Seriously, why did I eat all those wasabi KitKats before bedtime,
and drink all that Calpis?
It's never, never a good thing to do.
You know, I always eat and drink before bedtime, and
pay the price for it later on. Yeah...
Idiot.
So today we're in Ginza Shopping District. It's one of the world's largest upmarket shopping districts;
it's right in the heart of Tokyo, a stone's throw away from the Emperor's house, Tokyo Station and Tsukiji fish market.
And I wanna stay here the night because tommorow I'm gonna be leaving from Tokyo Station to go back to Sendai on the bullet train.
Staying at a hotel for the night, in this area, costs just a staggering amount of money.
But fortunately, there is an alternative: Capsule hotel.
It's good. Good ice coffee, that was.
Check-in at capsule hotels usually kicks off at 4PM.
But the hotel has kindly let me in an hour early, so I can wonder around freely without filming...
... half-naked Japanese salarymen moping around on-screen.
(inside hotel) Going up.
Third floor of an inconspicuous building just off the high street of Ginza.
It's a pretty good location, actually. Best thing about capsule hotels, after the price, is
they always tend to be, like, pretty well located.
... pretty centrally located and uh...
(whispers) The lobby.
So after checking in, the first thing you gotta do, first thing you always gotta do, take off your shoes. Put on some slippers.
And that is how you know that you're in Japan.
Slippers.
So, because the capsules aren't that big, it's just a bed, you wanna have as much space as possible.
So each capsule comes with its own locker. Put in your ridiculous, massive luggage in.
The capsule room in all its glory.
So there's about, must be about 15-20 capsules in this one little area.
And our one... 307... is over here.
And actually, this one is one of the only rooms in the hotel which comes with its own little "second room".
A kind of tatami mat room. I've never seen anything like that.
That's really cool, so you got your own private little space under there.
But most capsules, this is it. This is your bedroom for the night.
Welcome to Abroad in a Box.
I still prefer this to staying in a hostel where you just get a bunk bed, you know, cuz you've got your privacy.
Not only do you have more space than a bunk bed, but a TV as well.
TV,
headphones,
an alarm,
with a light,
it's exciting, isn't it?
A mirror,
and a coathanger.
But yeah, that's it. I mean you're not gonna really be in here for doing a lot apart from sleeping anyway, so it's pretty ideal.
I've often wondered if a capsule hotel would work in the U.K., but I dunno.
Maybe British people don't like the idea of climbing up a tiny ladder and getting into a box.
Look you can pull this down.
Haha! And now you can't see me!
...
There we go.
Haha!
I win.
Unsurprisingly, capsule hotels are separated by gender, with this hotel keeping men and women on separated floors.
The only space shared by everyone is the communal area.
"For both genders".
"both genders".
As if you're a girl or a guy. The sky's the limit.
I can sit here, and think about how to make the world a better place.
I'll do that later though. I'll do that later.
Alright so apparently, there are 250 capsules in this one hotel
This is the shower room.
Pretty big shower.
That's ridiculous, it's huge!
It's like a four-star hotel room shower.
As well as the beds, the communal area, the showers and the toilets, some capsule hotels also have bonus amenities thrown in.
For example, this one randomly has a free footbath.
It's pretty surreal just sat here in a footbath in the middle of Tokyo. Got loads of people walking past on the street, just staring in surprise.
Maybe it's cuz there's a foreigner in the footbath, or maybe it's just because there's a footbath.
But, I don't think I've ever seen a footbath in the centre of Tokyo like this, so it's pretty cool.
So today, I came here with a ¥10,000 budget which is about $100.
and I've spent ¥4500 on the capsule hotel for one night giving me ¥5500 spending money, pocket money, to do with whatever I want.
So, let's go out into the local area and let's check out Ginza and let's see what we can get with ¥5500.
But first, more footbath.
Everything's better with a footbath.
Whenever I come to Ginza, I do feel a bit out of my depth, you know.
There's a sense that ¥5500, you can spend that on one pair of socks. One upmarket pair of socks.
So I don't know exactly what I'm gonna be able to get for my money's worth
The trick to Ginza, right, is all the best little restaurants are hidden down alleyways and I can see one there that has the word "Yakitori" which is...
"Yakitori"'s meat on a skewer and its one of my favourite Japanese dishes and it looks quite cool.
"TORIGIN".
"TORI" means "CHICKEN".
"GIN" means...
"GIN".
And so, wow. There you go.
Very popular Japanese restaurants that out the front you can see kind of the food they have. In plastic food form.
And it looks pretty good. I'm excited about the yakitori.
So, beer, ¥650. Yakitori, this was about ¥1500. So, we're ¥2100 in.
And that's quite a lot of food for what we paid so, pretty reasonable.
So simple. I always wonder why we don't have this in the U.K. Just food on a skewer, for God's sake. Perfect.
Having spent almost half my budget on a fine yakitori dinner and a decent bottle of Sapporo,
it now makes sense to grab a desert to go down with it.
My lord, my god.
So rich, I don't even wanna think about how many calories are in this.
Honestly, I've never seen a shop in Japan so busy this time of night.
If the manager of Lindt is watching, you're onto a winner here. There's a lot of business to be had in Japan. Make some serious money.
I don't know why I'm giving business advice to Lindt.
Chicken, beer, chocolate and coffee. The only thing I need now is just one more little late night snack. You know, just something small to enjoy back at the hotel.
Wasabi KitKats. I've looked far and wide for these, many a time.
They're unique to Shizuoka Prefecture. But apparently, you get them in Ginza. Didn't know that.
Alright so I got KitKat Wasabi, and to wash that down, some Calpis, Calpis water. Delicious!
The verdict.
Oh, it was just as bad.
It just taste like chocolate gone wrong rather than chocolate with wasabi.
No.
Won't buy again.
Seriously, why did I eat all those wasabi KitKats before bedtime,
and drink all that Calpis?
It's never, never a good thing to do.
You know, I always eat and drink before bedtime, and
pay the price for it later on. Yeah...
Idiot.
So there you have it. Capsule hotels. Cheap, convenient, and absolutely everywhere in Tokyo.
If you're travelling on a budget or travelling solo, I can't recommend them enough.
For more details on where I stayed, check out the description box below where you can also find links to other capsule hotel-related videos from other vloggers,
and useful advice for travelling on a budget in Japan.
Many thanks for watching, guys. I'll see you next time.