the Navy told me, everyone with half a brain tries to get on a carrier instead of a sub.

Re:Sounds like the Navy.

[DesScorp]

Everyone with half a brain joined the Air Force instead of the Navy. Not having a private room as an E5 was considered a hard ship and you got an apology for it.

Which is why all the other services snicker when Chair Force types complain about "hardship duty".

I'd rather have a room...

[calmofthestorm]

but if it came time to give up luxuries, it would be one of the first to go.

Westerners

[Frosty Piss]

I wonder if Westerners are accepted at these places?

Re:Westerners

[Suki I]

I am pretty sure beloved boyfriend would not fit comfortably and it would have to be an interesting fantasy scene if he wanted me to join him.

Re:Westerners

[will_die]

There are booking sites for various capsule hotels in English so yes.
However from reading reviews most seem to be separated by sex if you are going as a couple.

Re:Westerners

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually that's a thorny problem. Obviously a society that does not have it's women have at least 2.1 children average dies (and given the number of problems, medical and otherwise, that means every woman should strive to put between 3 and 4 children on this world. And frankly, especially in Japan, if women are "baby making machines" they're not doing their job (and neither are the men, of course. But obviously babies don't appear out of nowhere and a woman will be out of comission for 5 months at least, not counting childcare afterwards. The man will not (maybe a week). Please direct all complaints to God (or Darwin, if you prefer). The chances for an answer seem limited).

Now obviously there are lots of ways one might induce women to have children. But none of the "stimulation" methods have worked in the west. At least not sufficiently to get to replacement level. So what is a society to do ? Those rural areas with "fewer acceptable roles", are much, much closer to 2.1 than the urban environments ...

Obviously, if this is true, and evolution works as advertised, then only societies with "fewer acceptable roles for women" will survive. The differences in reproduction worldwide between human groups are 800%. Given that entire species have disappeared as a result of less than 1% difference in fertility ....And before you say "that takes millenia". Well, no. A 1% difference in fertility will make the less productive species disappear in some 50 generations (if it's racial differences, interbreeding speeds up this process enormously, if cultural differences it is a lot faster still). For humans 50 generations would be a millenium. But the differences are not 1%, but up to 800% (and realistically the differences are 200% at least in western countries).

And frankly, what do you think is best for women. Life with "fewer acceptable roles", like in mid-20th-century rural environment in the west ? Or like today under the students of islam ("taliban" in pashtun) and their counterparts elsewhere ?

Re:Westerners

[wiredlogic]

If you ever run across the documentary called "Japan Land" you'll see the female adventurer treking about the country on her own. It's shown on PBS World from time to time.

In one of the episodes she manages to get a night in a capsule hotel and films herself getting in and out. She managed to get into a few other places where women aren't completely welcome and got to see some interesting things like standing in the middle of a sea of Yakuza during a temple festival.

Re:Westerners

[Yuuki Dasu]

As a western male living in Japan, I can attest that foreigners are (generally) accepted at capsule hotels.

The tattoo issue is one worth knowing about for visitors. I've never had trouble at capsule hotels, but at public baths and spas (sento and onsen) I've known most places to bar entry if you have visible ink. I find that most of them don't kick you out if you're already inside, though they might want you to be circumspect.

Re:Westerners

[MsGeek]

They aren't going to increase the Japanese population talking to women like that. One of the reasons why Japan is in the population fix it's in is because women have decided "Screw it, I'm having too much fun being single, and being a married woman is akin to a season in Hell anyway, especially if you are married to a First Son, so I'm going to live with my parents and spend my money on fashion and Host Clubs and Yaoi doujinshi."

The reason why women make the choice to become a "parasite single" is not just a rebellion against society's expectations of being a "good wife and good mother," but it has a lot to do also with the economic situation that pretty much started with the end of the Showa era and the beginning of the Heisei era. When the bubble economy burst in 1990, the earning power of the Japanese male burst as well. The old assumptions collapsed. You didn't graduate a prestigious university and get a job for life. Much of the excesses of Sarariman life was forgiven because, well, he would bring home the salary. Now, after the burst of the bubble economy, employment was scarce and tenuous.

Marriage had long ago evolved from a business arrangement between families to a partnership arrangement between a man and a woman -- love usually was way down the list even during the go-go '70s and '80s -- so the economic viability of the potential husband determined his marriageability. With so many young men graduating from university without the guarantees their fathers and grandfathers have, you wind up with with lots of single men and single women.

There is a huge stigma against birth out of wedlock in Japan, way more than in the West. So the economic and social situation means birth rates have plummeted.

You cannot simply wish away the current situation, or sloganize it away. This is the result of a social collapse unprecedented in Japanese society.

Pretty nice for an overnight stay

[JickL]

I stayed in a couple of capsule hotels during my trip to Japan in 2006. The good ones, such as one I can't remember the name of in Hakata, were great spa-like experiences which were still rather cheap. The worst one was actually in Shinjuku in Tokyo, where the capsules were badly ventilated and the in-hotel restaurant gave me food poisoning (cow-stomach ramen did not go down well in my own stomach, apparently).

Re:Smaller than Snowcrash?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am more reminded of the coffins from Gibson's Neuromancer.

Now we only need chicks with titan blades under fingernails...

Best place to spend a few weeks.

[nwanua]

I do feel for the poor chaps who must do it, but personally, I do this _every_ chance I get. Longest was about 2 weeks. I actually prefer capsules to conventional hotels: nice long saunas, a chance to meet and hang out with interesting people (rather than holing up in a room), it forces you to stay out (again, so you don't stay holed in), and you can't beat the price: $25-$35 a night, right in the middle of all the action.

You could also do pretty much the same at Internet Cafes. I've found the accommodation (couch+cubicle+snacks+internet+manga+games) to be far better than even most first-class flight cabins. You still need your everyday clothes on, so I'd stay there max 2 days.

