This hotel room costs less than a deluxe bowl of ramen, but you’d better come prepared.
For budget travelers in Japan who’re looking for a cheap place to spend the night, capsule hotels are the first thing that comes to mind, since they often charge less than 5,000 yen (US$43) a night. The downside, though, is that they offer hardly any privacy, since you’re only paying for a slot in a bunk, not an actual room. In recent years, staying overnight at a manga/Internet cafe has also become a hotel alternative, but again, you’re not really getting a room, and at best a booth that’s open at the top, doesn’t have a full door and a chair that partially reclines.
So imagine Japanese Twitter user @tetsu_yan’s joy earlier this month when he took a trip to Tokyo and got an honest-to-goodness hotel room for just 1,500 yen (US$13)!
▼ The Pearl Hotel Kasai, the hotel @tetsu_yan stayed at, can be seen on the far left here.
It’s not like the hotel is in a crummy location, either. Kasai Station, on the Tokyo Metro’s Tozai Line, is just a short five-minute walk from the front door, and from there it’s just a 15-minute ride to Nihombashi, basically the heart of central Tokyo. And don’t worry, the Pearl Hotel Kasai isn’t some flea-bag dump. The property may not be anything fancy, but it’s part of a respectable chain of “business hotels,” as no-frills hotels that cater to business travelers are called. For proof, just take a look at this photo of @tetsu_yan’s room.
Not bad at all for 1,500 yen, right? However, while there’s nothing wrong with the fixtures and furnishings that are found in the room, there’s the teensy little matter of one that isn’t found in it: a bed.
Yes, the catch to this fantastically affordable room is that there’s no mattress, frame, or any other sort of bedding included. The hotel is completely upfront about this, though, so @tetsu_yan came prepared with a sleeping bag and air mat, which he had ample floor space to lay out.
Actually, his initial idea was to sleep on top of the wide desk/folding table that’s against the wall, but it wasn’t quite long enough for a person of his height.
東京で駅徒歩５分、１泊1500円のビジネスホテルがこちらになります pic.twitter.com/dnrT5GlDpk
— てつやん＠２日目東ヒ19a (@tetsu_yan) December 5, 2021
Aside from the lack of bed, it’s a perfectly normal room, with a private bathroom, shower, and working heating/air conditioning unit. Really the only problem @tetsu_yan encountered was that the construction of the door means there’s some light that seeps in from the hallway at the bottom, so you might want to bring an eye mask, or at least lay your bags right inside the threshold to block the light. There’s also no bath towel provided, though you do get a face towel. Oh, and check-in time for this room is 11 p.m., with check-out at 8 a.m., but the spartan layout means it isn’t really conducive to lounging around in anyway.
It should be noted that the Pearl Hotel Kasai does have regular bed-inclusive rooms too. For travelers with a backpacker mentality and/or a tight budget, though, this is a pretty incredible bargain. Especially with the Tokyo Big Sight convention center being only a 20-minute ride from Kasai Station, this seems like just the sort of deal that would appeal to attendees of Comiket or other events at the venue, and the hotel isn’t very far from Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea either.
Officially called the “No Bed or Bedding Waiting for the First Train Plan” (ベッド・寝具なし始発待ちプラン in Japanese text), exact prices vary by date, ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 yen, with online reservations through Rakuten Travel available here.
Related: Hotel Pearl Kasai
Source: Twitter/@tetsu_yan via Jin, Rakuten Travel
Images: Twitter/@tetsu_yan
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