Our experience traveler/capsule hotel newbie spends a night at Apaiser.

Though a night in one is a quintessentially Japanese travel experience, the majority of capsule hotels don’t accept female guests. Case in point: though our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa is a seasoned traveler, until recently she’d only spent a single night in a capsule hotel, and it was a new, modern one with fancy snore-monitoring wellness equipment.

Ikuna has still been wanting to have the old-school, authentic capsule hotel experience, a night in the sort of place that helped form the accommodation sub-category during the bubble economy years when a salaryman needed a place to stay on a shoestring-budget business trip, or maybe to catch some Zs after missing the last train home of the night. Capsule hotels like that that can accommodate female travelers aren’t easy to find, but Ikuna finally managed to come across one while planning a trip to Nagoya.

The Apaiser capsule hotel is a five-minute walk from Exit 8 of Imaike Station, which is itself just a 10-minute subway ride from Nagoya Station, and the intersection of the Higashiyama and Sakura-dori Lines. So right off the bat, it’s situated in a very convenient spot.

You take your shoes off in the entryway, before even coming into lobby, and stick them in a shoe locker. Once fully inside, Ikuna checked in and was given a key for a locker in which she could keep her luggage. To Ikuna’s surprise, the luggage lockers for female guests are down in the basement level, a women-only floor which also houses the women’s bath, but her sleeping capsule was actually all the way up on the 5th floor.

However, this setup didn’t seem like it was going to be such a big problem after Ikuna looked over the hotel layout. The second and third floors have men’s capsules, while the fourth floor, the “Refresh Floor,” has various massage and beauty services. The fifth floor, in addition to men’s and women’s capsules, also has a manga and Internet corner, plus a powder room, and there’s a restaurant on the first floor as well. With all these possible places to relax in, Ikuna didn’t see herself spending a ton of time in her sleeping space idly rifling through the stuff she’d brought with her.

▼ Ikuna’s reservation even included a voucher for a free welcome drink in the restaurant upon arrival.

As mentioned above, many capsule hotels don’t accept female guests, usually under the logic that it would be unwise to offer unsecured bunks for women to sleep in a space where guys are roaming around too. Apaiser’s solution to this is to have a block of capsules for women only in a section that’s separated from the rest of the hotel by a locked door. The only way to open this door is to tap a luggage locker key that’s linked to one of the women’s sleeping capsules, ensuring that only women staying at the hotel have access to this area.

Ikuna found herself smiling excitedly at just how retro everything looked. She even loved the little steps built into the capsule bank’s frame that you step onto to get to the upper spots, like a mini obstacle course.

Taking a peek inside, the aesthetic continued to be thoroughly throwback…or maybe that’s not the right term, since Apaiser has been around since the days when this was a new, contemporary style.

Whatever you want to call it, though, it was exactly what she’d been looking for.

Each capsule is outfitted with its own TV, and while you could also stream stuff on your mobile devices for entertainment, be aware that while there’s a standard power outlet, there’s no USB charging port.

▼ With her mind in ‘80s mode, though, Ikuna was fine with no USB option, and was honestly too busy admiring the just-leaving-the-analog-age look of the earphone jack for the TV, shown on the left here.

Part of the reason the Apaiser has all the facilities we mentioned earlier is because in addition to being a capsule hotel it’s also a public bath/sauna that’s available for day use. Sure enough, when Ikuna headed down to the bath, she was impressed by how big and nice it was.

▼ Entrance’s to the women’s (女性専用) and men’s (男性専用) baths

The manga and Internet area was also spacious and comfy, feeling more like a dedicated manga cafe than a hotel just trying to squeeze a little extra utility out of otherwise unused floor space.

Freshly bathed and thoroughly entertained, Ikuna crawled into her capsule, put down the shade, and had a great night of restful sleep.

Even after she woke up, though, she was still finding things to love about this hotel. Apaiser’s first floor sevres breakfast, and it’s not just a table with self-serve toast, boiled eggs, and chopped cabbage like at some budget-priced hotels in Japan. Instead, you can choose from a variety of set meals, reasonably priced for around 600 yen (US$4.15).

Ikuna’s package included breakfast and allowed her to pick any of the morning meals, so she opted for the grilled fish set, which in addition to a generously sized filet of fish gave her miso soup, rice, okra, pickles, and nori (dried seaweed).

In addition to being extremely tasty, it was a perfectly balanced assortment of nutritious ingredients that gave Ikuna a protein boost to fuel her through the morning without leaving her stomach feeling bloated or heavy for the rest of the day. Honestly, if this was her breakfast every day for the rest of her life, she’d have no complaints.

As a matter of fact, the one and only grumble that Ikuna had was that while there are hairdryers provided in the women’s bath area, there were no electrical outlets for her to plug in the hair iron she’d brought with her from home, and such devices can’t be used in the sleeping capsule either.

But aside from that, Ikuna gives this ladies-friendly capsule hotel full marks. She was even satisfied with the prices, which are 4.300 yen (US$29.75) per night Sunday through Thursday and 4,800 yen on Fridays, Saturdays, and nights before holidays, with a breakfast voucher an additional 500 yen. Just be aware that female guest capacity is limited to 20 travelers per night, so making a reservation ahead of time is recommended.

Hotel information
Apaiser / アペゼ]
Address: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Chikusa-ku, Imaike 5-11-14
愛知県名古屋市千種区今池5-11-14
Website

Bath/sauna interior photos: Apaiser
Manga corner photo: Apaiser
All other photos ©SoraNews24
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