Heh. I've actually been to that internet cafe. Good place to crash if you have missed the last trains.

Anyway, that is really awesome of them. Hopefully it will help a good number of those people get back on their feet.

This is a nice idea. It can really suck if you don't have an address or phone number when you are jobhunting, even if it is just manning the fryer at McDonald's.

36F? That's a bigass bra..

36/F/Shibuya? That's still not that old for a Japanese woman.

I'd hit it.

/if her teeth aren't too farked up

eddyatwork: This is a nice idea. It can really suck if you don't have an address or phone number when you are jobhunting, even if it is just manning the fryer at McDonald's.

We need something like that here in Alberta esp. when the temps go below -30

this should have the tag

?

// Hey baby, my truck is too big for your overpass. Does that make you feel sexy? Do you want me to wedge myself under your bridge and spin my wheels until the rubber melts, you sexy little bridgework?

Cue Jet Set Radio pic in t-minus 10 posts or less.

JET SET RADIO!

A business that is profiting off a demand for a service.

Yup, definitely weird.

Electriclectic: Cue Jet Set Radio pic in t-minus 10 posts or less.

damnit

RadioactiveApe: 36/F/Shibuya? That's still not that old for a Japanese woman.

I'd hit it.

/if her teeth aren't too farked up

Seriously, what's the deal with Japanese chicks and horrible teeth?

Other residents of the cafe?

An street address

Aexia: Other residents of the cafe?

i just picked that game up the other day, rather different, but in a good way.

Quantum Apostrophe: RadioactiveApe: 36/F/Shibuya? That's still not that old for a Japanese woman.

I'd hit it.

/if her teeth aren't too farked up

Seriously, what's the deal with Japanese chicks and horrible teeth?

I was about to ask the same. I tend to assume that straight teeth don't hold the importance they do in other countries.

WFern: I was about to ask the same. I tend to assume that straight teeth don't hold the importance they do in other countries.

Yep, lived in Japan for a long time and never thought anything about Japanese teeth. When I am in the US however (or even when watching American tv or movies), all those much too straight perfectly artificially whitened teeth scare the hell out of me, I find it absolutely horrible looking. So, definitely a cultural thing.

/european with "normal" teeth.

Aexia: Other residents of the cafe?

There does tend to be a lot of Noise around a train overpass...

Mr_Ectomy: this should have the tag

Came here tp say this

Hmm. I was thinking more 36F

WFern: Quantum Apostrophe: RadioactiveApe: 36/F/Shibuya? That's still not that old for a Japanese woman.

I'd hit it.

/if her teeth aren't too farked up

Seriously, what's the deal with Japanese chicks and horrible teeth?

I was about to ask the same. I tend to assume that straight teeth don't hold the importance they do in other countries.

It depends. One or two teeth that are crooked can even be considered cute, I heard one person refer to this feature as a "charm point", I guess in the same vain as Marilyn Monroe's mole. A face full of farked up teeth, however, isn't considered attractive anywhere.

/except Britain

bikkurikun: /european with "normal" teeth.

I looked at your profile. You really, really need to get involved in the Farktography contests and whatnot.

Last contest if you wanna see the crap we do ^{(^)}

This is one of the biggest hurdles for a homeless person.
Also it is one of their biggest excuses (in my experience with homeless friends).

They can't get a job because they have no address.

I don't see why a company that makes its money off the homeless is considered a good idea.

Or are we talking about $20 a day rent, so this is basically a home? In which case, we need $20 a day rent here so that rents will drop and we can have fewer homeless people.

This thread needs more... I dunno...

olavf: This thread needs more... I dunno...

Asian chicks who look 11 years old?

bikkurikun: WFern: I was about to ask the same. I tend to assume that straight teeth don't hold the importance they do in other countries.

Yep, lived in Japan for a long time and never thought anything about Japanese teeth. When I am in the US however (or even when watching American tv or movies), all those much too straight perfectly artificially whitened teeth scare the hell out of me, I find it absolutely horrible looking. So, definitely a cultural thing.

/european with "normal" teeth.

The reason is that 1) Japanese toothpaste doesn't contain fluoride and 2) there are rumors that they even added sugar to make it taste better. Hence, of course, resulting in bad teeth.

Search Google for "Japanese toothpaste" ....

Just as many women prefer frail, effete men because such features are non-threatening, so too do many men favor frail, childlike Japanese women for the same reason. Archetypical western features are often connected with negative social or sexual childhood experiences.

