Weekend Trip: Day 1 Osaka

In Osaka we stayed at a capsule hotel. Capsule hotels were originally designed for business men who need a quick and cheap place to stay when they couldn't make the last train or had to stay in the city for the night. The hotel provides everything you need from pjs to toothbrushes, hairbrushes and laundry machines. You could easily show up with very little and be just fine.

We chose this hotel cause it was cheap! Only 3800 yen/person/night (~$40). Compared to the average hotel that is closer to $100/person/night, it was great! This particular hotel was more like a hostel and it reminded me a lot of traveling in Europe with Laura. Since there were 4 girls in our group, we paid a little extra than the average capsule to have our own private room. If you don't have a private room, you are just one capsule in a giant room of many beds. You have a locker to put your bag in. Since we had our own room, we could just leave our bags out.

The bathroom is a typical Japanese style onsen bathroom. You shower with strangers (in the open, there are no curtains or stalls or anything). The bathrooms are obviously divided in to men and women sides though. It sounds strange for westerners and it was definitely strange the first time, but now it seems pretty normal.

The capsules were pretty spacious. The width of a twin bed and it was tall enough for me to sit up. Each one has it's own TV (and coin slot for the porn channels, nice), light, radio, alarm clock and little shelves. There is also a screen that you can pull closed. Our private room also came with tables and chairs, a fan and our own AC unit!

Check that J experience off my list! I wouldn't stay here when traveling with Glenn, but with our group of all girls, it worked perfect!