Bathia_Mapes: Granted it's not the best of situations, but it's got to be better than sleeping on the street or in an overcrowded homeless shelter.

My thoughts exactly. Especially since you can use it as an address for job interviews.

Looks like the Fhloston Paradise transport ship the 5th Element



oh and

"The capsules have no doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows."

Sounds like they could get some good blokey camaraderie going. Catcalling and farting after lights out, whipping each others arses with towels, swapping tentacle porn and schoolgirl underwear...

what's that? The Wal-mart housing sector?

Oh wow, a hotel for hikikomori.

I've officially seen everything.

Well, I suppose that beats sleeping under a bridge, here in the U.S.

Can we say, "Thank you Mr. Bush"?

"I'll be in my bunk."

45 Years ago, this was called the YMCA. I guess the rooms were a little larger.

Seems you could open one of these on the cheap by leasing commercial space next to an exercise club with monthly rates.

Ambrotos: Oh wow, a hotel for hikikomori.

I've officially seen everything.

Actually, they'd be more like neets. FTFM

Bathia_Mapes: Granted it's not the best of situations, but it's got to be better than sleeping on the street or in an overcrowded homeless shelter.

I'm assuming that this is the option for people who still have some salary to get them barely through. I'd equate the circumstances for living in Japanese plastic coffin hotels with the American regular room-to-scratch-your-ass hotels.

If course, I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about. I can say with a lot of certainty that they probably have a lot of people living out in the streets.

Iron Chef Scottish:

Sounds like they could get some good blokey camaraderie going. Catcalling and farting after lights out, whipping each others arses with towels, swapping tentacle porn and schoolgirl underwear...

...or as I like to call it, "Tuesday."

32.5 square feet x 3' (or so) high = $640/ month


OUCH!

Christ, that made me sad.

Yeesh, that's a bleak read. It's like something out of depressing sy-fy...I mean sci-fi (dammit!) where the future is one giant sh*t sandwich.

The scene that article paints--along with all the other divisive noise that seems to have penetrated every aspect of life--makes me wonder if in ten years we'll be looking back at this decade and thinking "Those were the good ol' days."

Iron Chef Scottish: "The capsules have no doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows."

Sounds like they could get some good blokey camaraderie going. Catcalling and farting after lights out, whipping each others arses with towels, swapping tentacle porn and schoolgirl underwear...

Like living in a barracks...

Doesn't sound that bad to me. Better than the street.

This makes an interesting companion piece to the NYC hipsters who pay full price for the 5'x10' apartments...what was that, two weeks ago?

jessicat: Doesn't sound that bad to me. Better than the street.

Having lived in a car when I was little, it's novelty wears off quick

When I was little, some 20-odd years ago, I remember seeing this kind of hotel on "Ripley's Believe it or Not." Like the article says, they were used by businessmen who had too much sake and missed the last train. I'm with Bathia: it beats sleeping on a sidewalk/park bench in the bitter cold, and is one step above the route some folks desperate for "3 hots and a cot" take: jail.

What time do the trains in Tokyo stop running? When I was there a few years back, I remember getting the train around 4-5am after a night out. I just assumed they were 24 hour or something.

/Tokyo is a crazy place
//Safe too, though
///Don't try to use chopsticks when intoxicated

That place reminds me of my oversized chest of drawers designed by Carl Farbman.

Hey live with it! It's called Capitalism! And by extension freedom!

I don't say any other way than giving everything to less than the wealthiest 1% of a country and waiting for them to trickle it down to the rest of us ungrateful bastards.

You should consider yourself lucky as to live in such progressive and modern times.

I don't understand why this kind of place isn't a model for large cities with huge incomer populations like New York. IMHO, when I was 18, I'd have lived in one of these places for 3 months to make enough cash to afford a 'real' place. I know about a bazillion Backpackers that would do it as well.

/the problem comes when you start admitting chicks.

Disapproves.

Apartment building? This place sounds more like Godzilla's Pez dispenser.

rubi_con_man: I don't understand why this kind of place isn't a model for large cities with huge incomer populations like New York.

They tried it in New York. All it takes is a little humidity, from say a hot tub, and suddenly the drawers won't open up.

You just don't remember what it's like to have no oranges.

clayndwoods: Well, I suppose that beats sleeping under a bridge, here in the U.S.

Can we say, "Thank you Mr. BushCongress"?

FTFY

clayndwoods: Well, I suppose that beats sleeping under a bridge, here in the U.S.

Can we say, "Thank you Mr. Bush"?

You have an internet connection under a bridge?

I thought of this hotel concept after Hurricane Katrina...except using concrete tubes. This is perfect for workers and homeowners that are working in a catastrophic disaster area. Cheap, firesafe and easily cleaned. Someone already invented an idea I had.

As long as we're doing Neuromancer, can we get the sunglass implant things next?

rubi_con_man: I don't understand why this kind of place isn't a model for large cities with huge incomer populations like New York. IMHO, when I was 18, I'd have lived in one of these places for 3 months to make enough cash to afford a 'real' place. I know about a bazillion Backpackers that would do it as well.

/the problem comes when you start admitting chicks.

Most likely, because while it's much cheaper then renting an actual room- it's still a fairly expensive place to live.

yagottabefarkinkiddinme: Someone already invented an idea I had.

I know the feeling. Someone beat me to the wheel, fire, porn, and the blue stuff you put the combs in, and all just after I thought it up.

avg japanese income = 800 to 1500 yen / hour

at 1500 yen/hour, $640 USD (his rent) = 37 hours.

Thats about right (hour wise), for my morgtage on a 4 br / fireplace / 2 bath / corner lot in smalltown USA... SUCKS if all you get is a 'box' tho...

I saw people living under a bridge in Asakusa, right next to a capsule hotel, so these people are lucky.

After reading about the coughs being heard throughout the various "cubes".. I can only wonder if a rip-roaringly good pffffrrrt gets any laughs at all.

Bathia_Mapes: Granted it's not the best of situations, but it's got to be better than sleeping on the street or in an overcrowded homeless shelter.

Yeah, $640 a month better

cretinbob: Seth'n'Spectrum: Disapproves.

I see what you did there

and I just want to point out:

SOCIALISM!!!!!


\\if I were homeless in the United States I'd move to Japan.

And where exactly would you come up with the required $640 a month, not to mention airfare?

clayndwoods
Well, I suppose that beats sleeping under a bridge, here in the U.S.

Can we say, "Thank you Mr. Bush"?


You're 12 years old, right? We had massive numbers of people living in the streets during the Carter Administration too. While Reagan's unemployment numbers peaked slightly higher before his administration got the 21% inflation rate from the Carter years under control. Trickle Down did work. Cut taxes and the tax revenues go up and the economy rebounds. Raises taxes and the economy turns down and unemployment follows. Omaba is raising taxes and no end is in sight. "Wealth Redistribution" never works for long.

MiaCulpa: I saw people living under a bridge in Asakusa, right next to a capsule hotel, so these people are lucky.

No, they really arent.

nubzers: Iron Chef Scottish: "The capsules have no doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows."

Sounds like they could get some good blokey camaraderie going. Catcalling and farting after lights out, whipping each others arses with towels, swapping tentacle porn and schoolgirl underwear...

Like living in a barracks...

Like I always say, "Nothing gayer than being in the military"

snugglyhugs: ...it would be like being in coffin

Looks a lot like the berthing compartments on almost any US Navy ship. Berthing is often refered to as "The coffin locker"