Capsule hotel

What are Capsule Hotels? How do they work?
In my own small way, I will try to give some answers by bringing you my experience.
My trip, made with my husband, was to return to Tokyo from Kyoto and then take the plane from Haneda the next morning.
For convenience, to save a little and to have the full Japanese experience, we chose to sleep in a Capsule Hotel in the centre of Asakusa, the only ‘important’ district of Tokyo that we had not yet visited.
The Capsule Hotel is a dormitory where there are no bunk beds but capsule beds, which may resemble either a bee hive or, alas, a morgue. They can be mixed or divided by gender and have several beds per room. For obvious reasons of space, the bed width is smaller than in a single bed, while the capsule is usually equipped with a TV, radio and alarm clock.

I chose the Capsule Hotel Asakusa Riverside right in front of Asakusa Station, overlooking the Sumida River. This has coin lockers available for guests to store their luggage, which are larger and cheaper than those at the station, while small lockers are included in the price. The dormitories are divided by gender and located on different floors, consisting of a first room where there are the lockers mentioned earlier, toilets and an area with sinks, and a separate room with beds. In my dormitory both the left and right walls were covered by the pods, spread over two floors. When you check in you are given a key to the locker with your bed number. In the locker you are given pyjamas, a bath towel and a kit for brushing your teeth, and on the bed there is a blanket for the night.
For washing on the top floor there are communal bathrooms (divided by gender) with low Japanese-style showers (complete with a stool to sit on), and bottles of soap available, while a bathtub is kept constantly full of hot water to refresh oneself post-shower. On the second floor is the ‘common area’ where vending machines, wifi and tables and chairs are available.