Japan's corpse hotels upset some of the neighbors

yahoo.com ^ | April 29, 2016 | Teppei Kasai, Tim Kelly

[Enterprise]

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tucked away in a quiet residential street in Kawasaki city in Japan is a refurbished workshop with a plain silver exterior and black draped windows that residents describe as creepy.

The business inside, Sousou, is one of Japan's latest so-called corpse hotels, a camouflaged morgue used to store some of Japan's mounting pile of bodies waiting for a spot in one of the nation's overworked crematoriums.

“Crematories need to be built, but there isn’t any space to do so and that is creating funeral refugees," said Hisao Takegishi, who opened the business in 2014.

At a daily rate of 9,000 yen ($82) family members can keep their deceased relative in one of Sousou's 10 rooms for up to four days until a crematorium can be found.

Unlike other such morgues-in-disguise, which try to blend in by looking like hotels, Sousou doesn’t refrigerate corpses, relying on air conditioned rooms instead.

[Enterprise]

There haven't been any complaints from the guests about things like room service or dissatisfaction with the hotel staff. Still, no one has said that they would stay there again.

[bigbob]

People are dying to get in

[fwdude]

I found it amazing when I recently learned that only about 23% of Japan's land is habitable, or even usable. The larger part of the interior is inhospitable and mountainous, leaving only the relatively narrow coastal areas for use.

Which begs the question, why can't they just bury their dead in the mountains?

[W.]

Anyone remember what Pope John Paul looked on his last day on display? Finally, some Priest tossed a hanky over his frightening face. Nobody needed to see that. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[niteowl77]

We used to live about 150 feet from a good-sized cemetery, with only one house and a road in between. Never had any problems with the residents (unlike the ones above ground in the other direction).

FWIW, the youngest son of the family who used to live in the intervening house did have "night terrors" whenever he fell asleep on the couch in the basement. No causation inferred.

Mr. niteowl77

[JPG]

I’d like another room...this one smells funky.

[Larry Lucido]

Would a Navy corpse-man stay there?

[Larry Lucido]

or dissatisfaction with the hotel staff.

Their own website says they have a 98% satisfaction rate.

[Daaave]

Warning! If you really want to be creeped out.

Aokigahara Suicide Forest Japan bing.com

[taxcontrol]

Sounds like an opportunity for an off shore crematorium and burial of ashes at sea.

[dfwgator]

You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

[lurk]

Fill derelict ships with these people and sink them as reefs offshore. The fish will be happy, and they will make cool diving sites.