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.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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: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.

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.