How a Tokyo capsule hotel works (shoe lockers, shared baths, luggage, the house rules) and twelve pods worth a night: design pods for first-timers, women-only hotels, big baths and saunas, and pods for early flights and trains.
A capsule hotel is the Japanese answer to a cheap, central bed: you sleep in a pod about the size of a single bed, stacked two high in long rows, with a curtain or blind instead of a door, and you share the washrooms, the showers and often a big hot bath. They still sell themselves to commuters who've missed the last train, and they're still mostly one person per pod. For a first night my pick is The Millennials Shibuya, whose pods have a reclining semi-double bed and room for an open suitcase; for women travelling alone, 9h nine hours woman Shinjuku or Anshinoyado Tokyo Woman Ginza Shiodome; for the full bath-and-sauna experience, Smart Stay SHIZUKU Ueno. If you're still choosing an area, start with where to stay in Tokyo.
You usually take your shoes off at the entrance and leave them in a shoe locker, check in at the desk, and get a locker for your bags, often with towels and loungewear already inside. The pod is for sleeping only: most hotels ask you not to eat in it, it can't be locked (First Cabin says the law for simple lodgings doesn't allow it, so cabins have a small safe instead), and sound carries through a curtain, so keep calls and alarms for the lounge. Men and women usually sleep on separate floors, many places have age limits (Anshin Oyado's men's Shinjuku branch takes no one under 18, and First Cabin no one aged 12 or under), and some have a midday clean when even multi-night guests must leave the pod. Tattoo rules are most common where there's a shared bath, and they vary: Rembrandt Cabin & Spa Shimbashi refuses any tattoo, even a sticker, while most of the others don't state a rule, so ask. The full house rules are at the bottom of this page.
Where a hotel publishes a from-price, the card gives it with its date; otherwise check your dates on the hotel's own site. Expect higher prices and full houses in the cherry blossom season (late March to early April), Golden Week (late April to early May) and over New Year. Tokyo's accommodation tax doesn't apply to simple lodgings such as capsule hotels until 1 April 2027; from then it's 3% of the room rate, but only on stays of ¥13,000 or more per person per night.
Design pods: the easiest first night. These three are capsule hotels built for travellers rather than for commuters who missed the last train: bigger pods, a lounge you'd want to sit in, and men and women together in the common areas. The Millennials Shibuya is my first-timer's pick. Its Smart Pod has a 2.3-metre ceiling, a 120 cm semi-double bed that reclines at the touch of a button into a sofa, and a storage space under the bed big enough for a suitcase lying open, which almost no other pod has. A free beer is poured by the front desk every evening, coffee in the kitchen is free around the clock, and there are co-working tables. It's a six-minute walk from JR Shibuya station, on the quieter Jinnan side; our Shibuya guide covers what's around it.
The hotel says its guests are mostly in their 20s and 30s, and the evening beer makes the lobby sociable. You control the pod with a handset given out at check-in, and the alarm works with light and the moving bed rather than sound, which the neighbours will thank you for. Overseas guests show a passport at check-in, and on a long stay the pod is cleaned every seventh day, on a date you choose at check-in.
Leave your case at the desk from 7am on arrival day, and collect it as late as 11pm on the day you check out.
MyCUBE by MYSTAYS Asakusa Kuramae has the best Google score on this page (4.5 from about 1,100 reviews) and the tallest pods. Its cubes are 100 by 205 cm and 160 cm high, so you can sit up properly, and each has a safe, a storage space, a socket and USB ports. Men's and women's cubes are separate room types, there are 161 in all, and showers are shared booths. It's a minute on foot from Kuramae station on the Toei Asakusa line, which runs direct to both airports on some trains, and four minutes from the Oedo line platforms. Asakusa and Senso-ji are a short walk north; see our Asakusa guide.
This is a pod with shared showers, not a bath-house: there's no big bath or sauna, and laundry costs extra. Check-out is early, at 10am. The cubes are taller than they are wide, so it's still one person per cube.
Book the women's cube or the men's cube to match the guest; they're sold as separate room types.
BOOK AND BED TOKYO Shinjuku is the famous one: beds tucked into the shelves of a bookshop-style lounge, on the eighth floor of a building in Kabukicho. It's the only place on this page that sells shared beds, from a 95 cm Single at ¥3,720 a night up to a 140 cm Double (from ¥11,000) and a 190 cm Superior, on its own published rates for 4 November 2026. Showers are free, check-in is at 4pm, and you can also pay by the hour to use the lounge (¥500 an hour plus one order) or the lounge and a bed (¥960 an hour); day-use reception runs from 1pm to 8pm, last entry 7pm. Seibu-Shinjuku station is a minute away and JR Shinjuku's East Exit eight.
