Capsule Hotel in Tokyo
I slept at a capsule hotel, called Green Plaza Shinjuku Capsule Hotel. Boy, you’ve got to experience sleeping in a capsule hotel, which is more like sleeping inside your own tomb. 🙂
“Yes, I’d recommend it for the bizarre experience of it!” 😀
I was blown away by the 630 tomb-like capsules where most customers are ranging from yuppies to salaried Japanese men who missed their trains or just finished having “fun” in the nearby KABUCHIKO, Tokyo’s red lights district where flesh is the name of the trade.
The capsule hotel is not really a hotel but cramped spaces which measures 1 meter high, 1 meter width and 2 meters long.
HOW TO CHECK IN AT GREEN PLAZA CAPSULE HOTEL IN TOKYO
Green Plaza Shinjuku Capsule Hotel has impressive facilities to boot.
While the women are on the 9th floor, the men are on the 4th floor. Separate entrance, of course!
When you get inside, you take your shoes off and choose one of the shoe lockers right in front of you. Bring the key to the receptionist and and pay. She / He will give you another key to your locker which is soooooo tiny.
If you have a huge backpack, ask the receptionist to keep it in their bigger locker room. As a law in Japan, foreign guests have to present their passport when checking in. After paying, the receptionist will give you short pajamas and you can proceed to your assigned locker.
Take your clothes off and changed to your short pajamas. In the locker room, there’s a clean bathroom and disposable toothbrushes, lotion, cologne, hand sanitizer, etc…
After that, check your capsule on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. The first number indicates the floor area where your tomb / capsule is.
The main bath, three saunas and an outdoor bath are located on the 6th floor. Undies and other clothings are not allowed, so, you know what to do. Leave your pajamas at a small counter and remember the box number where you left them. No, there’s no locker. Just a counter.
Pick up a towel and go inside the sauna or shower room. The hotel provides shower and bathroom toiletries, including disposable razors.
After your shower, you can dip into a huge hot spring pool (onsen) to relax and even sleep. It’s very therapeutic after a long day of walking and sightseeing.
When you are ready to experience sleeping in a capsule, grab another dry towel. In the same room where you left your pajamas, there’s a huge space for beautifying yourself. Huge mirrors, lotions, gels, hair dryer (I don’t use it, of course!), after-shave cologne, etc…
What’s inside the capsule? It has a pillow, quilt, soft tatami, small TV, radio, alarm clock, reading light, smoke detector, etc… And oh, if you want to watch porn, you can do that, too—but you’ve got to buy some card (I think around 500 yen) from the receptionist.
If you’re hungry, go up to the 5th floor. The restaurant is open for 24 hours. Food here is not free. Order and settle the bill before you check out.
If you want to relax, the 6th floor is good for you. They have tatamis on the floor and a smoking area. In the adjacent room, there’s a computer room with limited computers. Though there is no wifi, they provide ADSL with no problem connecting to the internet.
Check out is at 10:00 a.m. for cleaning purposes.
Check in time is at 3:00 p.m.
If you wanna stay for another night or nights, you need to check out and you can leave your things at the locker room and be back at after 3:00 p.m.
The capsule hotel is very clear of NOT allowing people with TATTOOS.
If Green Plaza Capsule Hotel is full, there’s another hostel in Shinjuku where I stayed. It’s called, Ace Inn Shinjuku. You have to tell them that you want the capsule, not the a bed.
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