They look like they belong together, no?

I got to stay in some pretty sweet places while shooting TofuguTV stuff, but I gotta say this was one of the coolest. I stayed in two capsule hotels. One sucked, and one was awesome. This is the awesome one. It was like Steve Jobs decided to stop making iPhones and iPads, and open a hotel chain. He’d say things like “This capsule hotel is our thinnest ever.” Or just plain stick with “Staying here is magical.” And I gotta say, it kind of was magical.

Capsule Hotel “9h”

9h (ナインアワーズ) Capsule Hotel is a very modern twist on the normally grungy, tiny, not-all-that-great capsule hotel scene going on in Japan. If I were a drunk salaryman looking for a place to stay for a few hours between overtime shifts (or between my binge drinking and my overtime shift) I’d stay here over anywhere else. It’s convenient, it’s clean, and it just feels good being here.

Taken by Gakuranman from Gakuranman.com (awesome blog! Go take a look).

Just like a lot of capsule hotels, you pay by the hour. Depending on when you’re there, it can be either 900 yen (base fee) + 300 yen/hour, or 900 yen base fee + 400 yen/hour. If you stay for around 9 hours (that’s 30 minutes of getting ready to sleep, 8 hours of sleeping, and then 30 minutes to get ready to go) then you’re probably going to pay around $50-$60, which isn’t all that bad if you compare it to most hotels (though a lot of hostels will be cheaper, just not as cool).

Everything is streamlined really well, though. You go inside, take off your shoes (and put them in a locker), go shower / wash up, go to your capsule to sleep, wake up, wash up, then check out. It’s all rather easy and simple, and there are signs all over the floors telling you what to do (whew).

By Gakuranman

After you’ve washed up and checked in, you go to your capsule to sleep. In this particular capsule hotel, there are men’s and women’s floors (though lots of capsule hotels don’t allow women). You can see which capsules are being occupied (below) by the slippers and whether or not the shade is drawn (looks like this room is pretty full).

Me and the The Gakuranman stayed here together. You can see how there’s two slippers nearby because we’re sleeping in the same capsule no slippers too close to each other because we were staying in capsules that weren’t the same capsules.

You’re given all the things you need to sleep, too. You get a toothbrush, towels, and even sleeping clothes (which, sadly, aren’t black turtle necks and jeans) that are really nice (I wish I could’ve bought a set). You even get some 9h branded water. That’s how hardcore they are here.

They do not bill you by the hour for water, thankfully

Some futuristic PJs

Private showers that lead into the public bath (i.e. after you take a shower you keep on going through the shower to the bath – it’s awesome!)

There’s even 9h branded shampoo, conditioner, and soap

Wake-Up Alarm System

Gakuranman looking to see how late it was. Time to go Haikyoing!

One of my favorite things is the alarm system. Since it’d wake everyone up if you had sound alarms (bleep bleep bleeeep!) 9h came up with a cool solution…. they us light to wake you up. Like a big old flash of light. You can see this happening in the video below:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWKxBCMwwkY']

Totally didn’t wake me up because I suck at waking up to any kind of alarm, but still pretty sweet nonetheless. I’m sure normal people wake up to it.

You Should Go

Click on the map to see this in Google Maps

It was a lot of fun and worth experiencing! If you’re visiting Japan, chances are you’ll head to Kyoto (at least if you’re doing touristy things), so you might as well hit it up. Right next to an ampm, too, and ampm in Japan is awesome (in America not so much)! Hope you enjoy!

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