How Japan Reinvents the Hotel

choi

Bryan Lufkin, How Japan Could Reinvent the Hotel. Smart use of space and a centuries-old hospitality industry have made Japan's hotels pop. A new crop of lodging luring millennials might help define Japan's post-Olympics, Airbnb era.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/art ... nventing-themselves

Note:
(a) "Smart use of space and a centuries-old hospitality industry have made Japan's hotels pop."

pop (vi):
(i) "to go, come, or appear suddenly—often used with up"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pop
(ii) In this subtitle, it means "come."

"to move or appear quickly, suddenly, or when not expected  <There are lots of good young players popping up these days>"
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pop

(b) "Japan is changing: a rapidly ageing society, a record-breaking influx of visitors [tourists] from overseas * * * Gen J, a new series by BBC Worklife, keeps you up to speed on how the nation's next generation is shaping the Japan of tomorrow. This is the second story in that series."
(i) There is no generation in Japan called Generation J.
(A) GEN-J stands for "Grassroots Exchange Network - Japan." It is a program to promote grass-root exchange between Americans and Japanese, sponsor each person for two years. The program is jointly administered by Laurasian Institution (of Seattle, Washington) and Center for Global Partnership ((CGP), of Japan Foundation, at Manhattan).
https://www.cgp.org/exchange_network_japan_program
CGP jointly administers GEN-J with The
(B) BBC recently mis-appropriated GEN-J for the name of its series, "Gen J."  
(ii)
(A) History (under "About"). Laurasian Institution, undated
https://www.laurasian.org/history
("is a not-for-profit educational organization * * * Annually, Laurasian supports approximately 2,000 participants of varying ages on short-term and group programs. The institution was founded in 1990 and has been honored to operate programs sponsored by both the US Department of State and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The organization operates offices in Tokyo, Seattle, and New York. * * * Today, Laurasian Institution is the largest U.S.-Japan non-governmental exchange organization in terms of audience impacted")
(B) Laurasia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurasia
(is "a portmanteau for[, and composed of the present-day] Laurentia and Eurasia; formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from c 425 million years ago (Mya) to 200 Mya)
•         Pangaea (proper noun; this is British spelling, whereas American spelling is Pangea); "from Ancient Greek παν- pan-, all + γαῖα gaîa earth, land), after German Pangäa, which was coined by Alfred Wegener in 1915"):
        https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Pangaea
•         Pronunciations for Pangea and Laurentia are as follows:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pangea
        https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Laurentia

(c) "Ryuhei Hirano is sitting on a cushioned bench in a snug room overlooking Ikebukuro, one of Tokyo's entertainment districts. * * * says Hirano, 24, who lives in Tokyo[:] 'I wanted to stay for an hour to relax.' * * * This place, Book and Bed Tokyo [no Japanese name], is a hotel – though it may not look like one. You can stay overnight in the semi-communal space or pay a small fee to chill out and read for a while."
(i) Likely the correct Romanization is Ryūhei HIRANO 平野 龍平.
(ii) Ikebukuro 池袋 is a neigborhood in present-day 東京都豊島区.The ja.wikipedia.org says in section 2 地名の由来 (of 池袋 page): "袋型の池が袋池（丸池）と呼ばれており"

my translation: named after a bag-shaped pond or ponds (en.wikipedia.org says ponds; but Japanese and Chinese do not have plural form for noun, so this sentence from ja.wikipedia.org is hard to tell whether that was one pond or multiple ponds.)

