My night in a capsule

2 meters by one meter by one meter. Or, if you're counting, 2 cubic meters. That's how big my bedroom was last night. And it wasn't so bad!

The capsule hotel exists in Tokyo for two reasons: (1) it's a very expensive city and accommodation can be crushing to the wallet and (2) the superb public transit system stops abruptly at 12 midnight, so it's fairly easy to get stranded in the city. Turns out while they are less expensive, they're not exactly cheap: mine was 3700 yen, or about $40.

It works a little bit like this. You go in, take your shoes off, put them in a little locker. You then give that key and your yen to the desk clerk, who gives you a wristband with a key and a number on it. The key is for your locker in the locker room.

The smallness of the place extends to the locker room too. There's basically room for a suit and a briefcase in these irregularly shaped lockers. You change into your pjs, helped by the provided yukata (cotton robe). Then, you venture upstairs to your assigned floor (mine was 9) and see a row and stacks of capsules. Mine were 2 high and about 5 across. The front is open, with a little wood curtain you can pull down. Inside there is a tv, light, radio, alarm clock, and air conditioning. That's it!

When fully ensconced in my capsule, I had about one inch of space beyond my head to the wall and another inch from my feet to the wood curtain.

It turned out to be totally straightforward, a lot less sketchy than I imagined, and a decent night of sleep. And now I can say that I've slept in a box!