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.'"

Comments

wtf "Media Immersion Pods"

[UfoZ]

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.

a.k.a.

[The Clockwork Troll]

Locally these are known as "" which translates literally to "birth control parlor".

Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods

[sparkydevil]

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.

Re:Mssed-the-last-train immersion pods

[JanneM]

A Japanese house (yes probably through necessity) is, in comparison, polite quiet and tidy. And the home made food infinitely more apatising. So the pods being a refuge idea is a US construct I think.

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.