Tip: best way to visit Japan: travel very light. Buy shaving supplies, soap, t-shirts, etc. at the local combini or 99 yen store. Instead of spend money at a single hotel, spend it traveling to different parts of the country: danjiri festival here, live music there, temple over there, robots over there, party over here. All without luggage to slow you down.

health care is free / payed for by all as well

[Joe The Dragon]

health care is free / payed for by all as well,

So people with out jobs can still get care

Smoke

[Rasperin]

When I traveled to Japan I ended up staying in a capsule hotel for one night. The problem (and only problem) I had with them is the fact that they allow smoking. Almost every japanese male (male only btw) smokes, as one of my old japanese coworkers said "You aren't a man if you don't smoke". Well, when you have 510 people smoking in a very very small building it becomes not only disgusting but I got really sick from it. After that day I stopped smoking, and haven't lit up since.

Re:Free vasectomys/tubal ligation.

[moosehooey]

Actually, Japan's population has been going down for a long time, and in fact that's one of their problems.

Re:Remember this is by Tokyo standards

[phantomfive]

It's cheap for an apartment or hotel. Looking over rent prices in Tokyo it seems an apartment isn't all that much more expensive than the San Francisco area, and it seems you can get one for around $850 if you're not too picky. It seems it would be cheaper to just get a roommate than to live in one of these boxes.

I'm casually calling BS

[Zadaz]

I've been thinking about this since I first saw it reported. I haven't been to Japan in two years, but I did live in central Tokyo for several years and I think I got a feel for the place. I know exactly where this hotel is and walked by it quite often.

A Shinjuku capsule hotels are not the cheapest in the city by any means. A $3 train ride can save you 50%. The only reason most people don't do that is because they missed the last train--not a problem for the unemployed.

And while yes, it is cheaper than a Tokyo apartment, many (most?) people who -work- in Tokyo can't afford to -live- there. They live out in the 'burbs, up in Saitama or down in Kawasaki or wherever, where you can get your own place for a lot less. Sure, it's an hour train ride to work, but in Tokyo that's pretty standard. And you'd get your own place rather than a luxury coffin.

I've talked to my friends who still work in central Tokyo trying to get conformation of this 'trend' but all of them have reported back that this is bogus. But none of them are homeless businessmen, so my sampling is biased.

This really can only work in Japan

[caywen]

The capsule motels, despite the cigarette smoke, are actually quite nice inside. The only reason this works is that the Japanese value cleanliness more than most other cultures, and even the perpetually unemployed tend to pick up their own trash. Here in San Francisco, I'm sure the floors would be riddled with needles and the stench would pervade over a 3 block radius.

Also, I'm pretty sure they like to rent out the lower bunks first as I can see major injuries occurring with drunken salarymen trying to get their head into the second row.

Japan is changing

[DesScorp]

"The fact that Japan's homelessness is large enough to now be visible is pretty shocking"

A lot of things about Japan would surprise people. But this is only going to get worse. I was reading this weekend about just how much trouble Japan is in. IIRC from the newspaper article, their national debt is 212% of the GDP, twice what the US's is. The savings rate for Japanese citizens used to average 10%. As the old have died off, and the less-numerous young entered adulthood, that rate has dropped precipitously to 3%. And there's much less home and real estate ownership on average in Japan than in the states. There may well be an impending debt crisis... some investors are actually betting against Japanese government bonds. So while the US is hurting, Japan is too. They've just done a better job of hiding it, but that's changing.

Even better

[patbernier]

Nowadays, if you're willing to stay even just a little bit outside of the Yamanote loop line, and if you know where to look (hint: online, especially if you can read a bit of Japanese, in which case Jalan.net is the place to go), you can get small hotel rooms for the same price as capsule hotels in Tokyo.

I should know: I'm sitting in such a room right now. The place where I'm staying has weekly rates which rival the cheapest apartment room rentals -- which usually have the inconvenience of requiring upfront monthly payments, deposits, and often "key money" and "gift money" (unless dealing with special agencies like Sakura House who specialize in housing foreigners, the first month of rent can easily cost you four times the normal rent, and we haven't talked about the utilities yet)

Since this is /. : did I mention that my room has top-notch Internet connectivity? I was downloading stuff from my Montreal-based "home" server at over 50 Mb/s yesterday night! You get an Ethernet jack in the room, and the place is blanketed with free wifi. (Of course you still end up behind a NAT, but I don't think I've ever seen a hotel handing out public IPs...)

The hotel is split in smoking and non-smoking floors, and there's even a women-only floor. There's a coin laundry on the first floor, nice bathing and toilet facilities (cleaner than most 6000-8000 yen/night downtown Shinjuku business hotels I've stayed in), microwave ovens and hot water on each floor... With convenience stores and 100yen shops close by, it makes it really easy to live on a shoestring budget even in this supposedly extremely expensive city.

And this place is far from unique: hell, there's another one just like it right across the street.

Did I mention the best part yet? Unlike most budget hotels... there are virtually no noisy foreigners here!

Which is why I won't tell you where it is ;->

Re:Remember this is by Tokyo standards

[Ihmhi]

Not to mention finding a co-signer... in Japan, you need to have someone co-sign on your lease. This is much like co-signing on a loan and the Japanese treat it about as seriously. It's a huge obstacle to anyone foreign trying to get an apartment or something (who would sign for a gaijin?).

Moreover, it's also kinda evil. If you're alone, you'd have a hard time finding a co-signer. But this essentially prevents non-Japanese couples from getting an apartment. If you marry someone who's Japanese, that person will surely have relatives who would be glad to co-sign. But if you are married to someone who isn't a native, then you're going to have a difficult time finding a co-signer.