Examining Tokyo's Media Immersion Pods 123
the terminal of geoff goodfellow writes "The New York Times has an article on the Bagus Gran Cyber Café in Tokyo, where customers rent so-called media immersion pods. From the article: 'At first glance the spread looks officelike, but be warned: these places are drug dens for Internet addicts outfitted with VHS and DVD players, satellite and regular television on a Toshiba set, PlayStation 2, Lineage II and a Compaq computer loaded with software, all the relevant downloads and hyperspeedy Internet. In the nearby library were thousands of comic books, magazines and novels.'"
But wait.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But wait.. (Score:1)
Alan Shepard solved that problem.
When ya gotta go, well, ya gotta go.
KFG
Novel idea (Score:3, Interesting)
They are. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They are. (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like a cubicle, all right...
Re:They are. (Score:1)
Re:Novel idea (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Novel idea (Score:1)
local equivalent (Score:2)
Re:Novel idea (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Novel idea (Score:2, Funny)
In Japan, 5 feet is more than enough to keep the average person from being able to see over the wall
Sorry, low blow, I know...
Re:Novel idea (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Novel idea (Score:1)
more people should wear coonskin caps
Re:Novel idea (Score:4, Informative)
This is why private karaoke rooms are such a hit there. If you want to get eight people together, doing so at somebody's house is out of the question.
Re:Novel idea (Score:2)
Re:Novel idea (Score:2)
Re:Novel idea (Score:2)
US has 4000 sqft houses, not 400 sqft (Score:2)
wtf "Media Immersion Pods" (Score:5, Informative)
These are all over the place, nothing special, and a good cheap way to spend the night if you missed the last train or don't have a hotel. You get your own cubicle with internet access or a console, you can read manga or watch a movie or surf the net, whatever. Plus free refills for soft drinks.
It's nice but I don't see what the big deal is.
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" (Score:3, Informative)
That was rather rude of you, I think. (Score:2, Informative)
By the way, in Japan the private rooms also provide a box of tissues. In case you get a cold, I believe.
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" (Score:2)
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" (Score:1)
And the first picture in the article is of a CD shop in Tokyo, not a cybercafe.
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" MORE... (Score:5, Interesting)
But, if those existed in the US, you'd have some form of illegal sex, human fluids, spilt drinks, and maybe even drug activity. But, aside from THAT, the MPAA? and RIAA and BSA would demand copying of license or IDs and installation of anti-piracy tools.
The anti-porn legislation types would demand installation of video cameras to deter sex and abuse of children.
Cities hard up for tax revenues would impose harsh and draconian "arcade" permit requirement upon each machine. I suppose Internet cafes already pay these. IN Stockton, California, any such business would have to pay these arcade fees via the police department.
They places would lose money, and go out of business. All because of church groups, drug dealers, sex addicts, and the RIAA/others complaining about piracy and loss of revenues.
But, yeh, most of all, here in the US, we don't have the "crowd effect" of 10 million to 20 million (I forget the exact number, but the pop and density are high...) people in the size of Tokyo pushing to get out of the house and stay out as long as possible. The main Shinjuku station probably moves more people in a week than NYC might in a month or two. The per-square foot of utilization by shops, eateries, jewelers, and more is mind-boggling. Not a space is wasted, and most of the shops and such all seem new, abuzz, and entrepreneurial, tho there are some larger chains or big-budget stores present. There is a certain "energy" in the air I felt in Tokyo, and I NEVER feel that here in the US except on occasions of HUGE parades, shows or concerts., and THAT is mostly all due to "herd mentality", not a daily occurrence.
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" MORE... (Score:1)
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" MORE... (Score:2)
Also, yeh, they do tend to favor 8-12 word descriptions for some things, huh.
Boy, I'd love to revisit Funenokagakukan a 3rd, 4th, and 5th time...
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" (Score:2)
However, on a recent trip to Korea, I discovered that theirs are *way* cooler, not to mention cheaper(!) Except for the truly funky smell in the stairwell leading up to it, which is probably caused precisely by those who live there all the time.
Re:wtf "Media Immersion Pods" (Score:1)
Still, if you haven't been to one, they are kind of interesting places. The customers are the kind of otaku who you'd find in Akiba most days (and 'otaku', now there's a loaded word...).
I used to go to one in my old haunt of Kameari in downtown east Tokyo because it was cheap, had coffee, games, manga and air conditioning (summer paradise) and if I was studying Japanese, th
a.k.a. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Frightening (Score:1, Funny)
Everyone knows you have no girlfriend.
Re:you're bullshiting or completely clueless (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.geohive.com/charts/charts.php?xml=en_co ns&xsl=en_const [geohive.com]
While you are incorrect, and they are, as you can see, huge energy consumers (which seem
Re:you're bullshiting or completely clueless (Score:1)
You're taking this brief explanation of one form of manga/Internet cafe and extrapolating an awful lot of doom and gloom from it. This is not "how people get away," or "how people interact." It's a store that offers a bunch of services. That's all. You're likely to see 20 or 30 customers pop in for an hour to check email for every single maladjusted otaku with an unhealthy focus on online existence.
