A teaser for what’s to come :D (In a future post, mind. This one’s just a quick ramble on my current travel situation)

So I’m posting this from an internet/manga cafe somewhere in Nagoya . This is what I get for not booking any accomodation in advance… T_T Actually it was my intention all along to be as cheapass as possible and camp out in internet cafes/ capsule hotels/park benches so just as keikaku I guess.

After somehow surviving the strange night in the dodgy net cafe in Nagoya… I’ve safely arrived in Tokyo – and learning so well from my previous experience, I’m putting up in yet another dodgy net/manga cafe, this time in Ikebukuro.  (In fact I just chose this location because it happens to be steps away from Otome Road which I plan to cover tomorrow morning – before I hit the real weeaboo otaku heaven a few stations away)

I was actually typing up a sad excuse for an excuse for not doing an actual post about my first day on the road tracks (god, the hours I’ve spent on my butt on trains this past 2 days…) yesterday in Nagoya… but then I realized that it’d probably be more beneficial for me to catch some sleep for today, so I scrapped it and turned it into the basis of today’s post :P (Instead I Twittered about it, much to the “WTF?” reactions of the people who read it) 

Well it turns out I hardly got any in that establishment since it was too bright, the guy in the cubicle next to mine was snoring and possibly smoking… and I’m just a whiny insomniac. I dozed off for the most part of my 6 hour train ride to Tokyo (miraculously waking up just in time to switch lines every time) anyways, so that made up for it.

To give a better image of what kind of ‘accomodation’ I’m staying in, think of an internet cafe, with a huge manga collection at your disposal, and your own private booth/cubicle (you could just choose a plain old chair and desk), unlimited internet surfing/gaming/manga access for as long as you pay for. There’s usually enough space in your own booth to sleep on a reclining chair/mat (the one I had was basically a matted booth with a reclining seat), plus a ton of other ‘extras’ like shower facilities (thank god!), free drink bars, etc. (’etc.’ can range from billiards to tanning booths, wtf) Some of these ‘extras’ need to be paid for seperately or might be included in whatever package you choose. The one in Nagoya was about 1,500 for 7 hours (night pack), compared to a capsule hotel (2,500yen over there). – but the shower costed an extra 500yen for 30 minutes… Still, after an entire day travelling on a summer’s day, that’s not much of a complaint.

This one here in Ikebukuro is a vast improvement, it’s only 1,200yen for the 7 hour night pack, it’s hardly lit at all (you have your own personal lamps if you want to read manga), there’s more leg room in the cubicle (which is completely matted, plus I get a large cushion :D ) and the shower’s free to use in the package (!!! Unfortunately, it meant a long line and it took about an hour before I got the chance to take mine. Also unless you brought along your own toiletries (like I did, phew), you’ll have to buy them off the management -_-”) Also this being Tokyo, there’s much more places to choose from =P

Then again, I’m judging the places on the basis of using them as overnight accomodation rather than internet/manga cafes -_-” So, am I actually recommending internet/manga cafes as a good place to spend the night in Japan? Well, in all honesty, unless you have similar powers of perseverance and stinginess as I do, I’d really suggest instead you take the time to find an actual hotel to get a good night’s sleep. These places have proven themselves to be quite a decent source for emergency refuge should you be up for it though (as evidenced by the occasional snores of the random businessmen who walk in in the wee hours of the night), though with the abundance of manga lying about and internet access, it’s hard to say if you’ll end up sleeping at all… (Okay I better wrap up this post before I lose all my sleep time XD)