A grave decision: Sleeping in a Pod
„Capsule hotels are a unique form of accommodation developed for working Japanese men who are too busy to go home“ says the website for Amazing Places, Wonderful People and Weird Stuff. Far too tired to grasp their whereabouts, the too-busy men happily clambered into coffin-sized compartments to spend the night snuggled up against walls at best sealed by a tiny door. Nowadays, emancipated capsule hotels also cater to too-busy women – following the principle of: different gender, different floors, decency guaranteed. That capsule hotels are not for the claustrophobic, is self- understood – but even those with an imperturbable mind frame and without a space and washroom sharing problem may want to think twice before checking into one of the battery-style facilities: Many a foreign neighbour is stretched out in loop holes aligned to the left or the right, hovering overhead or snoring underneath, all separated only by sometimes skinny partitions.