07 · Capsule Hotels
Capsule Hotel Asakusa Riverside
Tokyo, Japan
Capsules stacked in two tiers beside the Sumida river, with the washing rooms shared along the floor
A capsule is a moulded shell about two metres long, set into a frame in two tiers with a short ladder to the upper row. The opening is closed by a blind rather than a door. Inside there is a fitted mattress, a light, a socket and a small control panel at head height.
The building is a narrow city block of the ordinary Tokyo kind, with the sleeping floors stacked above a ground-floor entrance and lockers. Bathing rooms, washbasins and a lounge are shared and sit on their own floors, so the capsule holds nothing but the bed. Floors are usually divided by sex, and the corridors between the frames are kept dark and quiet.
The hotel is in Asakusa, in the north-east of central Tokyo, a few streets back from the west bank of the Sumida. Senso-ji temple and the covered shopping lanes that lead to it are within walking distance. Across the water the Tokyo Skytree stands above the low roofs of Sumida ward and marks the direction of the river.
Last gone over · June 2026
Three distances, one hotel: none of it is a promise about a stay. We work from published sources and say so plainly; the month at the foot of the page is when we last went over them.