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.
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2 Comments
Living in an internet cafe? I’m an internet addict but that’s just way too extreme for me.
Then again Japan has always been a force in the internet, too bad not too many of us can understand a thing they’re writing on their blogs because of the language barrier and the not-so-good translation services online.
I think the same phenomenon is happening in South Korea, argued as the gaming capital of Asia.
Yeah, as I said above — I’m not sure if too many of the people who are actually living there to play Starcraft.
I mean, if they are, that’d just be hardcore. :)