Apparently there are people in Japan who actually *live* in Net Cafe’s — they are clean, they are cheap, they serve food, *and* you can buy clean underwear (the non-school girl kind) if you so choose it.  Although such places were apparently built to have fun, kill time, and / or allow salarymen to hang out when they’ve missed the train, there is a distinct population of individuals who have actually chosen to live in them.  I read an article about this same phenomenon in the NYTimes or International Herald Tribune a few months ago but I can’t find the link.  The interesting thing now is that the Japanese Government is going to try and hammer out a study to try and figure out just how many of these net cafe “refugees” there actually are; the rationale is that people who live there might be a canary-in-the-mine kind of alarm bell for a society that values equality.  That is to say, some / most / all of the guys who live there aren’t living there for just fun, if you know what I mean.