Japan for the Uninvited

Missed the last train again? Too drunk to go home to your wife? Unfussy about personal space and privacy? Try one of Japan’s world famous capsule hotels.

For many, sleeping in a plastic coffin is unappealing, especially as a thin curtain is all that separates you from up to 50 slumbering bodies, and many hotels only offer communal bathing facilities.

However, for the average salaryman in a bind, these hotels are cheap, convenient, and more comfortable than the pavement.

Ladies hoping for a night entombed with a group of potentially-dangerous strangers will be disappointed - most hotels are for men only.

• Capsule Hotels
  A foreign visitor’s experience
  
• ‘Japan’s coffin sized $30 Capsule Hotel’
  Selection of photos from a capsule hotel
  
• Japan’s capsule hotels
  
• ‘Japan Clich? No. 4: Capsule Hotels’ (Slate)
  

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