In Tokyo, a kissa isn't just a kissa

Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times visits one of Tokyo's manga kissa (manga cafés), the sprawling Bagus Gran Cyber Café, and discovers another world, one filled with lattes, comics, video games -- and customers seeking an escape through "media immersion":

Although the services offered by Bagus, a company that also runs billiard halls, karaoke dens and spas, are aboveboard, the Gran Cyber Cafés are enshrouded in the urgent, furtive atmosphere of a hot-sheet motel. Eyes averted, customers sign in, head to the library of entertainment options, and load up on fashion magazines, video games and DVD's of 24 as if stocking up on Jim Beam. Then they beetle-brow it to their solitary pods.

What they do there is up to them. Some people channel-surf. Others trade stocks. You can download music, read novels, watch pornography, play video games, have sex, go to sleep.

A "night pack" allows customers to use the private carrels from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. for about $10. Some of the Gran Cyber Café's 10 branches offer showers, and sell toothbrushes and underwear.