Alternative lodging

In Japan, there are several alternative options for lodging that are most probably unheard of in other countries. Here are a few that I know of:

Daily Mansion
These are fully furnished apartment type hotels. They cost almost the same as a hotel room as far as I know

Internet Cafe
Yep, you read right. Japan's Internet cafes offer individual booths, which are sometimes furnished with reclining chairs (I don't know about beds) and shared shower rooms (in addition to computers, of course, and comic books)

Capsule Hotel
These so-called "capsules" are kind of eerie. Basically you sleep in a rectangular box (with a TV!) and you clean yourself up in a shared bathroom. However, because of the lack of privacy (the "door" is made of glass), women don't usually stay in this type of... um, hotel?

I've never tried any of these though :D

You know you've been in Japan too long...

Here's a fun book that captured my attention during my last visit to the bookstore.
Although some of the entries were kind of hard to relate to, there were a couple or so that were hilarious :D

View here for more!

You can't read the whole book online but there was one entry that was particularly hilarious (sadly, missing from the link above), but this should give you a little taste of it:
"How to speak fluent Japanese without saying a word"

Comments please!