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Examining Tokyo's Media Immersion Pods
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.'"
I think that they're missing the mandatory catheter. I mean, who in hell wants to actually get up and take a whiz once you're immersed? Or maybe that's part of the "immersion" experience.
So why aren't these in the US yet?
What a fancy and pretentious name for a manga cafe.
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.
Look at them. They're already here. They're called "cubicles".
Locally these are known as "" which translates literally to "birth control parlor".
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
Liar.
Everyone knows you have no girlfriend.
If only they lived up to their names. Still the ability to rent a quiet space in a busy city + drinks would be nice, although I would personally put it to more serious uses than reading comics or surfing. Gernerally a quiet enviroment is most important when you are working hard, but personally I feel like I can goof off and read a novel anywhere. Kant on the other hand requires absolute silence.
Philosophy.
Japanese people do not use these spaces because they are actively seeking out media, but because they are using the space as a refuge from long commutes and cramped, shared, homes. Japanese people often work very late and live over one hour from the city, making it almost impossible to visit each others homes. To have any privacy, couples have to meet outide the home, and places such as Bagus, karaoke boxes and love hotels are all geared to this market.
I call it "my bedroom."
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
a japanese tv show called "Maid in Akihabara". The main character, a former bar girl working in a maid cafe, can't afford a place to live so she checks into an internet cafe each night. I was wondering if people in Japan actually did this, but the article makes it look very possible.
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 ?
I tend to use Barnes and Noble for this purpose. Kind of a combination manga/o'reilly books cafe. Sometimes I even pay for coffee.
The author doesn't even know the Japanese have their own alphabet (3 actually). This guy reminds me of the characters in extras
The question that came to my mind was how damaging such a pod is to one's spirit or creativity, but I suppose it's not too much different than how things have always been. The difference is we watch movies rather than read pulp magazines and $0.10 novels. It'll be interesting to see how the phenomenon evolves.
What's this? Another weblog? On transit?
Check your sources
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
The more I immerse myself in this media centered world, the more I find myself recalling the fable of the boy who was given the golden ball of thread. Every time he pulled it, he skipped forward in time. While being warned of its power, he began to make regular use of it. He pulled the thread at the beginning of his classes, and when he had to start studying, or when he got put in time out, or whenever he was bored and wanted to get on with the fun things in life. Before he knew it he was on his death bed having skipped the boring and unpleasant parts of his life. The fairy who gave him the ball of yarn was gracious enough to let him live a second chance...and this time he never wished to skip any parts of his life.
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.
I find it hard to believe that Japan's modest lifestyle has led it to be the 4th largest consumer of energy in the world. They used to be the second largest consumer of oil in the world until China came on the scene, which is despite the fact that they import nearly all of their oil - where as the largest oil consumer, America, imports less than half.
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While you are incorrect, and they are, as you can see, huge energy consumers (which seems to be what you're attempting to disprove) that was not really the type of consumption I was referring to with my comments.
When the US rebuilt Japan, the policy makers saw to it that Japan would be a capitalist utopia of sorts where life was predicated around work and consumption. As you may know, making lots of money and spending it on material goods makes you happy. At least, that's what we're led to believe. In Japan you have this disposable culture, as is in America, taken to illogical extremes. These "media immersion pods" are purportedly a way of getting away from the bustle of the city, of careers, and of societal expectations. That's how people get away? That's how they interact? Go on dates even, by totally isolating themselves from reality and consuming in solitude? Yes, that to me, is frightening. It's an incredibly passive existence (though most people live passively) A respite for me means playing my guitar, or piano. Going out and taking some photos. Writing. Learning something I didn't know yesterday.
To me it seems like they don't want to move away from this exposure, but to become totally immersed in it in order to shed their identities. It's like popping pills. They move away from themselves. It's the same reason people shoot heroin. To each his own, I guess. I'm sorry that I find these trends disturbing.
Oh, and please mind the personal attacks. I'm not damning the nation of Japan. I just think this exemplifies problems I've perceived in their culture.
is probably bigger than the average Japanese apartment.