Google reviewers give it 3.3 from about 850 reviews, the lowest score on this page: you're paying for the look, and it's a short-stay novelty rather than somewhere to sleep for a week. The hotel asks guests not to use hair dryers between midnight and 7am. The original Ikebukuro branch has closed for good. Kabukicho is lively all night; read our Kabukicho guide on touts before you walk it late.
Couples: book the Double (140 cm) or the Superior (190 cm), the only shared beds on this page.
Women only: the whole building is yours. Plenty of capsule hotels have a women's floor; these two take women only. 9h nine hours woman Shinjuku is the minimal, design-led Nine Hours chain in a women-only branch, two minutes on foot from Exit C8 of Shinjuku-sanchome station and nine from Shinjuku station's south-east exit. Towels and loungewear are waiting in your locker, which is a tall 206 cm one with a shelf, and the showers are private cubicles with Tamanohada shampoo and soap. Some pods can measure your sleep and send you a report. Check-in runs from 3pm until 5am, so a late flight or a night out isn't a problem.
It's simple: there's no bath, no laundry, breakfast is an optional set at the Caffe Veloce nearby, and Google reviewers give it 3.5 from about 530 reviews. Pay by card or QR code, as the desk takes no cash. Pods are cleaned every day, so even on a multi-night stay you clear out of the capsule floor during the midday clean.
Arriving after midnight? Tell the hotel through its contact form first, or the booking may be cancelled.
Anshinoyado Tokyo Woman Ginza Shiodome is the opposite of minimal: a women-only capsule hotel with an artificial hot-spring bath, a self-service sauna (you pour water on the stones yourself), a free drink bar that includes alcohol, free breakfast curry and late-night food, and a lounge with massage chairs and shelves of manga. Floors are locked by security card, and you can stay up to 27 hours, with the lounge and bath yours until 3pm on your last day if you tell the desk by noon. It's six minutes on foot from JR Shimbashi's Karasumori exit and ten from Shiodome on the Oedo line, so Ginza is a short walk; our Ginza guide covers it.
Each capsule takes one guest and the chain's own site says nothing about tattoos, so ask before you book if that matters. It holds 4.2 on Google from about 1,100 reviews, among the best on this page. The free food and drink are what you pay for, so it's not the cheapest bed here.
Book on the hotel's own site: from 1 November 2026 Anshin Oyado's Tokyo branches take ¥1,500 off direct bookings, for a limited time.
Big bath and sauna: the traditional capsule hotel, done well. The classic Tokyo capsule hotel is half bath-house: a big shared bath, a sauna, a cold plunge, then bed. If you've never been to a public bath, read our onsen and sento guide first, because the same etiquette applies (you wash before you get in, and you go in naked). Smart Stay SHIZUKU Ueno Ekimae is the one I'd send a mixed group to, because it gives both men and women a big bath and a sauna with automatic steam, in the basement. Women's floors sit behind security gates, with their own changing room, showers and a ground-floor lounge, and the bath is open from 5am to 2am. It's three minutes on foot from Ueno station, and the Keisei Skyliner from Narita ends at Keisei Ueno nearby; our Ueno guide covers the park and museums.
Google reviewers give it 3.8 from about 1,150 reviews. Check-out is at 10am, and the site doesn't state a tattoo rule. It closes the bath for maintenance now and then, posted on its home page, so look before you go.
Leave big cases in the luggage space on your capsule floor; every room has a lockable locker for the rest.
Anshin Oyado Tokyo Man Shinjuku is the men's version of the Shiodome hotel, and the most reviewed capsule hotel on this page (4.2 from about 2,200). You get the same artificial hot-spring bath, a self-service sauna, a free drink bar with alcohol and free breakfast and late-night meals, and you're 90 seconds on foot from Shinjuku station's south-east exit. Check-in starts at noon, and online bookers get their capsule from noon too, so you can drop your bags and bathe after a long flight.
It's men only and 18 and over. The only price on its page on 4 November was a ¥6,180 late-night walk-in rate (call first), and the chain doesn't publish a tattoo policy, so ask. For women, the Shiodome branch above is the twin.
