HAKONE, Kanagawa -- A hotel that recently opened in the spa resort town of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, is designed to entertain guests with a relaxing atmosphere and plenty of books in its lobby, guest rooms and elsewhere, a challenging project that bucks the trend of people reading fewer books these days.
The so-called book hotel, which is named Hakone Honbako ("Hakone bookcase"), was opened on Aug. 1 by major book distributor Nippon Shuppan Hanbai Inc. and Jiyujin, a company that operates a Japanese-style hotel and publishes a magazine.
The hotel's lobby area commands a magnificent view of the Hakone mountains through a large window. There are bookshelves built along a large wall that contain carefully selected novels, photo collections and other books on such themes as clothing, food, lifestyle, fun and relaxation.
I was attracted to the colorful spines of the massive Sekai Bungaku Zenshu (World literature series) edited by writer Natsuki Ikezawa.
Entering this space, visitors probably feel the difficulty of deciding whether to initially enjoy the rich green scenery to their heart's content or not waste any time in starting to read some of the 12,000 books placed around the building.
"The hotel's check-in time is 3 p.m, so you can stay for up to 20 hours on an overnight visit. Please enjoy your stay any way you like," said Toru Iwasa, 51, president of Jiyujin, which designed the hotel and came up with its concept.
The hotel building previously housed a resort facility owned by Nippon Shuppan Hanbai. The idea of a book hotel was the result of discussions on how to renovate and reuse the building. Three years were spent in preparing the hotel and deciding on its details.
There are 18 guest rooms and all of them, plus many other areas around the building, are enhanced by efforts to make guests feel an affinity with books. One such effort is the "original bookcases" containing books selected by such celebrities as writer Kanako Nishi and actress Miki Nakatani. All books in the hotel are available for purchase, too.
The hotel serves Italian meals featuring locally grown pesticide-free vegetables, among other ingredients. It also puts emphasis on its bathing facilities -- guests can enjoy indoor and rotenburo open-air baths.
Rooms start at 18,321 yen (before tax) with two meals per person in a double room.
The idea of such book hotels is still new and it is not certain whether it will take root, although book cafes, or businesses where a cafe also offers elegant-looking books, have expanded in recent years.
"At overseas resorts where people go for extended stays, many visitors have a relaxing time just reading books on the beach. I feel that books and resorts have good chemistry," Iwasa said. "I want to create places where visitors can casually enjoy books and experience wisdom at a time when more and more bookstores are disappearing from areas in front of train stations and other accessible places."
Relaxing space in Shinjuku
Unique facilities taking advantage of books are increasing in number.
Tsutaya Book Apartment, which was opened in December by the Tsutaya chain of book, music and video stores, operates around the clock and offers various services that aim to help customers relax.
The store is on floors four to six of a building near Tokyo Metro's Shinjuku-sanchome Station in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. Books are on display across all three floors, and in addition, the fourth floor has a co-working space, which is a shared office where individuals can come to do their own work.
The fifth and sixth floors have both common spaces and separate rooms. In both areas, customers take off their shoes and spend their time reading books. The sixth floor is for women only. The facility also has a shower room.
Fees are charged by the hour. One hour on the fifth floor, for example, costs 500 yen (plus tax).
Before this building was constructed, there was an ordinary DVD rental store on the site. When the plan to construct the current building was being discussed, an idea to include spaces where people can relax was suggested, for the reason that there was no such place in Shinjuku.
Tsutaya says it expects customers at Tsutaya Book Apartment will find books that they would not usually choose.
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