Often, a person's most preferred body type reflects the stage of life in which the individual encountered the most traumatic rejection or other encounter. They then develop a fetish for individuals who best represent the source of that rejection or perceived failure, so that the failure can be overcome.

Japanese women look very young to most western men. To those who were rejected by girls while in their formative years, Japanese women are magnificent. This is why the schoolgirl fetish is so often repeated with Japanese women.

I say this because I take a sick kind of pleasure in pointing out that your most secret, unconscious desires are as simple and predictable as a dog's reaction to a Milk Bone. No righteous indignation or pedantic defense can shield the honesty of a person's actions.

/sleep now

Quantum Apostrophe:
Seriously, what's the deal with Japanese chicks and horrible teeth?

Crooked teeth are hot.

Having been homeless, I would love to see something like this in America. It would have gone much better for me if I would have had an option better than sleeping on park benches. I was fortunate that I at least had a job already, but still, it sucks all the same.

May I spooge on your face: Asian chicks who look 11 years old?

they look twelve until they're forty.
/don't usually find Asian women hot, but I liked the pic

Samsaran: Japanese women share the same body type, skin color and hair color and texture. Boring.

You have obviously never been to Japan.

May I spooge on your face: Asian chicks who look 11 years old?

What kind of 11-year-olds are you hanging around, anyway?

/why don't you have a seat over there

Samsaran: Japanese women share the same body type, skin color and hair color and texture. Boring.

You're so wordy. What you meant to say is, "they all look alike".

At least she'll have company.



If she's dead anyway.

"Well, la-dee-freakin-da!"

Wulfhardt:

I say this because I take a sick kind of pleasure in pointing out that your most secret, unconscious desires are as simple and predictable as a dog's reaction to a Milk Bone. No righteous indignation or pedantic defense can shield the honesty of a person's actions.

Even this one I have where Jesus Christ
is jackhammering Mickey Mouse in the doo-doo hole
with a lawn dart as Garth Brooks gives birth to something
resembling a cheddar cheese log with almonds on Santa Claus's tummy-tum?

/been wanting an excuse to quote that for 10 years!

I find this article somewhat frustrating. Japanese people like to pretend that homelessness and unemployment are new problems, but in reality it's just that now it's starting to affect the middle class. Ten years ago, when the only homeless or jobless in Tokyo were the burakumin, day laborers, and disabled people in Sanya, nobody could have cared less. Today the problems are worse than ever for those people, but the only talk is about helping middle class contract workers who have been laid off. Nobody ever mentions the tens of thousands of people in Sanya and Kamagasaki, many of whom lost their jobs as Japan's day labor market dried up in the mid-90s and many more who are now too old or sick to work.

Cheap, cubicle-like accommodation is not new in Tokyo, it's been around since at least the end of the second world war. $20 per night is more than double the norm for that type of lodging, and only marginally less than a real budget hotel. Granted the rooms in this place seem to be a bit nicer than the cubicles one would find in Sanya, they're still not much considering the price.

Additionally, the video says that the residents have to pay upfront at least a month at a time. There are many ordinary apartments, much larger than these cubicles, available in Tokyo for less than $600 per month, but Japan's idiotic rental system prevents poor people renting them by charging 5-6 times the monthly rent in move-in fees. What Japan needs is not more residential internet cafes, but an overhaul of the ordinary housing system to make it more possible for people to relocate without a massive financial outlay. Currently if someone loses their job, it is often impossible to downgrade to a cheaper apartment unless they have a substantial amount of money in savings. Even if they have savings, landlords usually require guarantors and proof of stable employment. People who live paycheck to paycheck with temporary jobs have no option other than homelessness or being gouged by various residential hotels because they can't pay the massive upfront costs associated with downgrading to an apartment that would actually be cheaper month to month.

This is just another example of Japanese society attempting to stratify homeless people and provide assistance to the freshly laid-off contract workers while still ignoring and further marginalizing the vast majority of homeless or unemployed who really need assistance.

UnoriginalNick: but Japan's idiotic rental system prevents poor people renting them by charging 5-6 times the monthly rent in move-in fees.

I was told the money covers new tatami mats (expensive) and ripped paper shoji screens.

How ironic, I was just thinking about the subject of homelessness in Japan. I just flew back to Tokyo about 5 days ago. Haven't been back here in about a year. I noticed a lot more homeless people sleeping in the corridor between the Seibu side and the JR side at Ikebukuro station. More even than in the years when I lived here.

