We’ve been tracking third spaces in Japan for a while, both in a general way and to look for innovations amongst these lifestyle trends.
Capsule hotels are almost symbolic of urban Japan: minimal to the point of austerity; bizarre to the point of alienation. Anyone who has stayed in one knows the drill; you check in usually on a floor in a multi-story building, before proceeding to your capsule somewhere else among double rows of space-age white coffins. Crawling inside you find a long box with a TV at one end. Washing is done in the communal bathroom (don’t be shy). Needless to say, these establishments are often male-only and favored by salarymen on cheap travel budgets.
[Image via Dandy Hotel.]
Well, that might be about to change. We previously reported on the cashless First Cabin capsule hotel in Namba, Osaka, which has internet access, massage parlors and more.
And now 9h (”Nine Hours”) has opened in Kyoto, taking the capsule hotel to 2001: A Space Odyssey levels! The appropriately nine-story building in Kyoto center has co-ed areas, as well as segregated male and female floors. Capsule numbers and genders are noted on the walls and floors by illustration (very easy for foreign guests to understand).
[Image courtesy of DesignBoom.]
Inside the pods guests will find themselves lulled into sweet dreams by the Panasonic sleep environment system and adjustable lighting. There are currently no TVs or radios, creating a much more natural atmosphere than standard capsules. We imagine it must be like hyper-sleep in sci-fi movies. There are even special pajamas and pillows.
Much of the design and production was supervised by the CEO of the hotel, Keisuke Yui, who drew from his experience working as a KDDI au phone designer. The name comes from research indicating guests shower for an hour, sleep for seven and take an hour getting up and leaving — thus creating a nine-hour hotel stay in total.
9h takes capsule hotels to the next level at a cost, however, as the price of a one-night stay is currently nearly 5,000 JPY ($50), which rather removes the budgetary reason for choosing to stay in a pod.
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