Travel hack: Trying out the Japanese net café with a free breakfast buffet of cheap delicacies

A super-cheap way to satisfy your morning hunger and taste buds when traveling in Tokyo on a budget.

As a modern society with readily available Internet access, it can be surprising to see how many Internet cafes Japan has. Even in large cities like Tokyo, you’ll find several within walking distance of most major downtown stations, but their many customers aren’t there just because they want to surf the Internet.

For starters, most Internet cafes double as manga cafes, with shelf after shelf of comics that allow fans to quickly catch up on a series they’ve lapsed on or missed reading a particular back issue of. But arguably the biggest draw for net cafes is that you can use them like hotels, renting a private booth for the night to get some shuteye in the city center for far less than a regular, or even capsule, hotel room would cost.

Some net cafes even have showers that customers can use, and now the Kaikatsu Club chain is offering a free all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for its customers.

▼ The entrance to a Kaikatsu Club net cafe, sporting a southeast Asian motif at the entrance.

Overnight rates for Kaikatsu Club’s private booths start at just 1,482 yen (US$13.35) for s six-hour stay, and even an eight-hour stay will only set you back 1,852 yen. The breakfast buffet is served from 6 to 10:30 a.m.

Now, as you might expect from an Internet cafe, Kaikatsu Club’s breakfast buffet isn’t too fancy. One of the items is just toast (or simple sliced bread if you don’t pop it into the toaster), but the other is something very near and dear to our hearts: French fries!

As we grabbed the tongs, we were happy to find that the fries were still fresh enough to be warm as we scooped them onto our plate.

▼ Breakfast of champions…we are champions, right?

Of course, eating a bunch of salted potato wedges is going to make anyone thirsty. Thankfully Kaikatsu Club also provides a free self-service unlimited drink bar for guests, and the loose definition of “drink” the company uses means there’s another side dish you can add to your meal.

In addition to pre-made coffee and other fountain soft drinks, there’s also a rack of tea bags that you make yourself with hot water.

Mixed in with the green tea and Earl Grey, though, are packets of miso soup mix.

▼ Miso soup

So now we had Japan’s favorite soup accompanying our fries and toast, plus some juice to wash everything down.

Everything was tasty and satisfying, but our personal favorite was the fries, which reminded us of the delicious ones offered by the Sushiro revolving sushi chain, proving that sometimes you find great fries in the last place you’d expect.

Oh, and for dessert, there’s a self-serve soft serve ice cream machine, so don’t fill up entirely on fries if you want to satisfy your sweet tooth too.

As for our booth, it was surprisingly roomy, giving us ample space to stretch out our legs as we stuffed our face.

Some Kaikatsu Club locations even have cool auto-locking doors for their private booths, which you access with a touch-panel keycard.

While the target market for the breakfast buffet is obviously people who’ve stayed overnight (either because they’re traveling on a budget or missed the last train home), since it runs until 10:30 a.m., there’s actually nothing stopping you from showing up in the morning just to eat breakfast. Kaikatsu Club’s prices start at 270 yen for 30 minutes, which is a ridiculously cheap price for all-you-can-eat French fries, ice cream, miso soup, and toast plus all-you-can-drink coffee, tea, and soda. 30 minutes is also enough time to rest your feet or charge your electronic devices, which makes Kaikatsu Club not only an easy-on-the-wallet pseudo-hotel for backpackers, but a comfy lounge for travelers who need a break and some chow.

Kaikatsu Club’s breakfast buffer is offered at select locations. A full list can be found here, with the branches for Tokyo being Ikebukuro Station East Exit, Ikebukuro Sunshine 60 Street, Ueno Kojimachi, Tama New Town, Nichidai Station, Machida Tadao, Hachioji Honten, Hachioji Owadamachi, Hachioji Koshino, , Higashi Yamato, Nerima Sasame-dori, Akabane Shiyakusho-mae, Higashi Murayama, Adachi Hokima, and Kamedo Station.

Related: Kaikatsu Club
Photos ©SoraNews24

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