Complete with tiny matching pyjamas for your little friend.

The world of fandom is vast and varied in Japan – on one hand you have fans who might show a casual interest in an actor, idol, VTuber, or anime character, and then on the other, you have diehard fans who engage in what’s known as “oshi-katsu”. Equivalent to the English slang term “stanning” – katsu means “activities” while oshi refers to the character or person you’re “stanning” – this level of fandom is reserved for those who go to great lengths to support the object of their affections at any given opportunity, investing time, effort and money into the activity, and treating it like a passionate pasttime.

One of the ways to show your love in the oshi-katsu world is by buying merch dedicated to your favourite idol or character, often in the form of a plushie, known as “nuigurumi” (“nui” for short) in Japanese. Nuigurumi are great for snuggling up to at night, and you can even take them out on trips with you, both near and far. It’s a passion that Japanese business hotel chain Toyoko Inn clearly understands, as it’s been officially catering to guests and their plushies since autumn 2025, when it started the “Oshi-Katsu Support Plan”.

A lot of fans would have stayed at Toyoko Inn for oshi events and concerts, so it’s a clever idea to create an accommodation plan geared towards them. There are actually two types of Oshi-Katsu Support Plans offered by Toyoko Inn – one is the “Relax & Recharge – Oshi Edition”, which comes with a free pack of foot care sheets, bath salts, and a heated eye mask to help you “unwind after a day of oshi-katsu”, while the other is the “Oshi-Katsu Sleepover Plan – Stay with Your Favorite Plushie!”, which gives you and your nui separate beds in the same room for the night.

▼ The stay is ideal for acrylic standees too, as this poster at the front desk reads: “We’ve started renting beds for plushies and acrylic stands.”

Our own reporter Maro, who has a few nuis of her own, was excited to try the Sleepover Plan, and when she learned that her plushie’s stay would cost a meagre 300 yen (US$1.88) on top of her room fee, she felt so heartened by the customer service that she packed several of her favourite plushies to join her on the sleepover.

Booking a stay for her and her plushie was a unique experience in itself, but when she got to the front desk, she was even more delighted when staff handed her a mesh bag at check-in, containing bedding and nightwear for her plush character.

While the stay is generally designed for one plushie, you could take several and let them share or rotate during your stay. The set contains a duvet, a pillow, a bed frame and nightwear in two sizes, though, so if you take more than two plushies, they won’t all be able to wear matching outfits.

As for where to put the bedding in your room, it fits perfectly into the curved space where you might normally put your smartphone and other small items when you go to sleep.

▼ The idea to repurpose this design feature into a toy bed is a work of genius.

Excited to give her nui the hotel experience, Maro took out the nightwear for her plushie. The nightwear gowns come in two sizes, small and large, and they have Velcro on the back, so they can be made to work with nuis, or standees, of various sizes.

Maro’s main nui has a rather large head, so the nightwear was bursting at the seams a little. The outfit would be more suitable for a regular human-shaped nui, but it still worked on her character plush, so it really does suit a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Another cute feature is how the tiny nightwear matches the larger one designed to be used by human guests. Cue photos of you and your nui in matching nightwear during your hotel stay.

Though the nightwear required a bit of fiddling, due to the odd shape of her plushie, the bed slid into the space with ease. Within seconds, Maro had made the bed, and when she stood back to admire her work, she was impressed by how good it looked in the light.

▼ A tiny nook for your nui!

▼ Two nuis can fit in the bed if you rearrange their sleeping positions.

The space looked so good it was like it had been designed specifically for a nui bed, and the fun of the special accommodation plan doesn’t end there – if you post a photo or video of yourself using the plan on social media, you can also receive a “small gift”. Maro couldn’t find any information online about what the gift might entail, so she went ahead and snapped a photo of her nui looking as cosy as a bug in a rug.

[twitter https://twitter.com/hironamaro/status/2080639034653880681 align=”center”]

After sharing the photo on Twitter and showing it to staff at the front desk, Maro received…

▼… a toothbrush case set!

While the set doesn’t include a toothbrush – just the case and toothpaste – it’s an exclusive item that comes with a cute illustration on the front, making it as stylish as it is practical. She didn’t expect to get something so substantial in return for her social media post, so she was overjoyed by her free small gift.

▼ Her other plushie looked pretty happy about it too.

Looking into it further, Maro discovered that the toothbrush set is actually made from recycled plastic, sourced from used plastic toothbrushes and combs that are collected from Toyoko Inn hotels nationwide.

▼ Pop your used combs and toothbrushes in this receptacle in the bathroom, and you’ll be giving them a new life.

If you’re yet to discover the world of oshi-katsu, this type of customer service might seem a little mind-boggling, but for fans who go all out for their beloved characters and idols, it’s a dream service that makes for a very memorable stay. Even if you’re not into oshi-katsu, it’s a fun plan for guests with children who have plush toys that are like family members, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anything like it at any other hotel chain.

While no end date has been announced for the plan itself, the free-gift social media campaign runs until 31 August. So if you’ve ever dreamed of treating your plushie to a hotel experience that would make other plushies envious, now’s the time to book a getaway at the inn.

Related: Oshi-Katsu Support Plan, Participating hotels for sleepover stays, Participating hotels for Relax & Recharge stays
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