The life of an office worker in Japan is not one of chocolates and chu-hi. While not all are the kind to work until they literally die at their desks, and while there is still the odd opportunity to sink a couple of happo-shus after work, the reality is that most of a worker’s time will be stuck in an open plan office next to their boss, being lectured to about the declining quality of the egg sandwiches in the combini downstairs.
It’s rare that a salaried worker in Japan gets a chance to up and disappear on holiday. That’s part of the reason that airfares in Japan quadruple during the specific holiday periods when everyone gets to take a break. For Japanese, it’s often tricky not to feel like you’ve let your colleagues down if you’re sitting on a beach sipping pina coladas while they are stuck at the office.
Salarymen, Let’s Do Early Morning Travel!
In fact, there’s such a crippling stigma around taking time off to travel that a whole cottage industry has sprung up around the idea of fitting in a day’s worth of travel activities before going straight to work. The go-to book for this is サラリーマンは早朝旅行をしよう! (Salarymen, let’s do early morning travel!) written by two enterprising chaps that love a bit of a wander before work time. Suits and sunglasses isn’t just for NCIS, it seems.
This book has something for everyone. For those just getting used to the idea of not going straight to work it suggests a course of soothing indoor activities. The intermediate level suggests to “go for a scenic walks around town,” which doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch. However, this is swiftly followed by advanced level techniques, including “climb a mountain before work.” With workers going to this level of effort to avoid going to office, you’d think no one gets a chance to ever be out of the office. This is largely true.
The one shining exception is the business trip (出張) which is a golden ticket out of the office and far, far away. Every day, the Japanese domestic travel industry caters to the hordes of office workers that hop on trains and aeroplanes for business trips near and far. Sadly, that particular golden ticket often leads to a faceless hotel in run-down suburb in whatever random city the branch office is located.
Business Travel
So why on earth would we want to emulate the travels of a Salaryman? There are a number of reasons, but the core of it is: it’s usually cheap, different, and you can meet some hilarious characters along the way. Let’s get to it. Go find your poorly fitting polyester suit and slip into your slip-ons, it’s time to do some business.
The first thing you’re going to want is somewhere to stay. We’ll look at three broad categories of places: capsule hotels, chains of business hotels, and unique mom and pop hole in the walls that cater specifically to businessmen. They all have their advantages and disadvantages but the good news is you can almost certainly find somewhere to park your weary feet for less than $50.
Capsule Hotels
Capsule hotels are the stuff of legend outside Japan. Row upon row of tiny beds crammed into a dimly lit hall like something straight out of the Matrix, right? While capsule hotels looked like they were going the way of the dodo for a while, they’ve recently seen a resurgence and you can find some very fancy ones indeed. The basic deal is you pay by the hour. There’s usually a base fee and then an additional fee per hour. For a night’s stay, this will usually run you around $40 or $50.
Capsules usually have an excellent bath/sauna section to soak away the pressures of the day before you cram yourself into your pod. For an authentic experience, make sure you hang out in a dimly lit bar until the last train leaves and they forcibly remove the remaining customers in wrinkled suits. Head back to your capsule and have a good night bath and a refreshing three hours of sleep. Your business trip is off to a roaring start!
You can find capsule hotels on Jalan (search カプセル) or by searching for カプセルホテル and the name of the town you’re visiting. Be aware that almost all capsule hotels are sex-segregated and many only cater to men. Make sure you check the finer details before you miss that last train.
Chain Hotels
Chain hotels pack the latest Japanese sleeping technology into a room slightly larger than a suitcase. The website will advertise that rooms contains a desk, television, ironing board, bath, shower and all the modern conveniences of business travel but trying to find them all is akin to solving an architectural rubik’s cube. They’re usually a great deal, and most come with a hot breakfast, a beer machine and a hot spring with massage chairs.
Two of the best chains are Super Hotel and Tokyu Inn which have branches in almost every medium sized town in the country. You can find other excellent deals on chain hotels through Jalan. Great things to watch for are weekend deals when these towering buildings are practically empty (the opposite of regular hotels, which tend to charge a lot more on the weekends), and the ubiquitous 1.5x bed which isn’t quite a double but is usually significantly cheaper. If you shop around you should always be able to find a bed for less than $50 in one of these chains.
Private Business Hotels
If you really want a hilarious Salaryman experience, you’re going to need to find yourself a privately run hotel that caters mainly to office travelers. These lurk at the end of alleys and often seem like they’ve only just realized that electric lighting and running water is a thing. They’re wonderful and everyone should get into one at least once. The trick is, they’re a little difficult to find. Never fear, we have the internet!
To hunt them out, we can start in Jalan’s excellent business trip section (出張ビジネス) which gives us a list of all the hotels an aspiring business tripper would want to rest their weary head after a day of hard talking and hard drinking. Typically these hotels lurk in random suburbs away from the center. Once you’ve chosen roughly where you want to go and clicked on the place name, you can search Jalan’s listings for the cheapest options (use the 料金が安い順 button).
Now we’re really digging into the past. You should be able to get a good idea of the hotel from clicking around the Jalan listings. If it doesn’t have a smiling photoshopped face or a towering white building, we’re in the right place. Look for buildings with tacky facades or pictures of ancient televisions. Once you’ve found one that’s suitably sketchy, you can book through that site, or Google the hotel name and book with them directly.
If you’re lucky the hotel will be in a suburb you’ve never heard of, with duvet covers from the fifties, a jukebox in the lobby and a cast of regulars to share a nice bottle of milk from the sauna vending machine with. Hey, it’s all for the experience, right?
Now you’ve got the tools, get that tie on and get out there. Ever end up the honorary board member of an unnamed company? Do shots with the guys that invented pocky? Wake up in the morning with more business cards than you remember receiving? I’d love to hear about your best salaryman experience, hit the comments.
Bonus Wallpapers!
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