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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.
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
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?
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.
"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...
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"