oh, I’m not saying don’t get a raincoat! I do find them cumbersome though if you’re going in and out of places. since aisles are so narrow you wind up brushing your rain water on everything! hmm, maybe I’m saying don’t get a raincoat lol
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Curious to know how you’re calculating $250 and several hours.
If we’re talking shinkansen, it’s 10,700 for a reserved seat from Tokyo to Nagoya, and that’s a 90 minute journey. Then it’s 5,500 for Nagoya to Kyoto, which is thirty minutes. Current exchange rate puts that at $115 USD.
Haha yeah you can get a raincoat and inconvenience yourself or drip water everywhere and inconvenience others! Visiting Japan is just a long series of social quandaries to navigate.
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AH. I misinterpreted this as a round trip, not a stop on the way! Yeah, stop on the way is fully doable and probably quite a fun thing to do.
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Oops I jumped the gun, that’s good to hear. Need to support the math rock community of Japan, and Like A Fool Records in Tokyo as well
Just to be clear, I misunderstood what you were doing, and if you’re just making a stop along the way, that’s totally doable, and might be fun! I thought you were talking about a round trip.
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I haven’t been, but Nerds in Shibuya sounds like a good spot.
It’s run by the drummer in Hollow Suns plus like five other bands.
He also has a label and a booking company.
Busy guy.
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can confirm nerds
First Disc Union stop in Chiyoda already paid off, thanks @exodus !!
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the national museum has a lot of photos and exhibits about the student riots (大学闘争), or did at one point – but i definitely wouldn’t ever say they’re leftist. still an interesting time to read about and draw your own conclusions from.
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I’m gonna be going to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto at the end of this month for 3 weeks.
Other than some bigger tourist stuff and some game shopping I’d like to try and catch some music venues this time. I’d be up for anything, punk, jazz, hip hop, whatever. So if anyone has any recommendations for anything upcoming in November that’d be cool.
Otherwise this time I might try and plan less so I can spend more time just wandering. (Last time we went was in 2019)
(Yes we’re going to the Nintendo museum, I will accept no judgement)
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I haven’t been there myself, but I’ve been wanting to go to the Royal Horse in Osaka because Chaka (of PSY’S) performs there sometimes. I was gonna go last time I was in kansai but I got sick, so instead I did nothing!! it’s here: http://www.royal-horse.jp/
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This is exactly the kind of rec I’m after, thank you! Anything even remotely connected to Psy.S would be a dream.
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I’ll be at those same places except for the first 2 weeks in November instead of 3, including the Nintendo Museum (against my will), and I’ve also been desperately looking for cool shows too. All I’ve found so far (that works for my schedule) are for Tokyo:
Green Milk From the Planet Orange, Nov 3 at Livespace RiNen http://blog.livedoor.jp/wasedarinenblog/
https://gmftpo.bandcamp.com/track/phoenix
These guys rule live (I’ve seen em twice before in the US)
Stegosauro Nov 15 at Ninespices
https://9spices.rinky.info/event/2024-11-15/
these guys would also be in Kyoto on 11/16 and Osaka on the 11/19
https://stegosauro.bandcamp.com/album/stegosauro
For Kyoto, Suichi Spica is playing 11/16 at Growly (with Stegosauro headlining)
https://growly.net/schedule/detail.html?id=7384
https://soundcloud.com/suichu-spica/oshiroi
This is all a crap shoot in terms of music taste, but Stegosauro at least fits the punk criteria
If anyone else knows any good venues to check out, I’m all ears!
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I’ve posted part of this before, but I’ve since added stuff.
Also includes non-Tokyo venues.
Also, if anyone happens to be in Tokyo on November 22nd or 23rd, I’ll be at Club Asia the 22nd and Shangri-La (not the one from Yakuza) the 23rd.
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Flying tomorrow!
If anyone has any Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka recommendations for regular bars too. As in non-music-venue ones.
Themed bars are fine too. Just any good place to get a dang drink.
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bar martha in tokyo is cool and i give mitch mitchell in kyoto my HIGHEST recommendation
Tokyo:
Bar Benfiddich is a fantastic cocktail bar. World class.
Zoetrope has a decent whisky selection and is always running old films on a projector wall at the back
Another pretty good cocktail bar
(note maps says that the Mash Tun is temporarily closed? I hope not! This place rules)
A huge beer hall with every type of Kirin you’ve ever seen, and a good beer-snacking menu
Osaka:
My main memory of this place is sitting at the bar having a quiet drink and having a guy sit next to me that definitely wasn’t yakuza, of course not start up a conversation while smoking a whole lot of cigarettes.
Lots of good gins in here
Hmmm I thought I had more Osaka places saved in a list somewhere. That’s a decent start at least.
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I was coming here to recommend a bar crawl of the Misono Building in Osaka, but I got the punch to the gut that it’s in all likelihood closed or closing, although the info I can find suggests some places in it are still open. This is a horrendous loss, because it was (at least as of 2016) like stepping back in time to the 70’s or 80’s, even if it felt like it was also one of the most run down places I’ve ever been, period. Honestly though I guess it’s a miracle it survived the 90’s so I probably shouldn’t feel bad about it! Still, I’ll recommend a visit to at least see it, especially at night when its neon will be in full effect.
Funny, I had a similar experience there, where a guy with a perm struck up a conversation with me and ended up telling me he would be happy to recommend some hot springs that allow ‘tattoo men’ (not a man, but I am heavily tattooed) and gave me his business card.
I’ll also recommend my alcoholic beverage of choice (you can get it easily at most izakayas and Shōwa bars around Tokyo), Hoppy (ホッピー). It’s a very low alcohol content malt beverage that you mix with shōchū, and that’s usually served with ice. It might not be everybody’s thing (and I think it’s primarily an old person drink), but it’s something you can probably only find in Japan.
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