September 24, 2025 — 5:00am
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Got itThis article is part of Traveller’s Destination Guide to Tokyo. See all stories.
There’s no view, not even a window, no telly and you make your own bed. As far as I can tell, only two people work here – the day-shift lady and the night bloke.
But this is no comically so-bad-it’s-good dive that might inspire John Cleese to write about a hotel. Instead, judging this place on what it lacks is chronically unfair.
Capsule hotels are a quirky and cheap accommodation option, dotted all over Japan.
For those of us who get a tickle of thrill opening the door of a hotel room, staying in a capsule hotel is novel. You won’t get throw pillows, room service or cool, crisp sheets. Instead, the concept is strictly transactional: quick, clean, convenient and cheap, for a good sleep in return.
Japan, one of the world’s most innovative countries, does the capsule hotel particularly well.
There are dozens of these pod places across Japan, and what began more than 40 years ago as a smart idea for travelling businessmen needing beds near train stations has become an affordable accommodation option for visitors and a fun way to spend a night in a country with its share of quirky curios. So, keen to try the experience for novelty’s sake, we book one night. As a bonus, it is by far the cheapest accommodation of our trip.
Our family of four (including son, 17, and daughter, 13) is staying at 9h Nine Hours Sleep Lab in Hamamatsucho near Tokyo Tower. It is in a handily placed laneway off a main road, where eating options and the nearest train station are within a five-minute walk.
9h Nine Hours in Hamamatsucho, Tokyo has dozens of clean, quiet sleeping pods on gendered floors.
The hotel is spotlessly clean throughout, and there’s no superficial attempt to make the place more welcoming. The L-shaped reception area has a counter for check-ins and for guests to store luggage while they explore the city until bedtime.
Paying for a sleep pod comes with a locker on a separate floor to store your suitcase, as there’s only space for a handful of items in each capsule.
Pods have dimmable lights, a shelf and charging sockets.Adam Cooper
Guests stay on gendered floors, and on the fifth, my son and I find about 30 sleeping pods spread across an area about 20 metres long, one row at floor level and the other row three ladder rungs above.
Each capsule is about two metres long and about 1.2 metres high and wide, with a doona and sheet to spread yourself. The pods are clean, simple and Space Odyssey swish, and have a dimmable light, charging sockets for devices and a small shelf.
The limit on space means you literally crawl in to bed, but you can comfortably sit up and there’s loads more room than in a single camping swag.
We’ve had a busy evening with dinner, a visit to the top of the tower and train trips in between, so sleep should come easily. For guests wanting to sit in comfort, there is a quiet communal lounge on the 10th floor, where people eat takeaway or hunch over laptops.
Spending the night in a large room close to strangers used to be par for the course when travelling. But unlike backpacker hostels, which are often frequented by loud revellers, my son and I find our section deathly quiet. A handful of capsules have roller blinds pulled down, and there’s not a peep from anyone inside.
There’s plenty of room to stretch out.Adam Cooper
When it comes to noise in public places, Japan takes silence seriously – phone calls on trains are a no-no, drivers rarely blast horns, streets are not for yelling – and this place prohibits phone calls, loud noises, and talking and eating in sleep areas. We make an extra effort to button it, even stifling a shriek when bashing a shin on a ladder rung.
It’s a touch warm with the central heating on, but come the next morning, we all report good sleeps, albeit the girls had a bulldozer snoring nearby. The gendered floors and elevators meant everyone felt safe.
Large gendered bathrooms are excellent and full of travellers readying for their next leg and, pleasingly, a handful of business types adjusting ties and smoothing shirts. It always feels a lot more authentic when following the local lead.
My son gets his kicks from sport and science and requested a sleep analysis in his capsule, which included camera monitoring. When the email lands a few days later, he reports he had seven hours of deep sleep and rolled over 24 times.
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One night’s stay at 9h Nine Hours for four of us is much cheaper than the rest of our accommodation in Japan, and the quirk and convenience made it easily the most memorable. Are they suitable for families? Our teenagers loved it and felt very safe, but capsule hotels might be tricky for younger kids, given the emphasis on quiet. Also, the pods could be a tight squeeze if a parent needs to lie next to a restless child.
The capsule concept is perfect for solo visitors, particularly for business travellers like Michael Keaton in 1986’s Working Class Man, who are travelling light. For those on longer visits, I’m unsure how long you could go without wanting to flop on a bed and speak louder than a whisper.
Still, in a country that thrives on efficiency, the capsule hotel is a clever concept and a great way to get a cheap breather.
THE DETAILS
Visit
Prices for a capsule at 9h Nine Hours (ninehours.co.jp/hamamatsucho) vary, but expect to pay anything from about ¥5200 ($56) a night, which includes a locker and bathroom access. Sleep analysis is free and optional. There are several other 9h Nine Hours hotels across Tokyo, including in Osaka, Fukuoka, Sendai and Nagoya.
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Fly
There are numerous options for daily flights from Melbourne and Sydney to Tokyo, with same-day connections to other cities. Try Japan Airlines (jal.co.jp), All Nippon Airways (ana.co.jp), Qantas (qantas.com) and Jetstar (jetstar.com).
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japan.travel
The writer travelled at his own expense.
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Default avatarAdam Cooper joined The Age in 2011 after a decade with AAP. Email or tweet Adam with your news tips.Connect via Twitter or email.Traveller GuidesFrom our partners
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