Jude Brand - The Japan Times

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Oct 7, 2001

In clubland, regular openings and closings are a given. Bars, on the other hand, live by different rules -- longevity is proportional to the dedication of their creators. In Tokyo, a hybrid type of nightspot has evolved (and multiplied, because they fit well in the big city). You could call them mini-clubs, but that sounds too grand. And, hence, they are usually called DJ bars. You can sit, or you can dance. What you can't have is much room to move. Even if a space is bigger than a matchbook and smaller than a breadbox, in goes a DJ bar and out goes a sign. But, until recently, they had the life-expectancy of an insect.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Sep 30, 2001

As fate would have it

I love Tokyo. It is the most convenient city in the world. These days, you can get almost anything you want -- anywhere, anytime (except public transport after midnight). But first, you must find it in this chaotic city that sprawls through 23 wards -- each with its own urban hub and maze of back alleys.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Sep 23, 2001

Getting lost in the Shibuya triangle

When railways and expressways are carved through an existing urban grid, awkwardly shaped scraps of land are often left in their wake. In central Tokyo, if the fragment is big enough for a single room and a stairwell, something will be built. Architects need to think both laterally and vertically to capture precious space. The Hayakawa family was lucky. They ended up with a tidy triangle in the heart of Shibuya. And they were even luckier to have an architect as a son.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Sep 16, 2001

Nothin' but the big city blues

Kiki's Pub is a tiny blues bar tucked in behind Exit 1 of Toranomon Station. For 16 years, it has hugged the edge of a small cluster of nomiya (drinking spots) stranded between big streets and surrounded by homogenous rows of office blocks. When I called for directions, I was told to find the #10 Mori Building, but in this kind of identi-kit neighborhood, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Sep 9, 2001

Poetry in motion

"On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair . . ."

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Sep 2, 2001

The mellow punk

Tatsuya Ishii cuts a trim figure in his mid-30s. To look at him now, it is hard to believe that in his mid-teens he had a complex because of his weight. It was back then that he first heard of the Sex Pistols, after his classmate Soma played him the Sid Vicious version of "My Way."

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Aug 26, 2001

Bring it on home

O-bon is a mysterious Japanese holiday, which falls somewhere between the beginning and middle of August, as determined by the heaves and sighs of the cosmos each year. It is said to be a time when the spirits of one's ancestors return to roost (especially if one leaves a strategically placed eggplant near one's home).

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Aug 19, 2001

Grant-oh puts the grrr in martinis

Mizu shobai is a fickle business at best. And these troubled economic times tend to heighten the sense of risk. So when I first heard of a plot to hatch a fun and funky martini lounge on a quiet back street in Roppongi, it struck me as downright dangerous. As I sipped a classic 007 at the opening of G Martini's, as it was christened, I found myself plea-bargaining with God to please, please let this one survive (I offered Gas Panic in its stead). Eight months later, it is not only still alive but thriving. Amen.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Aug 12, 2001

Some like it hot

There once was a Tokyo night empire called Ink Stick, which spawned a handful of cool jazz slash ambient slash progressive clubs around town. But this review has nothing to do with Ink Stick. It is about Shinichi Watanabe, who took over the space that the Nogizaka Ink Stick occupied. Even more than 10 years after the fact, I cannot go down those stairs and walk through that door without thinking about Ink Stick.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Aug 5, 2001

Passion burning on the dance floor

Lamont Raymond is better known simply as Monty to thousands of Japanese clubbers. After arriving in Tokyo on an English-teaching gig more than a decade ago, he ended up working as the sales manager for Tokyo Classified (the free paper now known as Metropolis). For many years, if you had picked up a copy, you would have seen his mini-mug shot smiling out each week in the staff photographs on the last page. Two years ago, he left to start his own freebie -- a mini-mag called CIA (Club Information Agency).

