Section two

Capsule Hotels

The capsule hotel is a format with rules: a sleeping unit rather than a room, shared washing floors, and everything else stripped out. These four sit at different points on that scale, from the bare minimum to something close to a small cabin.

Nine Hours Shinjuku-North

Tokyo, Japan

Nine Hours built its name on a simple arithmetic: an hour to wash, seven to sleep, an hour to get ready. The Shinjuku-North house keeps to that, with a white-on-white interior stripped of nearly everything except the pod, the shower block and the locker.

Pods are moulded units stacked two high along quiet corridors, each with its own blind, light and alarm. It is not a hotel for lingering in — there are no sprawling lounges — and the design is honest about that. For a night between trains, or a short stay where the room is only somewhere to sleep, it does exactly what it sets out to do.

The Millennials Kyoto

Kyoto, Japan

The Millennials stretched the capsule format towards something more like a studio. Each unit holds a bed that reclines electrically into a sofa, a small projector aimed at the ceiling, and enough room to sit up and work without leaving the pod.

Downstairs there is a long shared lounge that fills up with people on laptops during the day, which gives the place a different rhythm from a pure sleeping house. The Kawaramachi setting puts the covered shopping arcades and the river within a few minutes' walk.

First Cabin Akasaka

Tokyo, Japan

First Cabin borrows the language of air travel: units are sold as cabins rather than capsules, and the larger grades give you standing room, a full-length bed and a lockable door panel rather than a curtain. The step up in size is the whole proposition.

The Akasaka house sits in an office district, which shapes its clientele — a lot of weekday guests arriving late and leaving early. A large communal bath on site does more work here than a room-by-room shower would, and it is the part regulars tend to mention first.

Anshin Oyado Shinjuku Ekimae

Tokyo, Japan

Anshin Oyado runs at the more comfortable end of the capsule scale, closer to a small bathhouse with sleeping units attached than to a budget dormitory. The bathing floor, with its sauna and rest area, is where guests actually spend their evening.

Capsules themselves are conventional in size but carefully maintained, and the house keeps strict quiet hours. It is a men-only property, which is worth knowing before booking. The station is close enough that the walk barely counts as one.