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Travellers' Checks | Japan’s sleeping pods: once frequented by salarymen, capsule hotels now eye solo travellers

Also in travel news: a Chiang Mai package for Hongkongers looking for a quick getaway, starting from US$330

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Nagakin Capsule Tower, in Tokyo.

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.

The Millennials Kyoto.
The Millennials Kyoto.
After decades of catering mostly to businessmen, Japanese capsule hotels have recently been welcoming more foreign guests, both male and female. The country’s latest capsule hotel is going even further, aiming specifically for the overseas millennial crowd – in both name and design. The Millennials Kyoto intends to upgrade the capsule experience by “integrating technology and social spaces to bring a utilitarian concept into the realm of semi-luxury”.

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.

For further details and opening rates, visit themillennials.jp/en.
The interior of a Millennials capsule hotel.
The interior of a Millennials capsule hotel.
If you prefer the old-school approach, the Capsule Inn Osaka is still accepting men only with a Japanese-language website at umedasauna-newjapan.jp.
Adam has lived in Hong Kong since 1988. He briefly managed the demise of the Wanderlust travel bookshop on Hollywood road in the mid 1990s, then worked as Associate Editor on Cathay Pacific’s inflight magazine Discovery for several years. He began writing Travellers’ Checks for Post Magazine in 1998, working for several years under the pseudonym Peter Walbrook. A former contributing editor for the exclusive luxury travel guide NB Review, he has also edited several books, including the first-ever travel guide to Uzbekistan in 1996, and 'The Amazing Adventures of Betsy And Niki' (2008) by Captain Charles “Chic” Eather. His non-fiction book 'The Great Fire of Hong Kong', was published in 2010.
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