Capsule hotels are the ultimate in space-efficient sleeping: for a nominal fee (often under ￥4,000), the guest rents himself a capsule, sized about 2x1x1 meters and stacked in two rows inside a hall containing tens if not hundreds of capsules. Capsule hotels are invariably segregated by sex and only a few cater to women. They target business men and people who missed the last train.

On entry to a capsule hotel, take off your shoes, place them in a locker and put on a pair of slippers. You will often have to surrender your locker key at check-in to insure that you do not slip out without paying! On checking in you will be give a second locker for placing your belongings, as there is no space for them in the capsule and little security as most capsules have simply a curtain, not a door.

Many if not most capsule hotels are attached to a spa of varying degrees of luxury and/or dubiosity, often so that entry to the spa costs (say) ￥2000 but the capsule is only an additional ￥1000. Other, cheaper capsule hotels will require feeding in 100-yen coins even to get the shower to work. This being Japan, there are always vending machines on hand to dispense toothpaste, underwear and such sundries.

Once you retire into your capsule, you will usually find a simple control panel for operating the lights, the alarm clock and the inevitable built-in TV. Sweet dreams! But don't oversleep or you may be hit with another day's charge.

Another way to find a last minute capsule hotel is asking at the "koban,"the police box. In busy areas like Shibuya or Tokyo, they have maps listed with places to stay including hotels, capsule hotels and ryokans.

	Club Tocoo - Hotels, ryokan and minshuku from 1250 Yen per night.
	Jalan - Japanese website with information on places to stay.
	About Japan - Comprehensive list of capsule hotels in Japan.
	Justin's Capsule - A person's experience at a capsule hotel, love hotel, and Japan.