tsurara

Tonight I'm spending the night at the WiP, an internet and comic cafe in central Takamatsu (part of a nationwide chain) and thought I'd take the chance to talk about net/comic cafe culture in Japan while I'm at it.

The place I'm staying:
ƒƒCƒv‚¼Š¢’¬‚P’š–Ú“X[ƒCƒ“ƒ^[ƒlƒbƒgƒJƒtƒF^–Ÿ‰æ‹i’ƒ]

How much: A "night pack" at the WiP (10 hours from 9pm onward) is 2,200yen (approx US$20). Upon check in you recieve a small clipboard with the time of check in and your booth number printed on it. You pay the balance on check-out (bringing the slip to the counter with you when you leave).

The Membership: Recently, net cafes have begun to ID their patrons and require membership cards to keep track of their customers. This practice began after Japan's homeless population learned that it was possible to check into an internet cafe and never check out! In one case, it was more than a month before a homeless net-cafe squatter was caught and thrown out!

The Booth: Quite a few different booth types are available, including lower-cost public-booths without privacy screens, private laptop hook-ups, regular seats, reclining seats with footstools, and loveseats designed to share with a friend. Tonight I'm staying in a recliner-booth.

My own booth is about the size of a small bathroom and includes:
-A desk/reading lamp
-a universal cellphone charger
-headphones
-a pc/tv with a huge flatscreen monitor, keyboard and mouse
-remote control (for the tv functions)
-a PS2
-a trashcan
-a coat-hanger
-a footstool
-a reclining chair

Also in my booth is a plethora of online gaming advertisements and a menu for food available at the counter.

Services: Use of the net cafe includes free use of clean, neatly-folded blankets, a shower, a free drink (including an assortment of coffees, teas, soft drinks, iced-drinks, and smoothies), hot water for making instant noodles, and bathrooms.

Movies: I'm going to start out tonight by checking out the movies... every month or so, the movies loaded onto the network change. This month my options are: Transformers, ZODIAC, Lucky You, Sakuran, Emporer, Bayside Shakedown 2, Warau Datenshi, DEATH NOTE -The Last Name-, UDON, Happy Feet, BABEL, The Reaping, Freedom Writers, Watashi wo Sukii ni Tsuretette, Sahara, 300, The Shooter, Aiden and Titi, Kurai Tokoro de Machiawase, Secretary, The Holiday, Andalucia no Natsu, In The Cut, The Grudge, September 11th, Francisco's Two Sons, Blood Diamond, Rabu Songu ga Dekiru Made, Smokin Aces, Perfume, Boku wa Imouto ni Koisuru, Koneko Monogatari, The Departed, Dreamgirls, An Inconvenient Truth, Kachikomi!, Lakeside Murders, Spiderman, Spiderman 2, Charlotte's Web, Nacho Libre, and a handful of others...

Sure beats the hell out of the selection on the plane!

You can take a peek at the list for yourself here: ƒlƒbƒgƒJƒtƒFŒü‚¯“®‰æ”zMƒT[ƒrƒX

I'm going to cozy up to ZODIAC, because even though I've already seen it: it's a fabulous movie and I want to watch it again for free So after I've finished my tea and my serial killer movie, I'll update this thread with more net-cafe goodness...

Also available on the watchable front: the entire "Shinigami no Ballad" live action series (10 episodes), The entire "Space Cruiser Yamato" anime, about 15 soft-core bouncy-model flicks, and a handful of hard porn for the so-inclined.

Gaming: Net cafes in Japan are great for gamers. You can get your fix in a pleasant, convenient atmosphere without distraction...and best of all, completely for free! And with a Playstation 2 in most of the booths along with a huge selection of single and multiplayer games available to borrow completely free of charge: it's a bored gamer's paradise.

Currently available for free play through PC: Yogurting, Mabinogi, Asgard, Tales Weaver, Maple Story, Emil Chronicle, Trickster, Tantra, Jinsei Game Online, ROSE, Pangya, Mu, Lineage, Silk Road, Ragnarok Online, RED STONE, Nemurenai Daichi Chronos, CABAL, Lineage 2, Ragnarok Online II

Unfortunately, I've got a conference tomorrow... so I'm going to forgo the gaming to get some sleep...

Reading Material: 5:00am and I'm up from my sleeping. I couldn't leave without cramming in a few hours of my favorite part of any Japanese media cafe - the comics!

WIP has, on my count, 60 floor to ceiling bookshelves full of comics to choose from. Add to that a magazine rack to rival any small bookstore and you could spend a year in this place just reading. While some collections are more complete than others (shounen and seinen comics are pretty much ALL here... anything you could possibly want), others are incomplete (shoujo is somewhat represented... with full collections of Hana to Yume, Nakayoshi, flower, princess and margaret comics along with a good selection of smaller labels). There's also a smattering of josei, independant and boys love titles... mostly older stuff, but nearly always GOOD stuff.

New comics arrive quickly and are featured prominently in the front of the shop, often with multiple copies available (so you don't need to wait for the really popular stuff).

Today I've grabbed "WEST END" 1 -3 (boys love) and "To Loveru", a shounen romantic comedy being made in anime this spring season.

To update: "WEST END" was meh... but I'll finish it next time I visit. "To Loveru" was lame... I guess I won't be watching it :P

Checked out just before 7:00 am and camped out at McDonalds before the start of the conference, freshening up with convenience-store hairspray, toothbrushes and facial cleanser.

Japan is great sometimes.

FOR COMPARISON:
-a round-trip ferry ticket (2,100yen)... 2 days go and come back: 4,200 yen
-5 hours of heating my apartment (300 yen)
-a love/business hotel (4,000-6,000yen)
-a regular hotel (8,000-15,000yen)

in other words: it costs half as much to stay at the net cafe as it does to go home or overnight at a hotel on a day I need to go back the next morning.

