This room number is banished from certain hotels

While Airbnb knows some difficulties in certain countries that have taken radical measures to limit access to travelers – as in Amsterdam, Barcelona or New York -, hotels are rubbing their hands again. And, in this country in particular, tourists who land each year are numerous: 25 million visitors in 2023 and a target of 60 million by 2030! If you stay there, you will probably not find this room number. And it’s not even number 13 …

Indeed, in this country which has become an ultra popular destination in recent years, an ancestral superstition means that the vast majority of hotels do not have a specific room number. But where then? We talk about Japan. From Tokyo to Kyoto, from Nara to Osaka via the very charming island of Miyajima off the coast of Hiroshima, tourists no longer know where to turn. A stay that is full of sight but can quickly become exhausting.

So nothing beats a small break at the hotel. But never in this room whose figure is little appreciated and often lacks the call in the corridors … “And for good reason: he pronounces ‘shi’, which also means ‘death’ in Japanese“, Specifies the site Japan Experience To justify his absence. In a country very attached to superstitions, you will only very rarely find the number 4 “who did not have a good press“Add the site specialized in the country of the rising sun.”So don’t be surprised to cross few cars registered with number 4, or even find hotels without room number 4.“”

If everyone knows old superstition around figure 13, mainly in the West for religious beliefs or ancient myths, there is also another figure that should be wary. Thus, in Italy, the figure 17 is little appreciated. In Roman numerals, this gives XVII and can be rearranged to form “vixi”, meaning “I lived“In Latin, which can be interpreted as”I died“. We always come back to it.