Category: Cafes

  • Kokoro & Moi & Escalator Records

    Back during the heights of the Shibuya-kei scene, Escalator Records was one of my favorite labels, and I loved visiting its shop and cafe as well. Kokoro & Moi were responsible for a lot of the label’s branding (including at their physical spaces), and it’s nice to see a few examples here. Now I really…

  • Picotachi Vol. 35

    The indie gaming scene in Tokyo is on the riseΒ — the Branching Paths documentary illustrates this quite nicely — and one of the components of that growing scene is the Picotachi series. Organized by game dev Joseph White at his Pico Pico Cafe — a lovely space in Kichijoji — it’s a bilingual show-and-tell series…

  • Cafe Pause Mini-site Updated

    Not that it’s really worth mentioning, but I updated my Cafe Pause mini-site, taking away the blog and simply keeping it as an info page — basically, somewhere to link to when I mention the cafe in a post (since the cafe’s own site is in Japanese). I used the lovely illustration Luis created for…

  • Opening of Diesel Concept Store in Shibuya

    Thursday night I was out in Shibuya for the opening reception of the new Diesel Concept Store, which opens to the public today (November 20). Like the Diesel Denim Gallery in Aoyama, the store features a gallery space, and the opening show is Simon Henwood and Fannie Schiavoni’s “Black Sun” (until February 23). I rather…

  • SNOW Magazine Cafe Launches

    And we’re off: The SNOW Magazine Cafe is now go at Cafe Pause, and runs until August 30. I just posted something on SNOW Magazine that details everything you can expect to find there. Sure, there’s all the magazine stuff (33 titles as part of the main exhibition, and then a large selection of zines,…

  • Castlevania Meets Cafe Pause

    Very nice to see that when my friend Jeriaska decided to interview Michiru Yamane, composer to the Castlevania series, he did so at Cafe Pause here in Ikebukuro. You can read the full interview here, as part of his “Chiptuned” column on the 1UP site.

  • Walking this Town

    Yesterday after getting lunch at the nearby Maison Kayser — it’s the one located inside Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City with a terrace, so it’s dog-friendly — we decided to just start walking, with the general idea of heading towards Iidabashi. Three wards later (Toshima, Bunkyo, and Taito) we ended up not only stopping for a drink…

  • SNOW Magazine Cafe Update

    I announced the SNOW Magazine Cafe event a couple of days ago, and already I’ve been getting some great feedback — lots of people who wish they could actually come to Tokyo to attend — and also lots of contributions. I think we have the makings of something special, and I’m already excited about coming…