Tokyo hotel promotes traditional book culture

NTD Staff
By NTD Staff
February 5, 2017World News
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One hotel in Japan is defying the growing digital books trend and appealing to old fashioned guests who still prefer the traditional paper book culture.

A variation of Japan‘s famous capsule hotels, Book and Bed Tokyo offers only closet-sized bunks embedded in rows of bookshelves.

The walls, ceiling and most of the decor of the hotel are packed with tomes of all sorts – 3,200 books of different languages to be exact.

During the day a common room serves as lounge for day visitors who can also come to share the experience of reading books together.

“There are many visitors staying in one big space, so we can communicate and feel relaxed,” said Natsuki Suno, a student who came here to take a break from her studies after hearing about this hotel on social media.

The hotel, like many capsule hotels in Tokyo, is tucked away in the back alleys of an entertainment district, but it is luring young tourists as well.

“I kind of find capsules (hotels) a bit constrictive, a bit scared of how confined it is. So we thought this is a good medium between the two and there’s definitely a lot of big spaces to stay in and it is definitely a nice place to stay if you like to read,” said Suetha Das, visiting from Sydney, Autralia.

The CEO of Book and Bed Tokyo, Kei Asai, who calls his hotel an accommodation bookshop, explained how he came up with the idea.

“The reason why I came up with this concept was that I wanted to stay in this kind of hostels where you can fall asleep while enjoying something fun,” he said.

The hotel, which opened a year and half ago, has 60 cubes, some hidden away in corners to make for cozier reading rooms. Each cube is equipped with a mattress and reading lamp.

Overnight rates ranges, depending on the room, from 3,800 o 4,800 yen (33 to 42 U.S. dollars). Day-time visitors can lounge in the cushioned nooks and crannies for 500 yen an hour.

 

(Reuters)

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