Capsule hotel tells you how many times you snore during the night
22 May, 2022
There are so many capsule hotels to choose from in Japan, but if you want to stay at one that tells you how many times you snore during the night, you’ll want to book yourself into 9 Hours Woman Shinjuku.
As the name suggests, this particular branch of the trendy 9 Hours capsule hotel chain is a women’s-only establishment, and it just opened in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on April 29.
Luckily for us, this new branch is situated a 30-second walk from our office, so our reporter Ikuna Kamezawa decided to check in to the hotel after work, relishing the chance to avoid the long commute home and back again the next day. It didn’t take long for her to arrive at the newest 9 Hours, which has 14 locations nationwide, two of which are women’s-only, including this one. This would be Ikuna’s first-ever stay at a capsule hotel so she had no idea what to expect, but she was glad to see the entrance seemed warm and inviting.
As soon as she stepped inside, she found there was no traditional check-in desk with staff on hand. Instead, guests are required to use the smart check-in machines.
If there are vacancies, you can stay without a prior reservation, but if you want to ensure you secure a capsule for the night, it’s best to make a reservation in advance. And although the place is called “9 Hours”, stays aren’t limited to nine hours — check-in is from 2 p.m., with checkout by 10 a.m. the next day.
After checking in, Ikuna received the above card, which also doubled as a locker key. Upon opening her locker, she found a bag which contained three towels, a toothbrush, a pair of slippers and a set of lounge clothes, or “in-house wear”.
As the capsules aren’t locked, guests are advised to keep their valuables in these lockers, so that’s what Ikuna did, while taking the 9 Hours bag with her to use during her stay. In order to keep her capsule squeaky clean, Ikuna decided to stop off at the shower rooms first, which are conveniently located on the lower three floors of the 10-storey building, along with the washbasins and lockers.
The only communal area where you might come into contact with other people is at the washbasin, but during Ikuna’s stay, she had the area to herself.
Feeling refreshed by her shower, Ikuna made her way to her capsule — her first-ever capsule. While she’d previously had an image of capsule hotels as being musty, old places filled with snoring salarymen, that definitely wasn’t the case here.
It was like walking onto a sci-fi movie set, and as Ikuna crawled into her capsule she felt as if she might be making a journey into outer space.
Source: japantoday.com
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