Manga Kissa

Finding an internet cafe in Japan can be difficult if you don't know the right keyword. It is Manga Kissa in Japanese. Manga means of course the comic while kissa is short of kissaten, coffee shop. I think Manga Kissa used to be coffee shops with large collection of comic books which customers could read.

Nowadays in the time of Internet, manga kissa has became a popular access point for the internet users who don't have a laptop (or wireless access point in vicinity) and need to check their email or web page. Of course someone can go there and enjoy those comic books. Or take a shower(!) or relax in massage chair. Some of them have also sofas and large TV's with game consoles.

And of course, you have free drink bar which you can use as much as you want. In hot summer these are great airconditioned places. Well, sometimes the airconditioning isn't very good and the places do tend to smell cigarettes as the smokers and non-smokers sides are not usually separated.

Manga Kissa is very interesting concept. When you go to manga kissa, usually you kind of log in in the counter, and you will be given a receipt which has the number of booth you get, as well as the time you arrived there.

Then you can just start to use one of these machines, that are usually very well maintained and usually in very fast connection. You are usually free to install some applications to the machine. If you want to use Skype for example, you can just download and install it (they do erase the hard disks during night and maintain all computers in kind of distributed management scheme). Just make sure you erase the browser caches after checking your email or bank account, so that your passwords or other sensitive data is not left behind for someone to fish. When you're done you just go to the counter and pay the fee which is based on the hours you've used.

For foreigners, there are many manga kissa that require registration and getting a membership card. "I love You" is one of these chains, without a membership card you cannot go there. Usually it is easy to make one, you just have to pay the fee. There are some manga kissa that do not accept foreigners who cannot read or write in Japanese. But if you bump into one of these in large city such as Tokyo, just walk along the street and try the next one.

Akihabara electronic town is popular place for manga kissa.

Typical manga kissa costs around 300-400 yen per hour and that usually includes the free drinks. It costs basically the same as tall latte in Star Bucks but gives you unlimited coffee and access to internet.

Manga kissa is not to be confused with maido kissa, which is a different concept of otaku world.

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