(d) "Millennials have long sought 'experiences' in their purchasing decisions: like * * * saving up to go to music festivals to avoid FOMO [pronunciation: /ˈfōmō/; fear of missing out], instead of buying a status-symbol car or expensive luxury watch. * * * Toky'’s Trunk Hotel [no Japanese name] is upscale but upcycled – an eco-hotel whose walls and beds are partly built from the wood of demolished Japanese houses – and has a spin-off, one-room 'micro-hotel' elsewhere in Tokyo that's a former geisha house and fits a 'nightclub' complete with disco ball. Gracery Hotel in Shinjuku offers a room with Godzilla tearing his way through the wall."
(i) upcycle (vt)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/upcycle
(ii) Hotel Gracery ホテル グレイスリー
https://global.whg-hotels.jp/hotel-gracery/
has two dozen hotels in Japan, including Hotel Gracery Shinjuku ホテル グレイスリー 新宿.
(iii) No other hotel in Hotel Gracery chain has Godzilla. Hotel Gracery Shinjuku (2015- ) has
(A) a bust of Godzilla outdoor;
https://www.shinjukustation.com/hotel-gracery-shinjuku/
(photo captions: "Godzilla looks out over Kabukicho [Kabukichō 歌舞伎町 (a neighborhood and red-light district in 東京都新宿区)] from Hotel Gracery"/ "Godzilla movie posters along the hallway leading to the lobby")
(B) @41strange, Godzilla View Room At Hotel Gracery Shinjuku in Tokyo. Twitter.com, Nov 31, 2018.
https://twitter.com/41strange/status/1068621140174659584
(indoor views of the outdoor Godzilla)
(C) La Carmina, I Stayed at Tokyo's Godzilla Hotel! Gracery Shinjuku, Japanese Theme Hotel Review, Akihabara Washington.
https://www.lacarmina.com/blog/2 ... o-gracery-shinjuku/
•         Carmina
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Carmina
•         photo captions:         "For fans of 'dai [大] kaiju [kaijū 怪獣]'… There's a Godzilla room that you can rent. Keep reading to see photos of the 'monstrous' interior."
"The other, called 'Godzilla Room,' lets you get immersed in the monster's universe. Everything is decorated playfully, such as trick walls that reveal art in black light, and a mega-statue that greets you when you enter.
•         text: "While in Tokyo, I got to rest my head at yet another theme hotel, Washington Akihabara [officially Washington Hotel Akihabara; 秋葉原 is a neighborhood in 千代田区]. (Japan's Washington Hotels are under the same umbrella as Gracery [the umbrella: Washington Group Hotels, the name 藤田観光株式会社 Fujita Kankō Inc doing business as (dba)].)"

(e) "One particular boutique [totel] chain that's doing well is called First Cabin, where the rooms are walk-in 'cabins' modelled on the kind of first-class airline seats that resemble tiny bedrooms. * * * Tadao Kimachi, president of First Cabin Inc, attributes the chain's success both to its unique concept and also the fact that it provides a low-cost, higher-quality alternative to a hostel. 'Singapore Airlines launched the first semi-private room in first class – it's almost the same as our cabin,' he says."
(i) First Cabin  ファースト キャビン
https://first-cabin.jp/en/
has four tiers of rooms (each with its own rigid curtain as door): First Class Cabin, Business Class Cabin, Premium Economy Class Cabin, Premium Class Cabin)
(ii) Tadao KIMACHI (president)  代表取締役社長 来海 忠男
(iii) Japanese-English dictionary:
* 取締役 【とりしまりやく】 (n): "company director; board member"
* da-i-hy -tori-shimari-yaku 代表取締役 【だいひょうとりしまりやく】 (n): "representative director; managing director; president; someone chosen by the board of directors from among the directors to actually represent the company in its dealings with the outside world"
* 代表取締役社長 【だいひょうとりしまりやくしゃちょう】 (n): "president and chief executive officer"

(d) "So Rikimaru [Sō RIKIMARU 力丸 聡], 38, started the Book and Bed chain in Tokyo that mixes elements of a hostel, capsule hotel and café. He thinks differentiating is vital for hotels (Credit: BBC)"

capsule hotel  カプセルホテル
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel
(also known in the Western world as a pod hotel; The first capsule hotel in the world opened in 1979 and was the Capsule Inn Osaka [カプセル イン 大阪 (still operating)], located in the Umeda district [梅田, a neighborhood in 大阪市 北区 of Osaka, Japan and designed by Kisho Kurokawa [Kishō KUROSAWA 黒川 紀章 (1934 – 2007; architect)] )
(g) There is no need to read the rest.