Tell the desk by noon on your last day and you can keep using the lounge and bath until 3pm. Late check-out otherwise costs ¥250 per 15 minutes.
Rembrandt Cabin & Spa Shimbashi is for sauna lovers. There are two saunas, a tall one with automatic steam bursts and a dim 'meditation' sauna with its own music and lighting, two cold plunges (one very cold, one at 14 to 16°C) and two baths, then 136 cabins on the floors above. It's two minutes on foot from the Karasumori exit of JR Shimbashi, the business district beside Ginza, and non-guests can also pay to use the spa, from ¥1,180 for an hour's morning bath.
It's men only, and its rule on tattoos is the strictest here: anyone with a tattoo of any size, including a painted or sticker one, is refused entry. Check-out is at 10am. Its published overnight rates start at ¥5,000 on weekdays and Sundays, ¥6,000 on Fridays and ¥6,500 the night before a holiday.
Don't lose your locker key or wristband: the replacement charge is ¥10,000.
Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae Capsule Hotel is the old-school budget option, named for the Shinjuku City Office in front of it on the edge of Kabukicho and four minutes on foot from JR Shinjuku's East Exit and Seibu-Shinjuku. It advertises beds for under ¥3,000, which its site calls the area's lowest. Men get a big bath and sauna; women get their own floor, with a powder room. Capsules are 100 cm wide, 200 cm deep and 100 cm high, and there's a lounge for working.
The bath and sauna are for men only, Google reviewers give it 3.4 from about 2,200 reviews, and it can't hold your bags after check-out. In September 2026 it warned guests about fake WhatsApp and email messages asking for card details after a break-in at an outside booking system, so pay only through the official site or at the desk. Our Kabukicho guide is worth a read for the walk back at night.
It won't hold bags after check-out; use the coin lockers outside on the ground floor.
Flights and early trains: pods where the journey starts. FIRST CABIN Haneda Terminal 1 is on the arrivals floor of Haneda's Terminal 1, between the north and south wings, so an early domestic flight or a very late landing needs no train at all. Its cabins are named like airline classes: Business Class is 1.2 by 2.1 metres with a 100 cm bed and First Class 2.1 metres square with a 120 cm bed, both 2.1 metres tall, with a TV and a small safe. There's a big shared bath as well as shower booths, men and women sleep in separate areas, and you can walk in and rent a cabin for a few hours from ¥3,000. Coming from the city, our Haneda guide has the trains, and for a room with a door at the airport, see hotels near Haneda Airport.
Check which terminal you need: this is Terminal 1, and international flights use Terminal 2 or Terminal 3 depending on the airline. Because of airport rules it can't keep your bags after check-out, cabins close with a curtain, not a lock, and children aged 12 and under can't stay. It scores 3.7 on Google from about 1,800 reviews.
The terminal shuts from 0:30 to 4:45am. Arriving then, use the night entrance by bus stop 8 on the ground floor and call the staff.
Nine Hours Hamamatsucho is the city-side choice for Haneda: three minutes on foot from the north exit of Hamamatsucho station, where the monorail to the airport starts, and two from Daimon on the Toei Asakusa and Oedo lines; the hotel puts Haneda 25 minutes away, door to gate. Men and women sleep separately, and the top floor has a guests-only lounge and open terrace with a view of Tokyo Tower. If you just need to wash between flights, a shower costs ¥700 for up to an hour.
It's a Nine Hours, so expect the brand's simple, clean pods and nothing more: no bath, no laundry, and breakfast is an optional set at a Tully's Coffee nearby. Check-out is at 11am, with no late check-out. It scores 3.9 on Google from about 1,000 reviews. For the tower itself, see our Tokyo Tower guide.
Women get the deeper lockers (40 by 56 by 100 cm); the men's are 30 cm wide, so a carry-on is the most that will fit. Bigger bags go to the luggage room.
First Cabin Akasaka is the same airline-cabin idea in the city, a minute from Exit 2 of Akasaka station on the Chiyoda line and six from Akasaka-mitsuke on the Ginza and Marunouchi lines in the Akasaka business district. It has 72 cabins for men and 51 for women in separate areas, a big bath as well as shower booths, and it holds bags before and after check-in on the day of your stay. Google reviewers give it 4.0 from about 700 reviews.
Check-in only opens at 5pm, because the cabins are cleaned from 10am to 4pm, so plan your afternoon around it. Like the Haneda branch, cabins can't be locked, and no one aged 12 or under can stay.
