SoraNews24 —Japan News—

After an airline scuppered passengers’ Valentine’s Day plans with a huge delay, one woman found herself in yet another bind when she learned that her complimentary hotel stay would be in an S&M dungeon-themed love hotel.

China
(airlines • China • flights • hotels • travel disaster • weird • wtf)

The Bat Cave apartment: a unique place to stay in Shibuya, Tokyo

Oona McGee
Dec 18, 2015

Ever wondered where Bruce Wayne would crash during a visit to Tokyo? You’d find him here in the Bat Cave, of course, and now you can stay here too!

Japan
(accommodation • Batman • Comics • cool • DC Comics • hotels • movies • travel)

An in-depth look at the Gundam Suite at Grand Pacific Le Daiba 【Video】

KK Miller
Dec 14, 2015

This suite has been open for a while now, but we definitely think you’ve never seen it up close like this before.

Japan
(anime • Gundam • hotels • odaiba • Tokyo • travel • video)

Hotel guest leaves origami for cleaning staff, back-and-forth folding battle ensues!

Meg Murphy
Nov 17, 2015

Tipping is a custom often debated in the world of customer service. Proponents of the practice believe workers are more motivated to give better service knowing that they will be paid better for doing so, while opponents argue that it shouldn’t be up to the customer to determine how much the employee gets paid.

But whether working for tips or not, if you treat the one serving you with kindness and respect, they are more likely to go out of their way to give you better service. Take, for example, this poster on Twitter, who left a little origami crane with a tip for the hotel cleaning staff, and in return got an even bigger surprise!

Japan
(folded towels • hotels • origami • small acts of kindness)

Park Hyatt Hotel honors hotel guest’s request to stay in Bill Murray’s “Lost in Translation” room

Jamie Koide
Nov 17, 2015

On vacation in Tokyo but feeling a little “lost in translation”? Well, if you’ve got the cash to splash, why not make your Japan experience even more memorable by paying homage to the classic comedy-drama of the same name by staying at the Park Hyatt Hotel, considered by some to be Tokyo’s best luxury hotel.

For those who are extremely fortunate, as one Reddit user recently found, you might even score a fabulous night in the suite used by Bill Murray in the movie.

Japan
(Bill Murray • Bill Murray's room • hotels • Japan sightseeing • lost in translation • movies • Park Hyatt Hotel • shinjuku • Tokyo)

Bookstore-styled Tokyo hostel has 1,700 books to read, bunks in the shelves to sleep next to them

Casey Baseel
Oct 27, 2015

Last summer, we heard about what sounded like the perfect place for lovers of travel and literature: a hotel in Tokyo designed like a bookstore and filled with reading material. It might sound like a fictitious flight of fancy, but Book and Bed Tokyo is very much real, and with its grand opening just days away, not only have pictures have surfaced of the unique accommodations, we now know how much it will cost to stay there and a little more about what kind of books it will have.

Japan
(books • cool • hostels • hotels • Tokyo • travel)

Hotel offers guests the chance to experience the 1,000-year-old lifestyle of the Heian Period

Preston Phro
Oct 5, 2015

Japanese history can be a lot of fun to explore, from the Sengoku era to the modernization of Japan in the Meiji Period. We’re sure everyone has their own favorite time period, but one that doesn’t always get the respect it deserves is the Heian Period. Lasting roughly from 794 to 1185, the period was a relatively peaceful time in Japan that saw a blossoming of culture in everything from literature to music.

Unfortunately, we can’t just hop on a plane and go back in time to see everything for ourselves. But there is a hotel in Shikoku where you can experience a bit of the Heian life for yourself complete with period costumes, games, and architecture! So whether you’re a history buff or just need a major change of scenery, you’ll want to check out Gosho Yashiro no Mori!
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Japan
(culture • Heian Period • history • hotels • Shikoku • Tokushima • travel)

You’d never guess this strange bubble house village is located in Japan

Mike
Sep 8, 2015

The architecture in Japan tends to look pretty much the same in most neighborhoods. It’s always a mix of older, traditional homes with sloping roofs and those distinctive, old-timey shingles, which butt up against the blockier modern buildings, plus decaying shanty houses on an alarming number of corners that all look like they could come crashing down at any moment. Sure, there is the occasional bizarre Halloween village out of nowhere, and the skyscrapers and such can be cool and varied, that’s generally the pattern.

So imagine how extra disorienting it would be to stumble upon this largely unheard-of village of beautifully weird polystyrene bubble houses in the Middle of Nowhere, Japan.

Japan
(architecture • hotels • resorts • travel • Wakayama • weird)

Cosplayers find a way to enjoy Japan’s love hotels while staying fully clothed: Photo sessions

Casey Baseel
Aug 24, 2015

Japan’s love hotels, as the name implies, are all about the loving. Not only do these short-stay accommodations provide a welcome oasis of privacy for couples that want to express their physical affection for one another, they often have elaborately decorated themed rooms to help them get in the mood.

But while most visitors to a love hotel aim to spend as little time as possible with their clothes on, one group has found a way to enjoy them while staying completely dressed: cosplay fans who’ve discovered one love hotel that makes a great photo shoot location.

Japan
(cosplay • hotels • love hotels • travel)

Four areas in which Japan needs to improve if it wants to attract more overseas travelers

Casey Baseel
Jun 27, 2015

Japan’s National Tourist Organization recently released its statistics on the number of overseas travelers who visited in the country in 2014, and we’re proud to say that 13,413,467 of you came to visit (though we’re also a little hurt that so few of you called us up to get ramen while you were here). That number represents almost a 30-percent increase from the number of foreign tourists Japan received in 2013, and a whopping 60-percent jump compared to 2012.

Still, Japan only ranks 27th globally in its ability to draw travelers from abroad, making it eighth in Asia, behind world-number 22 Korea and number four China.

So what’s holding Japan back from becoming an even more popular international travel destination? RocketNews24’s non-Japanese staff put our heads together, and after getting over the initial pain from our foreheads violently colliding, came up with the following list of areas Japan could do better in that foreign travelers would definitely appreciate.

Global, Japan
(culture • hotels • internationalism • language • restaurants • travel)

Swiss hotel fights food wastefulness with photos of starving children

Meg Murphy
Jun 22, 2015

As a child, did your parents ever try to get you to finish everything on your plate by telling you how there are starving children in the world who aren’t lucky enough to have the luxury of a decent meal? As a kid, it probably just seemed like an unfair guilt-trip, but as adults hopefully we have all now realized the truth behind those words and the importance of not being wasteful.

A particular Swiss hotel has taken similar tactics to curb the wastefulness of its guests at the breakfast buffet, after shameful amounts of food have been left partially or wholly uneaten and then thrown away. But the hotel took it a step further by including shocking photos to help drive the message home.