Capsule hotel

I'm staying in a Japanese capsule hotel tonight. I thought it would be good to see what they're like and it's the same price as a hostel dormitory bed. This is my pod/space - I don't know what they're called. Although it might make it noisier, I'm glad there's a curtain and not a solid door - I think a door would make it feel too much like a coffin!

The space is the length of a bed and there's enough head room to sit up with a place for putting a small bag. No space for my backpack.

I'm in Kumamoto. My friend who spent several years living in Japan recommended it. There's a garden that I'll go to tomorrow and it has one of the 3 best castles in Japan. Unfortunately the castle was damaged in an earthquake earlier this year. I had read that it had been damaged but I hadn't realised how badly. It's closed at the moment and walking around the outside the damage is clear. See the extra for part of one of the collapsed walls.

This afternoon I went to a traditional crafts exhibition. As a way of ensuring traditional crafts and the techniques for making them don't disappear, there's a centre with information about a range of different crafts - woodwork, ceramics, hand-made paper, bamboo, jewellery and more - all from this local area. If I had an empty suitcase and was going straight back to London, I could have spent a LOT of money!