Staff Blog

Last month, my American friends visited Japan, and I took them around Tokyo. They have been to Japan a few times, so they are used to Japanese culture. Therefore, they wanted to see something that ordinary tourists do not. Like other Japanese people, they enjoy going to Karaoke, and eating Japanese food. For me, it was more like to take JAPANESE friends coming to visit Tokyo. Therefore, it was really hard to find the places which satisfied them well. Until the last moment, I did the great job to satisfy their demands. However, their last request was the most difficult one. At the end of their trip, they asked me to take a place. To be honest, I have never visited that place. I think, for most of Japanese, that place is not so pleasing. The place was a capsule hotel. This request was quite confusing for me. Most of international tourists, especially the Westerners, complain how small the Japanese hotels or apartments are. Actually, I have lived in foreign countries for seven years, so I do understand their feelings. However, my American friends wanted to visit the smallest hotel rooms in this world. I was not so excited on the way to the capsule hotel. However, once I got to the capsule hotel, I was stunned by its facilities. At first, they had a Jacuzzi. This is nothing special. Most of capsule hotels have Jacuzzis. However, the one I visited had a very nice Jacuzzi. For me, it was worth paying money just to take the Jacuzzi. Furthermore, the capsule hotel had some karaoke rooms. Those karaoke rooms were as nice as the ones you saw around the city. Even though you need to pay some for using the karaoke rooms, I thought it would be great to go to bed right after we sang songs. Unfortunately, we did not use the karaoke rooms. It was because all of us were horrible singers. We just did not want to disturb other people in the hotel. Finally, I need to talk about the bed. This is the main point of staying at a capsule hotel. My first impression was not that bad. The bed was quite neat. For me, it was odd to be surrounded by walls. I hope that everybody agrees with this point. Other than that, because I was quite tired, I fell asleep very quickly. So, this was my first stay at the capsule hotel. Even I am Japanese, the experience was quite interesting. Thus, I guess this experience would be more amusing for international tourists. I highly recommend international tourists to stay at capsule hotels.