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  • Seriously, why did I eat all those wasabi KitKat before bedtime, and drink all that Calpis?

  • It's never, never a good thing to do.

  • You know, I always eat and drink before bedtime, and pay the price for it later on. Yeah...

  • Idiot.

  • So today we're in Ginza Shopping District. It's one of the world's largest upmarket shopping districts.

  • It's right in the heart of Tokyo, a stone's throw away from the Emperor's house, Tokyo Station and Tsukiji fish market.

  • And I wanna stay here the night because tommorow I'm gonna be leaving from Tokyo Station to go back to Sendai on the bullet train.

  • Staying at a hotel for the night, in this area, costs just a staggering amount of money.

  • But fortunately, there is an alternative: Capsule hotel.

  • It's good. Good ice coffee, that was.

  • Check-in at capsule hotels usually kicks off at 4PM.

  • But the hotel has kindly let me in an hour early, so I can wander around freely without filming ... half-naked Japanese salarymen moping around on-screen.

  • (inside hotel) Going up.

  • Third floor of an inconspicuous building just off the high street of Ginza.

  • It's a pretty good location, actually. Best thing about capsule hotels, after the price, is they always tend to be, like, pretty well located.

  • ... pretty centrally located and uh...

  • (whispers) The lobby.

  • So after checking in, the first thing you gotta do, first thing you always gotta do, take off your shoes. Put on some slippers.

  • And that is how you know that you're in Japan.

  • Slippers.

  • So, because the capsules aren't that big, it's just a bed, you wanna have as much space as possible.

  • So each capsule comes with its own locker. Put in your ridiculous, massive luggage in.

  • The capsule room in all its glory.

  • So there's about, must be about 15-20 capsules in this one little area.

  • And our one... 307... is over here.

  • And actually, this one is one of the only rooms in the hotel which comes with its own little "second room".

  • A kind of tatami mat room. I've never seen anything like that.

  • That's really cool, so you got your own private little space under there.

  • But most capsules, this is it. This is your bedroom for the night.

  • Welcome to Abroad in a Box.

  • I still prefer this to staying in a hostel where you just get a bunk bed, you know, cuz you've got your privacy.

  • Not only do you have more space than a bunk bed, but a TV as well.

  • TV, headphones, an alarm with a light, it's exciting, isn't it?

  • A mirror, and a coathanger.

  • But yeah, that's it. I mean you're not gonna really be in here for doing a lot apart from sleeping anyway, so it's pretty ideal.

  • I've often wondered if a capsule hotel would work in the U.K., but I dunno.

  • Maybe British people don't like the idea of climbing up a tiny ladder and getting into a box.

  • Look you can pull this down.

  • Haha! And now you can't see me!

  • There we go.

  • Haha!

  • I win.

  • Unsurprisingly, capsule hotels are separated by gender, with this hotel keeping men and women on separated floors.

  • The only space shared by everyone is the communal area.

  • "For both genders".

  • "both genders".

  • As if you're a girl or a guy. The sky's the limit.

  • I can sit here, and think about how to make the world a better place.

  • I'll do that later though. I'll do that later.

  • Alright so apparently, there are 250 capsules in this one hotel.

  • This is the shower room.

  • Pretty big shower.

  • That's ridiculous, it's huge!

  • It's like a four-star hotel room shower.

  • As well as the beds, the communal area, the showers and the toilets, some capsule hotels also have bonus amenities thrown in.

  • For example, this one randomly has a free footbath.

  • It's pretty surreal just sat here in a footbath in the middle of Tokyo. Got loads of people walking past on the street, just staring in surprise.

  • Maybe it's cuz there's a foreigner in the footbath, or maybe it's just because there's a footbath.

  • But, I don't think I've ever seen a footbath in the centre of Tokyo like this, so it's pretty cool.

  • So today, I came here with a ¥10,000 budget which is about $100.

  • and I've spent ¥4500 on the capsule hotel for one night giving me ¥5500 spending money, pocket money, to do with whatever I want.

  • So, let's go out into the local area and let's check out Ginza and let's see what we can get with ¥5500.

  • But first, more footbath.

  • Everything's better with a footbath.

  • Whenever I come to Ginza, I do feel a bit out of my depth , you know.

  • There's a sense that ¥5500, you can spend that on one pair of socks. One upmarket pair of socks.

  • So I don't know exactly what I'm gonna be able to get for my money's worth.

  • The trick to Ginza, right, is all the best little restaurants are hidden down alleyways and I can see one there that has the word "Yakitori" which is...

  • "Yakitori"'s meat on a skewer and its one of my favourite Japanese dishes and it looks quite cool.

  • "TORIGIN".

  • "TORIGIN".

  • "TORI" means "CHICKEN".

  • "GIN" means...

  • "GIN".

  • And so, wow. There you go.

  • Very popular Japanese restaurants that out the front you can see kind of the food they have. In plastic food form.

  • And it looks pretty good. I'm excited about the yakitori.

  • So, beer, ¥650. Yakitori, this was about ¥1500. So, we're ¥2100 in.

  • And that's quite a lot of food for what we paid so, pretty reasonable.

  • So simple. I always wonder why we don't have this in the U.K. Just food on a skewer, for God's sake. Perfect.

  • Having spent almost half my budget on a fine yakitori dinner and a decent bottle of Sapporo, it now makes sense to grab a desert to go down with it.

  • My lord, my god.

  • So rich, I don't even wanna think about how many calories are in this.

  • Honestly, I've never seen a shop in Japan so busy this time of night.

  • If the manager of Lindt is watching, you're onto a winner here. There's a lot of business to be had in Japan. Make some serious money.

  • I don't know why I'm giving business advice to Lindt.

  • Chicken, beer, chocolate and coffee. The only thing I need now is just one more little late night snack. You know, just something small to enjoy back at the hotel.

  • Wasabi KitKat. I've looked far and wide for these, many a time.

  • They're unique to Shizuoka Prefecture. But apparently, you get them in Ginza. Didn't know that.

  • Alright so I got KitKat Wasabi, and to wash that down, some Calpis, Calpis water. Delicious!

  • The verdict.

  • Oh, it was just as bad.

  • It just taste like chocolate gone wrong rather than chocolate with wasabi.

  • No.

  • Won't buy again.

  • Seriously, why did I eat all those wasabi KitKat before bedtime, and drink all that Calpis?

  • It's never, never a good thing to do.

  • You know, I always eat and drink before bedtime, and pay the price for it later on. Yeah...

  • Idiot.

  • So there you have it. Capsule hotels. Cheap, convenient, and absolutely everywhere in Tokyo.

  • If you're travelling on a budget or travelling solo, I can't recommend them enough.

  • For more details on where I stayed, check out the description box below where you can also find links to other capsule hotel-related videos from other vloggers,

  • and useful advice for travelling on a budget in Japan.

  • Many thanks for watching, guys. I'll see you next time.

Seriously, why did I eat all those wasabi KitKat before bedtime, and drink all that Calpis?

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