Probably 95% of all Japanese people will never set foot in a manga kissa or an Internet cafe. Stop writing p
Truth in advertising (Score:2)
Re:Truth in advertising (Score:2, Funny)
Really? I thought he was a real pissant who was very rarely stable.
Re:Truth in advertising (Score:1)
Re:Truth in advertising (Score:1)
The man was a giant in philosphoy, no doubt. But didn't he ever hear about ghost writers? Seriousy, it's a testament to the greatness of his ideas that he is still read - no less remembered - despite the hideous Lovecraftian abomination that passes for prose in his works.
Testament? (Score:1)
Re:Truth in advertising (Score:4, Funny)
Let me put it this way, if there is anything else going on you can be sure I would be paying attention to it rather than Kant. The man doesn't know how to end a sentance.
Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:2)
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:4, Informative)
My favourite around here in Osaka is "Chapel Christmas", which, as you may guess, is Christmas-themed, complete with a huge Santa and grinning happy elves all over the facade. I have a few pictures here:
Chapel Christmas [flickr.com]
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:2)
That's a slightly disturbing mental picture.
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:1)
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:2)
They exist for a number of reasons-one being that Japanese salarymen often have a number of girlfriends on the go in additio
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods (Score:5, Informative)
I live in Japan, and it's not altogether "a US construct". Consider: you're 20-something, and you're of course living at home, since the rent on even a small apartment is absolutely ruinous for a single person. You do have a job, though, and since - if you're a very consentious child - you're sharing the living expenses with your parents, you have a quite comfortable level of disposeable income even with a pretty low entry-level position (and if your parents are indulgent, you aren't paying anything at all, making that income all the more significant). The same goes for your current SO.
In fact, if you save for a few years, together you could in fact afford that apartment in a Tokyo suburb or somewhere in southern Osaka. But until your relationship becomes long-term and serious enough, there's of course no way you're goi9ng to risk something like that. So for the time being you're relegated to whatever resources you have. And seriously, with money burning in your pocket, are you going to spend an hour on the local train to go to your or your SO:s parent's house, endure socializing, knowing winks (not to mention the ever-present risk of baby pictures) to retire to a small bedroom all of a couple of meters away from the living room where the old folk are laughing at the latest lame Osaka burlesque on the TV?
Or are you going to a dinner out on the town, followed by a short walk to a clean, fresh hotel in any kind of style you wish (with no shortage of "special" styles whenever you want to spice things up a bit (there famously is a Hello Kitty Dungeon in one hotel here in Osaka)), with no interruptions, thin walls, kid brothers or parents, and with attentive, affordable room service at the touch of a button?
I absolutely, totally, unconditionally agree on the state of Japanese living - it really is neater, cleaner and more friendly than anywhere I've been. But for those times you want to be alone together, it's really not optimal.
Already in the US (Score:5, Funny)
Your bedroom (Score:2)
no doubt many hidden webcams in these places (Score:1)
The article answered my question about... (Score:2)
I still have another question, totally outside the scope of the article. In the movie Koi no Mon (aka Otakus in Love), there is a cosplay brothel. Anybody know if these exist or did the movie make that up ?
Re:The article answered my question about... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The article answered my question about... (Score:2)
There's a certain school of thought that suggests doing this kind of thing in a club with professional working girls cuts the amount of genuine sexual abuse in society, but I don't know of any empirical data to back this up.
Re:The article answered my question about... (Score:3, Interesting)
I had to use the toilet in one (in Japan, in English, one asks for "the toilet", not the "bathroom") and there were all sorts of meticulous posters explaining not to shower in the toilet room. Instead, rent the shower...
I think the shower was priced around Y300 or Y500 (roughly US$3.30 or US $5.50 at the time. For that, and a $10 movie, though, about every 2 hours, it could be pricey. So, I think some people just used the desk area, where some "overnight" spaces were dedicated. I don't think overnigh
chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:1)
The author doesn't even know the Japanese have their own alphabet (3 actually). This guy reminds me of the characters in extras [rickygervais.com]
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, the Kanji are Chinese characters (called Hanzi, roughly "people's writing" in China IIRC) which were adopted in Japan long before Katakana and Hiragana were creat
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2, Informative)
1) Hanzi simply means Han Characters, (referring to the Han Dynasty, not the Han Chinese)
2) Hiragana was derived from cursively written man'yogana (Characters used for phonetic value, not meaning). This was used by women in the beginning, hence it was also known as Onnade ("woman's hand"). These weren't the only kana in use however, they were simply standardized by the goverment from the large pool of "hentaigana".
3) Katakana are taken fr
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
1) My Asian Studies instructor mentioned that "Han" origninally referred to "The People". He was Chinese, I'll have to trust him on that. I actually did a paper in his class on the very subject we're discussing, based partially on his input and partially on external res
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
2) You're picking nits and forgetting the original intention. Ignoring this tangent, the kana and kanji came from Chinese characters, and that was my original point.
