Extended Living Capsule Hotels

this was originally a CNN News video story, posted in January of this year.

LINK TO STORY

There is a video on the page but i also have found the CNN report on youtube here, i beleive they are the same footage



Basically somewhere in Tokyo they had been renting out small coffin sized sleep areas. Mainly for people who get too drunk and can't safely get home, or for bussiness men on the go.

The room itself is slightly enough to sit up in ( probably not large enough for a tall westerner to sit up completely in ) along with a TV, radio and bed.

however, due to economic strain, the 'poor working class' have now been benifiting to using them as cheap homes!

Japan's recession last year made finding work even tougher. Japan's corporations laid off thousands of temporary, part-time workers. These workers, who make up a third of Japan's workforce, have fewer legal protections than full-time employees.

so how much are they?

The capsules cost about $30 a night. If he had to stay for a month, it would cost $700 to $1000, a housing bargain in Tokyo, ranked by Mercer as the world's most expensive city.

not really much else there, just some interesting info there.



[edit on 8/20/2010 by indigothefish]

[edit on 8/20/2010 by indigothefish]

It's a really, really old news...

I stayed in one, while in Tokyo, in mid-90s.

Mildly curious thing, and that's about it.

reply to post by buddhasystem


i'm prety sure i heard about them during most of their era of 'nightly use' when i was living in japan, but now to hear they are just being used more frequently by the working class to make a cheap place of living, i just don't even know what to think haha

Deleted





[edit on 20-8-2010 by ATLien]

They also tried to design a capsule apartment building. It really hasn't taken off though. But limited space in Tokyo is how it is. If you go to a bar, usually about 4 or 5 people can sit there.. you can stretch your arms out and just about touch both walls. Their typical square footage is a fraction of what we are used to. Most apartments the bathrooms are outside and shared. And they pay a lot more than we do.

Those capsule hotels are kind of neat honestly. They use them because the average commute for anyone in Tokyo is 3 hours (both ways) - it's sometimes easier to just grab a night there, instead of dealing with the commute.

Gibson wrote about this in Neuromancer decades ago.

imho - it was important then; it's even more important now...