Right in the kissa!
There are two things in Japan that I really wonder about sometimes.
- Why are convenience stores and bookstores so patient with the tachi-yomi (literally, “standing-reading”) crowd who are fond of spending a heck of a lot of time standing at magazine racks (often getting in the way of paying customers) reading their favorite manga and mags without buying anything?
- Why are coffee shops and eating establishments so patient with the one-cup crowd who will nurse a cup of coffee for hours and ask for refills, even during the busiest mealtime rush hours, while people in a hurry to order a full meal are kept waiting at the door?
When I ask my Japanese friends about it, they normally say something about it being too much trouble to chase the freeloaders out.
Taking system abuse to the limit
Whenever you have people abusing the system like this, you know there just has to be someone out there somewhere just waiting to take it to the limit. Well, now someone finally has.
The Mainichi Daily news is reporting that 33-year-old Kentaro Shimada was arrested for walking out of a coffee shop without paying his bill after camping out there for nearly two months!
Actually, this was no ordinary coffee shop but a manga kissa, which is more like a hotel than a coffee shop.
Manga kissa, your home away from home
Manga cafes (manga kissa) got their start in Nagoya back in 1979 as a style of coffee shop offering a large collection of manga comics available for customers to read on the premises. Those familiar with the early era of the manga cafes are likely to remember rather cramped and dim shops where customers were absorbed in reading manga and did little else. Such images, however, are a thing of the past. The manga cafes of today are bright and spacious–places where anyone can feel comfortable, even a young woman entering alone.
Reading manga is not the only pastime offered by manga cafes today. Customers can now access the Internet, view DVDs, play video games, or relax in a massage chair. The approximately 2,000 manga kissa throughout Japan are thus multipurpose spots for relaxation and diversion, now a familiar part of daily life.
Nabbed at last
In Shimada’s case, he walked into a manga kissa and entered a private room there on August 2, and remained until September 26. During his stay he consumed 140 drinks and ran up a tab of 520,000 yen (about $4,500). Whenever he was approached by an employee for payment, Shimada would wave them off with a promise to pay later.
Police nabbed Shimada and charged him with fraud when he tried to run out on the bill.
Via Tokyo Times
Tachi-yomi is part and parcel of bookstores these days even in the US. Practically all major chain bookstores (Barnes & Noble, Borders) these days provide chairs and sofas for people.
October 15th, 2005 at 12:56 amIn Taiwan it’s so cool. You can go to bookstores in the top of department stores. They’re multi-level stores with English, Chinese and some Japanese books. Huge stairs to sit on as well as proper seats. I used to spend the whole weekend there sometimes. The best thing is they’re huge, and everyone else is just reading so you don’t have staff shuffling past you or get in the way of anyone. You can just sit there all day reading and not even feel guilty. Good way to escape the heat and traffic.
October 15th, 2005 at 1:12 amTachi-yomi is part and parcel of bookstores these days even in the US.
Really? For periodicals, too?
Maybe I’ve been over here too long!
October 15th, 2005 at 1:29 am“Tachi-yomi is part and parcel of bookstores these days even in the US. Practically all major chain bookstores (Barnes & Noble, Borders) these days provide chairs and sofas for people.”
Lol. Its not these days. Its been like that for the last 6 or 7 years. And this is not something commonly Japanese that is adopted by US. I think every nation does this at a bookstore or a magazine stand.
October 15th, 2005 at 7:26 amI well remember sitting on the floor of the drugstore, hidden by the double rack of comics, to devour the latest Superman or Batman offering — out of sight of the owner (who’d give you two or three minutes but then tell you to “buy or get out”).
October 15th, 2005 at 3:12 pmI probably only paid for 1% of the comics I read as a kid — which may have contributed to the takeover of mom&pop drugstores by the big national chains.
Tachi-yomi is part and parcel of bookstores these days even in the US.
Plus Borders and others all have their associated cafes in the store (along with ever-expanding manga sections thank god!), so in effect they somewhat resemble manga kissa now. And magazine kissa, and literature kissa.
I used to love Borders but now that there’s one on every corner in my city they kind of lost most of their luster. As a rule they seem to be coordinating with Starbucks to spawn an impenetrable web of adjacent outlets. It’s like the black death.
October 15th, 2005 at 3:51 pmIn Taiwan it’s so cool. You can go to bookstores in the top of department stores. They’re multi-level stores with English, Chinese and some Japanese books. Huge stairs to sit on as well as proper seats. I used to spend the whole weekend there sometimes. The best thing is they’re huge, and everyone else is just reading so you don’t have staff shuffling past you or get in the way of anyone. You can just sit there all day reading and not even feel guilty. Good way to escape the heat and traffic.
This is SO Taiwan! Yes. I have no idea how the stores make any money, but this reading culture is part of the culture now. From major department stores to small bookstores. Sit on the floor all day and read all you want for free.
October 16th, 2005 at 6:49 pmAt the Seiyu and Best Denki where I live they sell electric massage chairs. It seems that a lot of people go there and spend an hour or so getting a massage with no intention to buy. With the bookstores I guess the fact you can relax and read is an attraction. Since those stores seem to be taking over and replacing the mom and pop stores, the business model apparently works. For a little while by the massage chairs they had a sign saying not use them if you weren’t serious about buying, but then later they took those signs down again. Perhaps they sell more eventually if they just leave people alone and don’t give then a bad feeling by telling them to hurry up. I personally would not go back to a store if I had been treated rudely.
October 16th, 2005 at 8:41 pmAnd I would add that I often shop at those stores, as the other customers do, but for other things. So they would lose my other business if they treated me rudely.
October 16th, 2005 at 8:44 pm[...] Manga cafes are to be found all over the big cities, many offering very cheap prices (if you don’t overstay your welcome) for access to not just their huge stack of comics and magazines, but also computers, showers, DVDs, and even private cubicles for one or two, if you’re after a cheap and private location for a date. Q1: Have you ever used a manga cafe? (Sample size=330) [...]
August 18th, 2006 at 10:46 pm