Usually, during the cold winter nights, they all come down and sleep in the heated corridor and probably number about 15, 20 at the most. This time they lined both sides of the corridor completely (it's probably about 100 meters long). I'd never seen so many and commented on it to some Japanese friends who used that as an opening to give me the run down on how bad the economy has gotten here.

Kozaru:I was told the money covers new tatami mats (expensive) and ripped paper shoji screens.

You were lied to. The fees are the same whether the apartment has tatami, wood, vinyl, or carpet floors. Most smaller apartments don't have any shoji screens, and it's quite common to only replace the tatami if they are visibly soiled.

Perhaps in higher-end places some of the fees go toward improvements in the apartment, but in cheaper places it goes directly into the landlord's pocket. Some even charge an additional cleaning fee both to the tenant moving out and the one moving in.

RadioactiveApe: 36/F/Shibuya? That's still not that old for a Japanese woman.

I'd hit it.

/if her teeth aren't too farked up

Ever heard the phrase "Christmas Cake"? It's a derogatory term for a Japanese woman who has reached her mid 20's and is still unmarried... she might be still be sweet and delicious, but no one really wants any after the 25th... Link

Samsaran: Andric: You're so wordy. What you meant to say is, "they all look alike".

Well, Caucasians have every hair color from white to black, including golden, red, brown, auburn. Hair texture from straight to kinky. Skin color from albino white to almost black. Body types from tiny to huge, slim or voluptuous. Eye color, blue, green, hazel, brown or black. So, relatively speaking ... yes they do look alike.

Japanese skin tones and colors also vary. Hair types also vary and have a lot to do with their ancestry. There are also plenty of slim and voluptuous and (unfortunately) downright fat Japanese people. The range of these is perhaps not quite as varied as say in the U.S., but it bespeaks a stunning lack of experience with Japanese people and a very narrow minded view of the world to say they are all the same.

Samsaran: Twenty bucks a night? Six hundred bucks a month?

I predict that there will be, in the future, in America, similar housing. Large buildings with tiny sleeping cubicles just large enough to accommodate a single person, community showers, telephones with assigned numbers for each cubicle and large community rooms with TV and internet connections. People will be able to stay cheaply, short or long term. They will have strict rules about drugs, alcohol and violence. The smallest infraction and boom you are out and black listed.

There used to be many such places already in the united states, in places like San Diego and Los Angeles especially... they were called SRO's (Single Room Occupancy) and were basically a bed, a window and maybe a closet, all in a room the size of a jail cell. Some came with mini refrigerators and small tv's you could rent. They were usually downtown, near the industrial areas or courthouses.

Most were destroyed in the last real estate madness so that luxury condos, which sit empty now by the thousands, could be built on the land, and their residents turned out into the street, also by the thousands.

May I spooge on your face: olavf: This thread needs more... I dunno...

Asian chicks who look 11 years old?


Better?

Hot link, hot chick

Samsaran: Japanese women share the same body type, skin color and hair color and texture. Boring. are some of the most beautiful women in the world.

There. Better.

Yay, another Japan thread.

I can attest that you get charged something like six months' rent in move-in fees, and you won't see most of it ever again. If I hadn't taken over from a previous renter, I would have never been able to move here.

I guess it means being a landlord would be pretty awesome.

I've lived in Japan for almost 10 years, and moved a few times, paying key money each time. It used to really piss me off until a friend who works in real estate explained a few things.

1. Basically the landlord cannot raise the rent.

2. If you decide to stop paying your rent, and then stay even if your contract is up, it is very difficult for the landlord to kick you out.

3. If you abandon your apartment with all your belongings in it, even for a year, the landlord has to store everything for you, and if they toss it, they owe you the cost of everything.

4. Basically the landlord cannot enter your apartment, even to show it to a new prospective tenant.

So, I can kind of understand where a landlord would take several months' rent as a "gift." I still agree the system needs to be overhauled to help the poor and those just starting out.

A little bit off-topic, but I've never paid key money and at least 50% of apartments require no key money. On top of that, the vast majority of the deposit is returned to the renter unless there is severe damage to the apartment's not-easibly-replaceable items (i.e. walls, windows, etc.) Only people who don't ask for it won't get it back, unless the landlord is a complete asshole.

You only have to pay key money if you are foreign or if you are renting a high-rent joint. I pay about $20/ day for a large apartment an hour from Tokyo.