Japan’s Latest Budget Accommodation: Internet Cafes
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 05.15.07 | 3:14 PM ET
Photo by Jael via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Seriously. The nation that brought us the capsule hotel has done it again. The country’s working poor—and salarymen who don’t want to spring for a capsule after a night of drinking—are spending nights in Internet cafes, according to a Reuters story. For $12 to $20, they get a reclining chair in front of a computer, soft drinks, comics and, of course, Internet access. No word on how many low-budget travelers (also known as the backpack lunatic fringe) are spending nights in Internet cafes, but Wikitravel suggest Japanese cafes are an option, noting that some even provide a mat to sleep on and a shower.
Some regulars say spending the night in a cafe isn’t very comfortable. I believe it, though I do recall many Internet cafes I visited in Japan being remarkably quiet. (Say, compared to many in China, which were often full of screaming, chain-smoking teen-agers.)
The man who took this photo, which we believe is of himself trying to sleep in a Japanese Internet cafe, wrote in the caption: “I paid my 1200 yen, I should be able to sleep, right? Alas, I got not a wink in the internet cafe, and was forced to surf the net till five am.”
Anyone else tried it? Anyone in a Japanese Internet cafe right now, unable to sleep, enjoying a little World Hum?
Do tell.