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jul 29, 2001

A hot tip for you cool cats

Like many of the proprietors of Tokyo's mini-live houses, Mashimo Mitsuo's first passion was music. Though these days he will deny any skill with a soprano sax, his regular customers wink and tell me otherwise. Of course, Mashi (as everyone calls him) doesn't deny having been the sound engineer at the Blue Note Tokyo for a decade before leaving five years ago to open Rakuya, a cozy little jazz izakaya in Naka-Meguro.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 25, 2001

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

Though I have been a fan of Joe Strummer since The Clash, even I had my doubts last year, when I first saw him live with the Mescaleros at Akasaka Blitz. The band spent a shaky first hour probing the audience for signs of recognition of songs from their first album "Rock Art and the X-Ray Style." In the end, the audience got what they wanted -- back-to-back Clash anthems. But I felt sorry for Joe and the Meskys. Expectations must have been high on both sides of the equation. Somehow that first album lacked confidence. But give an excellent group of musicians a couple of years to get to know each other better and, in this case, you get an excellent second album.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jul 22, 2001

This one goes out to all the grrls

For 121/2 years, I lived within a 10-minute walk of Shinjuku Ni-chome. "Ni-chome," as most habitues refer to it, is synonymous with gay, even though every neighborhood in Tokyo has an area called Ni-chome, which, roughly translated, means "Sector 2." One should even be careful not to refer to an escapade in Shinjuku without knowing that everyone present will probably start placing mental bets on whether you were in Kabukicho (the red-light district), or Ni-chome -- at a gay bar. Eyebrows will rise . . .

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jul 15, 2001

A new watering hole for the downtown set

When John Coyle, Ivy Neo and Gary Hier first teamed up to create What the Dickens!, the massively popular English pub in Ebisu, neither they -- the publicans -- nor us -- their patrons -- could have guessed what would come from such humble beginnings.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jul 8, 2001

Midnight at the oasis

The first time Takahiro Maeda saw his senpai Magsam dancing hip-hop style in a club, he knew that's what he wanted to do. He also realized not long after trying the moves himself that he could never be a professional dancer. So, instead, he busied himself organizing events where Magsam and his friends could dance and others, like himself, could enjoy the mood and the music.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jun 24, 2001

In loving memory of Miguel

When Esteban Mauricio Paredes arrived in Tokyo from Ecuador 12 years ago, he felt lucky to score an apartment through a friend. He didn't feel so lucky, however, when he received a gas and electricity bill for the previous tenant. It wasn't so much money, but anyone who has arrived in Tokyo looking for work will know that even a few thousand yen can hurt. Esteban found out that Miguel Angel Dillunde, his remiss predecessor, was working at a club in Roppongi. So off he went to meet Miguel and discover a friendly chap, who with a slap on the back and a little cash, sealed the deal on a new friendship.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jun 17, 2001

A master at going with the flow

Kiyoshi Maejima was 14 when he first picked up a guitar. Soon he was playing hooky from his judo class to sneak off and practice the jazz riffs that his big brother had shown him. A few years later, he was heading up to Tokyo from Shizuoka to attend music school.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jun 10, 2001

Teaching Tokyo how to be cool

Bar Kitsune is a phenomenon. It is the brainchild of Production Company, an Osaka-based outfit that decided to sneak up the Tokaido and infiltrate Tokyo's nightlife. The company's success with home-turf projects like Under Lounge, one of Osaka's most happening clubs, gave it the confidence to tackle the Big Mikan.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

Jun 3, 2001

Girls 'n' guys a go-go!

Just a few years ago, when Yoichi Nakamuta was on a business trip to New York, he stumbled upon an unusual designer item: Go-Go Drink, a natural herb soda or energy drink. But it wasn't just the intriguing blend of tropical herbs and roots it contained that caught his attention.

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE

May 27, 2001

Late shift at the Factory

Tokyo's art-party scene is alive and well and sometimes converges in Shibuya. One focal point is Uplink Factory, and one of the more interesting banners under which it rallies is an event known as "Ubique." Uplink Factory is an offshoot of Uplink Co., which, since 1987, has produced and distributed the works of indie filmmakers. It has also published a number of Japanese books on pop culture and art, most notably Robert Mapplethorpe's controversial photos.

author

Meta

Podcast

Longform

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

In your social network

In your inbox

In your social network

In your inbox