I’ve often described how I enjoy drinking beers while out and about — street beers, yo — and since the closure of the Minami-Ikebukuro Park a few years ago, my main outlet in the ‘Bukes has been Ikebukuro West Gate Park. It’s more of a gathering place than a park, but it’s fun in part because of the “characters” it tends to attract. The routine is usually just to grab a few brews at the nearby combini (Sankusu, if you must know), but the other night my hometown friend Julie — in town for a month on a visit — invited me for a degustation in the park. When I met up with her, I was greeted with a Seibu department store bag filled with a few selections from the Ibaraki-brewed Hitachino Nest Beer. It was a great time, and I’m always a proponent of mixing high class (the beers) with low class (the spot) — and the cups we were drinking from were purchased at a nearby 100 yen shop.
The photo above of me was taken by Julie, and the rest, by me, cover our selections, and the park itself. The beers themselves were pretty much all great, except for the “Ginger Ale” brew, which was a bit rough (and 8%) — it’s worth noting that it’s also the only with a silly label, featuring some sort of crazy mascot.
I have a new piece up on CNNGo, covering the “performance art” izakaya Kagaya in Shimbashi. Big thanks to my Rough Guides colleague Simon Richmond for introducing me to the spot — we had a great night of eating and drinking there a month back, which some of you may remember as a string of tweets I did.
I posted not too long ago about the Tokyo edition of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, and this time it’s for an event organized by the group that doesn’t involve sketching. “Dr. Sketchy’s Exhibition Party” will showcase the works of participants — including pieces by Dr. Sketchy founder Molly Crabapple — with a few cabaret performances thrown in: Miss Erochica Bamboo, Violet Eva, The Murasaki Baby Dolls, Cherry Typhoon, and Safi. It happens Saturday, November 22 at La Boheme in Aoyama (Kotto-Dori) — 3,500 yen with drink at the door, 2,500 with drink in advance or with flyer (email them).
Headed out to Iidabashi tonight to meet up with the TAB/AQ crew to celebrate the birthday of TAB staffer extraordinaire Kaori. We went to Hive Cafe (1F Grand Plus, 4-7-4 Iidabashi), newly opened this week, and from the same owner of the terrific Boulangerie A in Sanbancho (near Co-Lab). It was quite the feast!
Another year, another end of Tokyo Design Week, and another departure by Jesper. This time he was accompanied by his Next Century Modern crew — Ola and Christopher — and it was a pleasure to meet them for the first time. They organized a farewell party last Friday night in Nakameguro at a cool little bar called Hakoniwa — very close to the station, facing the tracks. Here’s already looking forward to next year’s visit!
Imprint Talk is reporting that seminal Tokyo club Yellow is set to close its doors for good this month. The final events will be held June 20-21.
Tokyo electronic fans were shocked to find out the club Spacelab Yellow, a club that has been packing them in for the pass 17 years. is now closing. The 8 people capacity basement has recently come under new ownership, and they plan to redevelop the sight. Club manager and promoters are saddened by the closing but are planning to move to another venue, but as manager Yuko Ichikawa reported said “It will be difficult in Tokyo.â€
UPDATE
Just a note to say that the mention of 8-people capacity must be a typo, because Yellow is actually quite a large club.
Nice to see that my Swedish compadres Next Century Modern are included in the book Hip Lounging Japan, for their work with Thoms & Nilsson on the Absolut Icebar in Tokyo. I’d like to go through the book to see what else gets included.
Mixing anime with nightlife — and not in a kinky way — Akihabara sees the opening of two Gundam-inspired bars, one supporting the Federation Forces, the other the Zeon faction. The themed interior features costumed staff (of course), with a menu that pays tribute to various characters. Anime News Network has more details, and here’s the original post (Akiba Blog) in Japanese with some photos of the exterior.
With most of the Kotaku editors in town for the Tokyo Game Show, it’s only natural that they’d organize some sort of Kotaku shindig. It happens tomorrow night (September 18) at Mother in Shimokitazawa. Here are more details:
For those keen on attending, here is the info you’ve been waiting for! We’ll be having the Kotaku Tokyo shindig at “Mother” (fitting, no?) in town. The event will kick off at around 8pm and end when they turn off the alcohol. To get your free drinks, we’ll be stamping hands. So bring clean hands! Here’s the bar’s website, which has a map. Directions? Here are directions: Take the Odakyu line from Shinjuku or the Inokashira line from Shibuya and get off at Shimokitazawa. Take the south exit from the station, and go straight down the main street keeping McDonalds on your left. Walk for about 2 minutes (Mr Donuts is halfway there) until the road opens out wider. About 20 meters after that (and just before you get to Osho chinese restaurant) there is a very small intersection. Turn right and Mother is the first building on the right with the mosaic wall outside. If you plan on attending, let us know so we don’t drink all your booze.
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 is March 5.
We hereby define a new term, that of the magaziner, described as a person who exerts an unhealthy amount of love for all things magazine. The Magaziner is a site that mostly focuses on the intersection between magazines and the digital frontier, and what it means for the medium. This does not preclude the inclusion of a healthy amount of print love.
Codex is a weekly music podcast hosted by Jean Snow, recorded in Tokyo. Playlists for all episodes are posted on the site, and you can subscribe to RSS feeds of posts and episodes.
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.
Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.
You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or get in touch by email.
He serves 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.
He also writes a monthly column covering Japanese product design for The Japan Times, called "On Design." It appears on the last Tuesday of every month, in both the print edition and online.
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The "Jean Snow" logo is written using the free Kirimomi Swash typeface. The "M31" logo is by Ian Lynam, and is part of a series of 31 unique designs. The site's design is based on the Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan.
Jean Snow is a contributor to 
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of 
