Kyoto’s Cafe La Siesta offers two havens in the same cozy spot. Gamers can swing by the snug bar and restaurant in the riverside neighborhood of Kamiyacho to play retro titles on a handful of cabinets, enjoy gaming-themed cocktails or simply soak in the throwback vibes.
Yet Cafe La Siesta also serves as a live music venue — not for bands or pop stars but for the Kansai region’s budding and established artists in a niche electronic scene: 8-bit music.
Also known as “chiptunes,” this style of music is primarily composed of relatively low-quality sounds derived from now-obsolete video games, which made use of such audio to save space on memory-scarce consoles. For over two decades, Cafe La Siesta owner Nishi Kotah has offered his humble shop as a place for chiptune creators all over Japan to hone their craft, connect with likeminded artists and perform, for some, for the first time.