The International Street Performers Festival was hatched in Papa John. In 1984, Ikuo Mitsuhashi -- a mime artist just back in Yokohama from a decade-long French sojourn -- dropped by the venerable jazz shot bar and listened to the proprietor describe the Association for Fostering Noge Culture. He was smitten.
Straight off, Mitsuhashi joined and rounded up mimes, circus people and puppeteers for street performances in the 1985 Spring Noge Festival. The busking was a hit. The next year Mitsuhashi put on an independent festival with 26 street performers. The International Street Performers Festival was born -- and grew.
In 1997, close to half a million people squeezed into Noge for the 21st festival (biannual until 1996). The festival spilled over to Minato Mirai and Isezakicho in 2000 and 2002, respectively. It continues to grow.