Travellers' Checks | Japan’s sleeping pods: once frequented by salarymen, capsule hotels now eye solo travellers
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Designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa and located just south of Tokyo’s Ginza district, the futuristic Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in 1972. The striking main structure was a central concrete-and-steel tower surrounded by 140 removable accommodation pods. Seven years later, Kurokawa designed the first capsule hotel, the Capsule Inn Osaka – a more successful approach to his modular, Metabolist style. It’s said the hotel’s opening coincided with a steep increase in taxi fares, making it a practical and economical alternative for late-working salarymen from the suburbs.
As well as a co-working space and common kitchen area, the hotel offers more than 150 app-controlled hi-tech sleeping pods, fitted with silent alarms that gradually raise the angle of the bed and slowly brighten the lights at a set time.
