So you’ve paid a fortune for your luxury hotel room (not to mention the cab ride from Narita) and now you’d just like to check your email quickly before hitting the sack to begin your battle with jet lag. Depending on where you’re staying you may be out of luck. Despite Tokyo’s reputation as one of the world’s most high-tech cities, the availability of broadband internet access is still surprisingly spotty in many of the city’s hotels.

Internet access in a Japanese hotel might mean anything from a good old analogue phone line to high-speed wireless (and just about everything in between). Some hotels tout broadband internet access, when they really mean they’ve got a couple of computers you can use in the lobby or business center (for a fee no less). Other hotels offer wireless, but only in the lobby.
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It looks like Tokyo’s Otaku class will have to find someone else to bathe with. The women dressed as french maids at the hotel “My Home Moe Room” have turned in their costumes and are no longer providing “special services”. Word is the hotel has changed it’s name after barely a month of bookings — one can only imagine that the name itself may have attracted the wrong crowd.

My Home Moe Room opened earlier this summer to much fanfare and considerable media coverage. The hotel was said to be the first of it’s kind catering exclusively to Akihabara Otaku who, among other things, just can’t resist a women dressed as a french maid. At the time of the opening the hotel was being heralded as the latest example of the Otaku’s growing economic influence. While Otaku rarely leave the house, they usually live with their parents and as a result have a surplus of excess cash that enables them to pursue their many obsessions.
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Mainichi news is reporting that many of Tokyo’s Capsule Hotels are now going upscale with special VIP rooms.

Apparently this doesn’t sit well with purists. Although it’s not clear who is more upset - supporters of Capsule hotels or supporters of VIP rooms. One hotel investor is quoted as saying:

“The current situation sullies the concept of a VIP Room,”

I’m guessing that Capsule regulars are probably more concerned that prices for traditionally minimalist accomodations are bound to rise if this trend becomes widespread.