Pay for the First Class cabin if you're tall: it's 2.1 metres square, with a 120 cm bed, against 1.2 metres wide for Business Class.
First capsule night, want it easy: The Millennials Shibuya, with a big reclining pod and room for your case.
Tallest pod, best reviews: MyCUBE by MYSTAYS Asakusa Kuramae, 160 cm high, 4.5 on Google.
Women travelling alone: 9h nine hours woman Shinjuku (simple) or Anshinoyado Tokyo Woman Ginza Shiodome (bath, sauna, free food).
The full bath-and-sauna experience: Smart Stay SHIZUKU Ueno for men and women, Anshin Oyado Tokyo Man Shinjuku or Rembrandt Cabin & Spa Shimbashi for men.
Cheapest bed in Shinjuku: Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae Capsule Hotel (advertised under ¥3,000) or BOOK AND BED's Single from ¥3,720.
A couple: BOOK AND BED TOKYO Shinjuku's Double, or a hostel private room.
An early flight from Haneda: FIRST CABIN Haneda Terminal 1 (domestic flights) or Nine Hours Hamamatsucho by the monorail.
Shoes and lockers. Shoes usually come off at the door and go in a small shoe locker. Your bags go in your main locker, and the key or wristband opens it. Lose it and you pay: Rembrandt charges ¥10,000.
Luggage. Pods don't have room for a suitcase (The Millennials is the exception). Lockers range from a 30 cm-wide box at Nine Hours Hamamatsucho to tall ones at 9h nine hours woman Shinjuku, and big cases go to the desk or a luggage room. Many hotels hold bags only on the day of your stay; Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae and FIRST CABIN Haneda won't hold them after check-out at all. Travel light, or leave the big case at a station coin locker.
Bathing. You wash at a seated shower before getting into a shared bath, and you go in without a swimsuit. Where there's no bath, there are shower booths. Towels and loungewear are normally included.
Quiet. The pod has a curtain or a blind, not a door, so sound carries. Take calls in the lounge, set your alarm to vibrate, and pack your bag the night before an early start. Most places ask you not to eat in the pod; Book and Bed asks for no hair dryers between midnight and 7am.
Check-in and check-out. Check-in usually opens mid-afternoon (3pm to 5pm) and check-out is 10am to noon. Several hotels clean every pod in the middle of the day, so multi-night guests clear out or wait in the lounge: First Cabin Akasaka cleans from 10am to 4pm.
Men, women and age limits. Most capsule hotels split men and women by floor or zone, and some take only one or the other. Pods are generally for one adult. Age rules vary: Nine Hours takes guests from 6 (aged 6 to 11 with a parent of the same sex), First Cabin from 13, and Anshin Oyado's Shinjuku and Akihabara men's branches only from 18. Rembrandt takes children from 4 with a parent of the same sex, and under-16s staying without an adult need a parent's consent form.
Tattoos. Rules are most common where there's a shared bath, but they can apply to entry, not just the bath. Rembrandt Cabin & Spa Shimbashi refuses all tattoos, even stickers. The others with baths on this page don't state a rule on their own sites, so ask before you book rather than at the door.
Payment. Some branches are cashless (9h nine hours woman Shinjuku takes no cash); others take cash, cards and IC cards. Overseas guests show a passport at check-in.
Space. Even the big pods are a bed with a ceiling. Two nights is plenty for most people; for a week, a hostel private room or a cheap hotel room is easier.
Privacy. A curtain is not a door. Valuables go in the pod safe or the locker, never loose in the pod.
Sleep. Snoring neighbours and late arrivals come with the price. Pack earplugs; Nine Hours and First Cabin hand them out.
Couples and families. Separate floors mean separate beds. Book and Bed is the only shared-bed option here.
Prices change by date, so check the hotel's own site for yours; the figures here are the published from-prices on 4 November 2026. Several Tokyo capsule hotels and hostels posted security notices in September and October 2026: Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae warned about fake WhatsApp and email messages asking guests for card details, and MyCUBE's operator about a possible leak of guests' personal data. A real booking never needs you to pay through a WhatsApp link: if a message asks, contact the hotel through its official site.
For a room with a door and a bunk for less, look at hostels, many of which have private rooms. To pick an area first, where to stay in Tokyo compares Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Asakusa, Ueno and Roppongi, and getting around Tokyo explains the IC cards and the last trains that capsule hotels were invented for.
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