Hassun

Man that's a whole difference to just getting a desk and a computer with one game and internet on it.
Must be addictive as well.

__________________

zyta

i really envy you right now... You're so lucky! Have fun!

__________________

Evol

you need to come adopt me, smuggle me over in your luggage, and then abandon me at one of these magnificent little places. I'll just stow away under one of the loveseats and steal snacks to sustain myself.

I suppose music-wise you're good with the pc, although a radio/music network would be nice.

__________________

Tetsanosuke Kirikami

__________________

exderz

oh that looks fun we have thoes too in china though -.-, only ours is cheaper is like 10/per hour yuan which is ( 1 CAD sumthing here )

ILikeApples5520

And you got that all for 20 bucks?

It just goes to show how badly companies a ripping off U.S. citizens.

A regular internet cafe pack in the US would cost $30.

It also goes to show that Japan is paradise for everyone ages 15-35(At least, anyway). Technology light-years ahead of everyone else. Super iCafe's. Porno vending machines on some street corners(not completely sure this is true; from wavering sources) And of course, Anime and Manga.

If I was older than 16, and if I had the money and time, my gf and I would learn Japanese and move to Tokyo.

__________________


Thanks to _gwenibe_ for this awesome sig!

Hassun

If you think that's ripping off you should check out Europe.

__________________

exderz

20 bucks is actually pretty expensive... u gotta go to NIC countries where is even cheaper... like for ex. 2 CAD, 2 US per hour

TealGreenFrog

I have never heard of this. It sounds interesting. Have they been around for a while? Are there a lot of internet and comic cafés in central Takamatsu? all over Japan? Are they popular? Does the price vary on the time of the year/holiday or is it a set price throughout the year? I checked out the link, I cannot read Japanese, are movies like the Fifth Element and Harry Potter in English with Japanese subtitles or do they come with Japanese dubbed? Or can you chose the language to listen to like anime movies available here in the US? Do families go there and adolescents without parents? Do you have to take the comic back to your booth or is there an open area to read? Do these “night packs” only allow for one person per booth or can there be more people? Thanks in advance

As to ILikeApples5520 statement "A regular internet cafe pack in the US would cost $30." Where are these at and do they have what tsurara describes as a "night pack" for ten hours starting after 9pm?

As to Hussun statement "If you think that's ripping off you should check out Europe." Are they popular there also? Internet and comic cafes?

As to exderz statement "...we have thoes too in china though -.-, only ours is cheaper is like 10/per hour yuan..."
Is the cost of living in Japan more than in China? Is the price you state an overall average for the country or is that for a certain city; at a certain part of town and a certain time of the year?

Thanks to all in advance

__________________
TealGreenFrog

"Don't look back. If you got something to do, then only look forward." - Kurogane ( RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE)

tsurara

There are popular net cafe chains throughout Japan (Bagus and WIP being the two largest). There are a handful of locally-run and smaller-scale cafes available in each city too. Comic cafes are even more plentiful (since they're cheaper to open and run). Takamatsu has at least 40 comic cafes and at least 20 internet cafes. Free internet access points and laptop-friendly areas are also common. Though cafes with overnight and late-night options, free movies and game are a bit rarer (usually limited to the big chains). They're popular... but not quite as popular as they are in Korea (where net cafes and movie-booths are such an institution that they've driven legitimate game/movie stores out of business).

The price is steady... though it ocaisionally raises or lowers a bit.

Movies are shown with their default language (ie. the language in which they were originally produced). Any non-Japanese films are dubbed in Japanese. You can't switch between audio tracks. Japanese films/anime don't have subtitles in other languages.

On Thursday there were two middle-school aged boys staying the night alone. It didn't seem to be a problem... though young children are rare (and since they require membership cards to enter: would likely lack the identification required to get one at all: family or no). Generally speaking: you must have an official government-issued ID of some sort (a liscence, passport w/visa, student card, foreign residents' card, etc).

Most people opt to take the comics back to their own booths. Though there is a section of open tables with laptop hook-ups that can be rented for less money... but lack a lot of the amenities. Net cafes are popular, in part, for their privacy. Those wanting to read in a more open atmosphere can opt for a regular manga cafe.

Single or double booths can be rented. Doubles are designed for two people (though both need to pay the fee, in spite of sharing a booth). There are two computers, two PS2 controllers, two lamps, etc.

The cost of living in Japan is quite a bit higher than the cost of living in the rest of Asia... so are the copyright standards (with the exception of Korea... which has major console game piracy issues but is still fairly well-regulated in terms of film). Japanese cafes pay liscencing/display to the game companies, film distributors etc. With the exception of comics (which are unregulated and currently carry no liscencing fees for use at rental shops): it costs the cafe to offer the perks they do. Cafes in the rest of the world tend to either not offer the media at all or offer more limited and/or pirated media.

Internet cafes are also now consolidated under government management in China... meaning their content is highly censored, and the sites you can access are limited. Not a huge plus in their favor, generally speaking.

I'm not sure how much the net cafes offer. I have no experience with net cafes in China, but the ones I've used in the US were quiet, day-only operations in which you had access to a computer with internet access and very little else. The cafes I've used in Korea were quite a bit more public and game-centered... they have a TON of games loaded on their pcs with free-play options but lacked the more traditional media options. Though I imagine it really depends on the cafe and the clientele! Sometimes public and noisy is a good thing. Especially if you want to have an impromptu LAN party or thrash that guy across the way at counterstrike 'cause you don't like his face There must surely be quiet ones in Korea too... But with different cultures come different notions of entertainment, hospitality, privacy and different needs to address.