Just before 1am, on the west side of Shinjuku, I was worried that my bed for the night would be somewhere in the belly of the subway station.

My situation was a little ridiculous – I had to navigate around Shinjuku station, home to a score of homeless people, to reach the red light district so I could sleep in an internet cafe for 5 or 6 hours.  The passage connecting the East and West of the station had closed, so I needed to find my way out and then find my way around the station…in the cold…after midnight…to a neighborhood famous for hostess clubs.  In the course of this adventure, I came across a man defecating at the bus station, an entire station section filled with sleeping homeless people, and a small herd of businessmen who had missed the last train.  It wasn’t quite the way I wanted to spend my evening, but I still didn’t share the fate of those sleeping in the station.  As challenging as being a net cafe refugee has been, there are far worse ways to sleep in Tokyo…