Ways to get a hot bath and spend the night, Japan c. 1990

[foxinthestars]

Setting: Japan circa 1990, a small city, sometime between 8 pm and midnight

Comments

[sashatwen]

Public neighborhood bath houses (called sento(u)) - not the touristy fancy onsen, mind you! - sometimes offer 24 hour service, especially in larger cities. First of all, they're really cheap. Second, the attendant won't be likely to ask questions about the boys' ages. I'm not sure a regular hotel would let a 16-year-old rent a room by himself. But someone else will have to answer that one

[foxinthestars]

Thank you, that is very helpful! I'm leaning toward sentou + coin laundry at this point. I actually found a YouTube video of an American in Japan just looking around a small town coin laundry (and pontificating about whatnot, but wth), so that could give me an image to work with.

[lilacsigil]

I lived in Japan in 1996-7 and had home internet, but it was just as slow as Australian internet and quite expensive. There were definitely internet cafes in urban areas, though, because it was often cheaper for me to use them than to use my home internet! They'd be open 24/7, but they were often in skeevy areas near bars with lots of drunk men hanging around after missing the last train, so I didn't go there late at night.

[foxinthestars]

Thanks!

[thekumquat]

I don't know about small cities, but in Kyoto there were ryokans that functioned as backpacker type hostels, with bathing facilities that were down the hall but locked so not for sharing. Other guests included Japanese student types as well as other foreigners looking hacked off about the strangely-cheap ryokan. It was perfectly clean but just not what we'd been led to expect.
Looking for 'hostels' might yield useful results?

[foxinthestars]

Thanks!

[busaikko]

Oookay... you're operating on some odd assumptions

[foxinthestars]

Okay, thanks for the corrections. I actually was planning to have someone call the cops before morning, I just need to delay it a few hours...

[busaikko]

Also, at the time there were several incidents of children kidnapped/murdered/abandoned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Miyazaki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_four_abandoned_children_of_Sugamo, NOv 1990 a girl was kidnapped at knifepoint and not found until 9 years later, etc.) which were widely covered in the news, and I'd imagine that people would be on the lookout for suspicious behavior and children being taken places by people not their parents. Thus, insisting that they were siblings and were en route home/to relatives' house would probably be a good cover; made even better if the 16-y-o had an adult accomplice who would be willing to take a call from an inn keeper saying that "Yes, my kids, Koji and his younger brother Eitaro, missed their bus and can't get another until the morning, I'd appreciate you letting them stay there

[bwinter]

While a sento's the best bet for a bath, my friends always recommended all-night karaoke places as a cheap way to sleep if you get caught out past the last train. If the town's big enough for a shopping mall, it should have those as well.

[busaikko]

In 1990, most towns did not have "a shopping mall", not like the Aeon Malls of 2013. A local "mall" was one supermarket (like Kinsho) and a handful of boutiques (shoe shop, flower shop), a game center, etc. And those closed early, like around 9 or 10.

All-night karaoke would also be uncommon in those areas. I have no idea what city the OP is asking about; Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo would have some all-night places (in 1989, kids at my university hung out at Denny's when locked out after hours). But a small city... IDK. Depending on the area, some places will have those kinds of facilities along highways, and not near the train station area.

[foxinthestars]

The fact is, I don't know what particular city I'm talking about and I don't think I need to (how this situation comes about is a long and fantastic story, my focus is mainly on the characters, and this is like the only scene that takes place there). "Small city" (larger than small town, smaller than big city) was a generalized guess, but it's vague and flexible, I'm just looking for things that would be reasonably believable.

[foxinthestars]

That's an idea, too, thanks!