3) Yes, but the "Onna-de" was created about two centuries prior to Katakana (7th century vs. 9th century IIRC.) I'd be surprised if the monks who created Katakana had no knowledge of it.
4) Sure, but they did n
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Same with the Katakana. They where created by monks.
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:1)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:1)
I can't say what my life reading Japanese would be like if certain bits were never developed. That's like asking what my English life would be like without pronouns.
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Having three written forms like Japanese does is relatively unique in the languages I've studied, whic
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:1)
Patrick Stewart: You're not married, you don't have a girlfriend and you've never watched Star Trek?
Ricky Gervais: No
PS: Good Lord
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:1)
Did you at all consider that the reporter was in *Japan* when she visited and made interviews?
Did you think she forgot?
Did you think?
Re:chinese, japanese, it's all the same (Score:2)
Too much amusement? (Score:1)
Err... First i've heard! (Score:2)
Golden ball of thread... (Score:4, Insightful)
But we don't get a second chance.
I'm finding the more I spend time NOT doing something digital, the more I enjoy my day. Every time I sit down to watch a movie, play a game, or read Slashdot, I look up and realize I've lost two hours. Where did it go? I never can seem to find those extra 90 minutes that I don't remember having spent.
Now I ride my bike for fun, or sit on the couch with my pet and call my mother, or hang out with some friends. I'm finding I have all the time in the world now to enjoy myself, and it's all passing at the speed it should. Forget computers, forget movies, forget entertainment centers: I want to live my own life, not watch someone live theirs.
I think it is better to leave the thread in the box. The fun times wouldn't be fun without the boring ones. Each will come when it comes, and no sooner. Might as well make the most what's inbetween.
Re:Golden ball of thread... (Score:1)
Re:Golden ball of thread... (Score:1)
Re:Golden ball of thread... (Score:2)
And did he re-live his life doing the same grindingly tedious crap that he skipped over the first time?
Shit, if I thought about it too much, I'd just yank the whole damn ball of yarn.
Hmf (Score:1)
Supercilious prat.
Tokyo's Media Immersion Pods? (Score:1)
A sick person writes... (Score:4, Interesting)
In other words, the basic argument of this article is "the Japanese are sick and manga cafés like this are an interesting symptom of the disease - by comparison with the robust health of Western culture". What nonsense.
Two key elements...
* the seamless blending of sexual content and other forms of entertainment
* the enthusiastic embrace of new forms of culture
* sexual content lives in a ghetto in which only those who are talentless or desperate will work, while ultraviolent content is fine
* new forms of culture are treated with suspicion - even games, for God's sake, after all these years are still disdained.
So my response is please stop treating this sort of manga café as a kind of boil that reflects some underlying disease, and let's open a chain of these in the west right now.
But of course, I only think that because I'm sick...
Re:A sick person writes... (Score:1)
How about this one instead: why don't the Japanese enthusiastically embrace Western culture, including all the conservative angles? Not so enthusiastic there, huh? Relativism, in any form, is the most tyrannical form of an ethical system in existence. Every one is supposedly free under it, but as soon as som
Re:A sick person writes... (Score:1)
Wow. You paint with very wide brushes, to the point of oversimplification.
Westernization was happening well before 1945. I'm sorry, but modern Japanese culture is not just a product of "Corporate America" and "Military". Yes, the GHQ had a lot to do with education "reform", but to portray that no pre-1
Re:A sick person writes... (Score:1)
I have used one... (Score:4, Insightful)
They are actually really good. Keep in mind that a lot of people live in small houses in Japan, so go out a lot to eat and for entertainment because of limited space at home. Also, a lot of people live with their families until their late 20s, sometimes with grandparents too. So, privacy and "getting away from the family" are worth paying for.
For under a fiver (800-900 yen) you can get a private cubicle for three hours. Browse the net, play some games, watch some TV or a DVD. They have libraries of magazines and manga to read too, and free drinks. You can order food too, or get a cubicle where you can lie down on a futon or sit with your girlfriend.
Many even have showers, blankets and pillows available. You could pretty much live there if you wanted to. In fact, many offer discounts on up to 8 hour blocks, or overnight stays.
I know it's hard to imagine the appeal for people in the west, but they are good. And not just frequented by men either, women use them too.
The only issue I had was that they seem to invariably be quite hot, despite air conditioning. The Japanese seem to have a higher tolerance for heat than me - well, I was born in Yorkshire in March so...
Not a "Pod" in the traditional sense of the word.. (Score:1)
Gotta love HP's spin department (Score:1)
Just being a part of today's fast-paced bureaucracy is more damaging to the I.Q. than any controlled substance in existence. Nothing is more destructive than being shoved through the screwed-up consumerist system that's growing ever-further removed from its roots. The fact that I'm kind of
Re:Gotta love HP's spin department (Score:1)
-
the big problem comes into play with two factors
1 the diff between residental and business net access
2 sometimes being able to reach out and hit somebody is required
(sometimes the suits need "facetime"
Re:Gotta love HP's spin department (Score:1)
Ever been to Tokyo? (Score:1)
Totally new technology (Score:2, Funny)