Another was "Inu," or "Dog," by Haruko Kashiwagi. It's considered clever, fairly high-toned and mainstream, which is surprising because, in part, it's about a woman who has sex with her dog.
Supercilious prat.
Look, I couldn't afford the rental rates for the computer, so I just wanted a quick wank at the "Bosomy Babes of Bulgaria" web site you were hunched over. It wouldn't have killed you to lean back a bit, and you wouldn't have gotten anything in your eye.
By the way, in Japan the private rooms also provide a box of tissues. In case you get a cold, I believe.
I can't believe changing the name of something as old as the Comic Cafe (manga kisa) to "Media Immersion Pods" suddenly makes a 30+ year old thing news.
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"The Japanese system of competition for education, career and social esteem, Dr. Kimura explained, forces young people to obsess over self-presentation, which costs them both fantasy and anonymity, the privileges of childhood... The Gran Cyber Cafés now serve this purpose, he said. "Nobody cares what you do, which enables you to be absorbed in whatever fantasy you want to indulge in through Net surfing, Web games or manga. Yet you can satisfy your timid desire to belong."
...I consider to be a symptom of the health of Japanese culture as opposed to US/ UK culture where...
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...
So you'll be able to conduct your field study from the comfort of your own bedroom/loft/basement/prison.
There are a lot of internet cafe's in Japan, big chains being Gera Gera and Popeye Media Cafe. I have tried out a few.
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...
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
This is NOT a pod... it's a cubicle... Wake me up when its a pod; then i'll be interested.
Live according to the Categorical Imperative. If the Categorical Imperative tells you not to live by it... ignore it
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 seduced by the concept of these digital-immersion cafés is puzzling, yet I have been "living digitally" for nearly a decade. It's a shame this isolated existence is still limited to entertainment. For most people, work means wasting a substantial portion of your day commuting, only to do some faceless job in a cubicle whose only significance is to bring you closer to people who will disturb and distract you.
Hell, if surgeons can perform their work remotely with a TV and robot arms, why the hell can't I do tech support at home in my underwear, or write my 8 hours of code at a cozy cyber café with plentiful food & drink a mere footsteps away. A cube farm is a cube farm, doesn't matter what building it's in, it's a desk with a computer and a phone; I don't see why most office jobs couldn't be abstracted to any desk+PC+phone setup anywhere on the grid. Why do we have to squeeze in traffic every day, burning this so-called "precious" gasoline ? Japan has always been an early adopter of technology, they seem to understand it better than we do. I hope this type of reality-disconnect café concept grows beyond the entertainment sphere. Webcam, phone/headset, internet.. you can hear me, you can see me, now let me do my work!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Walk around with the sea of people in Tokyo for a while (or even worse drive) and you'll want to lock yourself in a small cubicle with a TV and internet for a few hours. After working in Tokyo I can see why cafe's like this are appealing.
Wow, VHS! How come Japan gets all the new technology first?
It's MORE than a Manga Cafe. I've been to TWO of them. They also have Play Station, I think X box IIRC, and VCR/DVD combos. If you go in there with the right gear, you could **probably** bootleg the hell out of DVDs and other media. Not that I support/condone that.
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.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
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 pop sociology screeds until you figure out the difference between "description of a nation" and "description of a type of shop used by a few people in one subset of that nation."
Funny, I thought it was some sort of running gag.
No, it's JUST A MANGA CAFE. I've been to FAR MORE THAN TWO OF THEM. It's cool, sure -- but what the poster was trying to get across was that it is patently stupid to give something a fancy title for the purpose of writing some inflated tech-porn bullshit. Just call it a Cyber-Awesome Orgazmo Fanboy LogonDeck Capsulon 4000 if you really need to keep your nipples hard.
On average US people lie in much large housing. They can have seperate well-equiped, media spaces. Nearly every member of a a suburban familiy probably has their on TV, DVD player and music player, plus maybe a high-quality family one of each.
OK. I defer. I've only been to TWO of them, and was only there barely 3 months. I wish I could have had more time and money and a European/Asian passport of preference so I could stay AND work **180** days instead of 90 and NO working. Damned politicians.
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...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"