Manga kissas and their rules, rules, rules!

When you've got nowhere else to go in the middle of the night, a manga kissa is surely the place to go. BUT BEWARE OF THEIR RULES. Take it from me. I had to learn it the hard way...

5am.
Was looking for a place to crash after clubbing in Shibuya, a place with shower facilities would be good. So I tried to check into Manboo in Center-gai. It was full. Bummer.

I went next to Manga Hiroba across the street. No shower rooms, no big deal. I can wait till Manboo has a cubicle for me.

8am.

Back at Manboo. I finally got a cubicle and place to shower. Or so I thought before I found out about:

Rule #1:
To use the shower room, you MUST reserve it ahead of time.

There's only ONE ladies' shower room at Manboo and I expect it's the same with the men's shower. And even if no one's using it, you can't go right ahead to shower. The ever-watchful receptionist will take care that you don't.

And FYI, I made my reservation. There were 8 people ahead of me... and that meant I had to wait 4 hours. Which was a huge pain because:

Rule #2:
You're stuck inside until you check out.

I tried to get out, didn't think there was anything wrong with it. And I got stopped at the exit.

=====================

I learnt a few days later, that not all manga kissas play by the same rules.

A Japanese friend has told me of a manga kissa in the Meguro area, which has more than one shower room. Reservations for the shower room are not needed.

I've also explored a couple of other manga kissas after Manboo and I found Chi•Kou•Raku to be a friendly one.

It's the one at Kaminarimon in Asakusa and it allows you to hang out outside as long as you've settled your bill — something which I did as it was their policy to do so anyway.

Moral of the story? If you simply wanna use the Internet, watch movies, read comics or waste time, then just walk in. But if you're looking to shower or find a more comfortable spot to crash, it wouldn't hurt to scope out the place beforehand.

A good place to begin your research would be www.cafeman.jp

Narita to Tokyo

If you're arriving in Japan via Narita Airport and spending at least two full days running around Tokyo, I recommend that you get Suica & N'EX.

It's a commuter package made available exclusively for foreign passport holders. With it, you get two train tickets: a stored value subway pass (Suica card) and a seat reservation on board the Narita Express (N'EX).

N'EX is a great time-saver. It gets you into metropolitan Tokyo quickly enough. One hour to Tokyo Station, another twenty minutes to Shinjuku Station.

Price-wise you do save though not as much as its website strongly suggests that you do. You save on the N'EX itself. But there are cheaper trains running to and from Narita Airport too.

¥1,000, 75 min – Keisei Limited Express to Ueno Station

¥1,300, 85 min – JR Sobu Line to Tokyo Station

Note that transfers from one line to another inside a station can sometimes mean a long walk. Check out Hyperdia-timetable. It'll tell you how long it takes to get from one station to another, factoring in the estimated time it takes to hike from one line to another.