Jun 29, 2005
Smoke Station
Remember that smoking lounge I found in Akihabara a while back? Now comes the smoke station, tiny booths for your smoking needs. This one is located on Omotesando.
PauseTalk is a regular series of events that take place at Cafe Pause on the first Monday of every month, with a start time of 20:00. The idea is to create a forum where Tokyo-based creatives can get together and discuss their own projects, as well as cultural currents of the city. The next edition happens in March.
PLAY is a series of events with Jean Snow spinning some of his favorite virtual discs in a casual setting at Cafe Pause. The next edition happens in January. See the setlist for previous editions here, and subscribe to a feed of the mixes.
Being a survey of recommended titles for your gaming pleasure. New games are added 2-3 times weekly, and all selections are by your host, Jean Snow, a Tokyo-based writer and gamer.
Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.
I'm also a proud member of the Pecha Kucha Night family, working on various projects, including updating Pecha Kucha Daily, a blog that highlights the creativity coming out of PKN events worldwide.
I serve as editor-at-large at Néojaponisme, a web journal covering social and cultural aspects of Japan. Read the manifesto, by founder and chief editor W. David Marx.
the smoking lounge was/is gross.. we had one in the college i attendend.. though it was just a room. and underground. [but my whole dept was underground] anyways. something about the “smoking booth” just seems way cooler. it also has the funny side effect of making smoking a solitary act, verse a social act. smoking is so not as fun by yourself as it is with other people.
Pardon me for being so naive, but is that some sort of vacuum machine to catch smoke or just a designated smoking spot? Enlighten me.
p.s. love the blog, it’s a favorite read of mine.
Casey – Los Angeles.
Just a designated spot. Nothing that high-tech.
I believe it’s illegal to smoke on the streets in Tokyo, or at least many areas in Tokyo, so these designated smoking spots are popping up everywhere. Usually, they sport ads by Japan Tobacco.
I think the no-smoking ban is only in effect in a very few areas. They are, however, trying to enforce a no-dropping-cigarette-butts-on-the-street rule:
http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/basic/basic09.html
Speaking of JT, check out their zen-like “manner” posters:
http://www.jti.co.jp/sstyle/manners/ad/change/gallery/index.html
Wow, so Tokyo is even more harsh than California on smokers. Unusual. I wonder how it is in Europe.
seen on the side of a cigarette machine in 1999
http://museum.50megs.com/tokio/t03.html