Almost any urban parking lot will have some percent of people just sitting in their (usually idling) cars. Some are eating, some appear to be working, lots are sleeping, but most are just messing around on their phones in very relaxed positions.
It’s often what appear to be workers, often in a Probox or Succeed.
I don’t care what ppl do with their time but it’s bizarre to me. Why sit in your car? Why in a parking lot? Any ideas?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/176vg0f/why_do_so_many_people_just_hang_out_in_their_cars/
29 comments
Small apartments, it’s an escape.
Just knock on the window and ask.
Their wives don’t allow them to come home before the kids are in bed because they don’t help at all. (My coworker told me that about her husband)
Japan has so few places you can just *exist* for free.
Outside of parks, there are no benches, no seats – and even there, they are limited. There aren’t a lot of outdoor courtyards or public squares. Every coffeeshop you have to pay for coffee to be there. And people have very tiny, very depressing little apartments – often filled with family they are not eager to interact with. It’s a cheap, quiet place to be with climate control and music where they can be left alone.
This sounds sad. It IS sad. The modern world kinda sucks.
You honestly need to ask this? It’s pretty obvious I thought.
Space, escape.
Where else are they going to do it? At home in the tiny apartment with family underfoot, or – heaven forbid – at the office?
It’s just space, man. A brief respite from the world.
Just sales people taking a short break in their company cars
Privacy, AC, good stereo.
A Japanese car rental company discovered a fair number of people were renting cars and not even going anywhere. They just wanted a private place to sit for a while.
Edit:
[Link to relevant article.](https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/5/20683406/japan-car-sharing-renting-not-driving-private-space-orix-times24)
Idk, it can be kind of relaxing to crank back the chair, listen to some music, and mindlessly scroll social media with the AC blowing on you.
In the US, I had a friend who would just drive around for no reason. It was her meditation, I guess. Obviously burned a lot of gasoline.
Wifi
It depends on the time of day. If it’s lunch time they’re probably taking their lunch break. If it’s late afternoon or early evening it’s probably because they finished their routes early and don’t want to go back to the company and end up being sent out again or have to do cleaning until the end of the work day.
My running course takes me through an industrial port. The back side along the wharf is fairly isolated. I see truck drivers, sales people, and service workers killing time there all the time on weekdays. There are also occasionally discarded bento boxes and cigarette butts from people who dump their trash out the window rather than carry it back with them.
Years ago I had a job that required me to drive all over the place all day, every day. Any time I had any down time, you guessed it, I would be sitting in my car in a parking lot having some tea, taking a nap, whatever. There’s nothing mysterious or cultural about this one.
They haven’t yet realised you can be a man on a balcony with a bbq in peace every night …. They’ll probably never understand this though sadly
They are Delivery Driver. Putting their foot on the handle is a sign they are a Delivery Driver. Unfortunately they rarely get home so their car is their home.
Because there usually aren’t benches around, and workers have to sit and rest somewhere.
Parking outside my crib with engine running at night. Twats.
I can’t say this as fact as everyone is an individual.
But my assumption is that its the only place for some people to have solitude and recover from the pressures of life.
Sometimes an hour alone in your car as a man is super healthy.
I assume that you can decompress before having to go back to real life.
The probox/succeed are pretty much made for that, they have retractable trays kind of like you got in planes
A lot of answers don’t really appear to be answering the specific situations you’re asking about (maybe it’s an edit – the app doesn’t show edits). But workers spend their breaks, or when they’re on call, in their work vehicles because that’s the best place to spend their break comfortably. Where would you suggest is preferable?
idk, but there was a guy who was always watching uh adult videos with the volume up near my apartment … so maybe that…
I see people hanging out in their garages. They’ll put down some chairs, open the garage door and just… sit there and chat. They aren’t doing work on their cars or anything else, they just.. hang out there
Meanwhile their house has a decently large backyard with a deck.
I understand sitting in your car to get away from whoever you share a house with…. But I still don’t get the appeal of hanging out in a garage.
Back home I loved just sitting in my car. In the driveway. Steeling myself for having to go in and deal with two kids bouncing off the walls.
> people just sitting in their (**usually idling**) cars.
Besides enjoying private time, climate control and not running down the car’s battery, Japanese sit in their cars “usually idling” to **prevent getting a ticket for illegal parking**. Cops will write a parking ticket for a car turned off with person sleeping in it—If the car is idling the worse that can happen is that cops will ask you to move on.
Hell, the way I think about it:
My Car has a Bose sound system, DVD player, my iPad with WiFi, air con/heat with an advanced HEPA filter, and orthopedically-correct, leather Recaro seats that are heated and cooled. My Car is the best room in the house.
Pokemon Go
I sit in the car at Mini Stop and eat ice cream and chicken bites. Then I’ll start messing with my phone and end up sitting there half an hour sometimes.
I used to do this at my old job during lunch break^ I pretty much work all day every day, with people I don’t like, and I’d rather be alone in my car relaxing instead of the break room with those same people
I do this in my Probox when I’m out on a job. I’m either traveling or visiting a customer who doesn’t have a break room when it’s my break time.
Idk about nowadays but when I lived in nyc a lot of my friends and family did that too
I do this in America lol