I would love it if we had capsule hotels where I live — or more importantly, where I travel to. They’re neat. I want to try one once. If you’re unfamiliar, they’re oversized caskets you enter from the foot end. There’s a mat in there, a small TV, and a place to set your stuff. You can sit up in one but not stand. Get in, shut and lock the roll down door, charge your stuff, maybe watch a little TV, and sleep. No bathrooms. Typically there are men and women floors and you’re not allowed on the opposite gender floor. Each floor has one or more bathrooms and a communal bath. Not trans friendly at all. (Also if you have tattoos, you’re not allowed in their communal baths. Like they’re contagious or something.) Also not for couples. Couples have to each get their own, doubling the cost of staying there — more economical to use a traditional hotel at that point.
Pretty sure the tattoo thing in the baths is related to keeping out Yakuza, not actually anything related to the tattoos themselves.
Makes a lot of sense actually, but I have heard that the tattoos themselves are thought of as “unclean” in a way that the bath cannot clean. Makes me think of, back in the early 90s, we were so afraid to use a drinking fountain, like in public, after someone who was infected with HIV had used it. You know, the big AIDS scare. We didn’t know it couldn’t be transmitted that way. I always felt like the tattoo taboo in Japan had similar energy.
correct, and from what I’ve heard often much less of a problem if you’re clearly a foreigner.
if you’re covered in tats you might run into some trouble but I’ve talked to some people with pretty obvious tattoos who said they were allowed in the majority of onsens they tried.
Those seem really neat if you’re the kind of person that can sleep on an airplane. They’re not comfortable, they don’t block enough sound, and less than ideal if you’re not traveling alone.
