Tokyo internet cafes offer B&B for only £7 (That's without breakfast and, oh yes, there's no bed either) :Telegraph | News

Telegraph | News


Tokyo internet cafes offer B&B for only £7 (That's without breakfast and, oh yes, there's no bed either)
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo
(Filed: 05/08/2005)

For generations of Japanese "salarymen" a night in a capsule hotel was almost a rite of passage.

But the younger generation is now rejecting the option of sleeping in a coffin-sized hole in the wall in favour of a far cheaper and more convenient option: the all-night internet cafe.

Cafes specifically designed to attract overnight customers have proliferated in the past two years.

By day, they function in much the same way as an internet cafe in Britain. But by night, they are transformed into dormitories full of exhausted office workers and boozy revellers who prefer to pay £7 to pass the small hours in a private cubicle than fork out up to £50 for a taxi home.

Though Tokyo is a 24-hour city, its public transport shuts down by 1am, leaving notoriously expensive taxis as the only way back to the far-flung suburbs where most Japanese live.

The cafe chains have taken on many of the little comforts and conveniences of a hotel. Media Cafe Popeye, which has several branches, has private booths with locks and a combination mini-safe.

There is just enough space to lie back in the reclining seat while you put your feet on the footrest. Blankets, cushions, slippers and an alarm clock can be borrowed for free but earplugs and eye-masks are £1.

You can help yourself to 50 varieties of soft drinks. Other machines dispense food, including such delicacies as octopus chunks in dough for £2. Showers are free.

The cafes have sought to avoid the "for men-only" reputation that dogs capsule hotels. Popeye cafes have women-only areas and appeal to female custom with luxuries such as nail salons, tanning machines and massage chairs.

Saeko Takasugi, a 23-year-old office worker who missed her last train after drinking with colleagues, said: "I chose to stay at a cafe because it was under £10 compared to £30 in a taxi. It was clean and surprisingly good for sleeping. You can fully extend your legs.

"Then in the morning you can get coffee and juice while checking the internet. Young people now never go to capsule hotels: they look scary and so poky."

Tokyo fully deserves its reputation as the world's most expensive city but at £7, the "chair hotels" are much cheaper than the new easyHotel's £20-a-night shoe-box rooms in London. They are part of a culture that, after more than a decade of recession, appeals to a nation that has become adept at finding ingenious ways to save the pennies and has seen companies that cater to the thrifty consumer flourish.

A night spent sleeping in your clothes requires a certain tolerance for discomfort, but many find it preferable to cutting short an evening out to spend an hour on a packed train home, with the prospect of making the same journey back into work a few hours later.

For the cafes themselves, the economics are simple. The rent is the same even if they close at midnight and the facilities need little tweaking to attract a whole new batch of clientele after the internet users go home.

The traditional capsule hotel, by contrast, lies empty during the day and must charge at least £20.