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Manga Kissa

23rd of Aug, 2005ce* in: diary

Japan is good, Tokyo is mad, Summer is hot!

I’m killing time in a “Manga kissa” before I go to pick up my monthly wodge. I’ll explain a little: Manga is the Japanese word for Comic, Kissa is a shortening of Kissaten which means cafe. In actuallity these places are heaven for killing time, and very affordable. For about 1.50 GBP an hour you can get free refil drinks, your own cubicle with computer and internet, access to a library and a very very comfortable chair which they hope you fall asleep in so that when you finally rouse, you’re digging deep in those pockets for 8 hours kip. Being open 24 hours a day, they are semi comfortable if you get stuck in a part of Tokyo you’re not able to get out of when the trains stop running.

That is, if you can mutter the required Japanese from a mouth that took in copious amounts of Japanese alcohol. I guess they’d help you over pay, so kind.

Well this certainly brings back memories from when I first came to Japan. 5 years ago I first started this Diary in Japan, in a Manga Kissa. Unfortunately those pages have been lost in the mysts of time.

I’m closer to working out what I want from life, and my level of Japanese is reflected in this casual mentality. I’ve been in Japan for almost 5 months, with nothing particular to do. It’s driving me mad somewhat, however everything is coming together now, making sense of the chaos!