Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Pt.3

Yep, there we go. Um, it's been a good week this week and obviously sometimes we're wary of dating the podcast, but I think it's really impossible not to. And we understand that, you know, you might be listening to this episode. Five years in the future if things like SoundCloud and Podcast still exist. But equally there are a lot of people we know that tune in quite regularly and um when the podcast goes up uh you often see quite a few people starting to listen almost immediately. So

In the spirit of those contemporaneous listeners, I think um it's worth just mentioning a couple of highlights this week, James. We had a lovely write up um in um on a German website. Uh I won't butcher the language, even though I do have an A level in it, but uh it was basically choosing uh Tokyo Jazz Joints as its beautiful

photo book of the week and that was a lovely uh thing to see. I've linked it to the website so you can go on there, use the cleverness of AI and translate the page into English and have a read there if you want. But also um we got a little shout out and an introduction in uh publication or on an online publication at least, um, which is very dear to your heart. I know you're very excited about it, weren't you?

And um well it was a long and arduous journey to get through to them, uh, for a lot of boring reasons, but we did it, we got through, and I'm okay, they didn't write a long review like they do of some books or even some photo books, but what they did write was exceedingly uh complimentary and uh no Philip no false modesty man I mean I think that was aces man to be in downbeat was like for me um uh a heavy dose of validation because especially knowing that

how picky that they can be there. Uh again, that's some some background stuff, but um they they are very judicious about what they write about these days. Um, and what they say about anything in the jazz-related world. So to get that that sort of very positive feedback from them. Um, and knowing that the audience that that they have worldwide is is just a thrill. Yeah. Gotta be honest. I I was I was gobsmacked, man.

Uh, over that side of the Atlantic from me and across the Pacific from James, do um check uh online. There's quite a few places now listing it as available. So you can pre order the book or you can get it when it comes. But

The way it's selling at the moment, I would be inclined to go for a pre order rather than wait till it comes on there because you may miss out. And actually talking about um what you were saying there just about false modesty, that reminds me So I remember now that I follow your Instagram

Uh breaking breaking complimentary news for you, my friend. It wasn't the only happy thing that happened this week. Um of course this will be a couple weeks in the past when most of our listeners are listening, but just About an hour ago, here in Japan on the on Inter FM radio, uh the Barrakhan Beat Radio program, longtime Japan resident Peter Barrakhan, he's a famous music journalist and host. He um his guest today was our good friend from the Eagle Jazz Cafe, Goto San.

And uh they were mainly talking about Goto San's new book, which is uh uh basically his picks of contemporary jazz releases. But um people who follow us on Instagram will have seen that, you know, last week Goto-san and I exchanged books. I gave him a copy of Tokyo Jazz Joints and he gave me a copy of his new book. It was a really beautiful photo. I was so thrilled about it.

And tonight, uh, not only did they mention us um on the radio show, and this is a program listened to by people all around Japan, um, but some very complimentary words, something along the lines of I don't know how they did it, but the photographs take unbeautiful jazz Kizaten and make them beautiful. So very, very big kudos for you, my friend, as the photographer.

And now from our sponsor. Anyway, James, that is a very nice compliment and very, very nice to hear. And actually it's funny because it's I I one thing I find fascinating about this project is how everything really links up and uh It's it's so interesting that because someone was asking me this week and there's an interview coming out It's gonna be in the South China Morning Post actually, which is a big English language daily in Hong Kong.

Uh and uh someone was asking me about that and you know, the the idea of uh you know, our jazz keys are stuck in the past. And I know like a lot of the things that we talk about and the raison d'etre for the project was this idea of preserving what's disappearing and so on, but It's really interesting to see not only those new places but um, you know, this focus by Goto-san on on the contemporary jazz and and it just it you know, it all kind of adds up because this week in the UK famously then

uh Ezra Collective uh won them the Mercury Prize, you know. So y you kind of see these different threads and how like, particularly now with social media and the internet, like it's there's ways of linking them up globally that perhaps like weren't always visible before. And so

quite unusual because we do know a lot of jazz keyso owners that that really don't do that. And so when he put the book out, you know, even some of his customers were like, Wow, I didn't know much of these people, you know. And so I I thought it was a it was a really it was a really great development and and definitely something that that is important, you know, t to keep the sort of jazz keys open, but also evolving. Uh, because honestly, I mean

Again, how many times can you play Art Blakey's Monin? Yes, it's a great track, we all love it. But like I don't wanna hear it every time I go to a jazz keys, you know?

you know, late nineties, early two thousands uh websites using Word art and uh variety of colours that would uh give you a headache if you looked at them directly. But but uh you know the fact that this book is out and not only that, I think if I'm not wrong, there's QR codes in there.

uh to link to Spotify and other platforms where you can find that music. And I mean that just shows, you know, that's really Vanguard stuff, isn't it? In terms of i it's not pulling out a record off a dusty shelf, but it's really a a way of of

you know, connecting immediately because one thing reading about something, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, when you've got the a actual means, you know, in the palm of your hand to to scan a code and go immediately to that and listen to it. Like it's you know, it shows a real Yeah.

Not know about these people, so definitely a great development for sure. Um but Philip, we need to get back to the consai and especially uh documenting our church.

And uh where where did we go first? We hopped on the train at uh Umeda, we took a took a local train about what three, four stops into the into the residential spots and neighborhoods, and uh what was our first place for for a bite and a car?

Ranzu. And um this was a place that we uh to me this was a real day of discovery because you know some of the places the previous day

Yeah, we we kinda knew them and we knew what maybe to expect a little bit more, but particularly this day I think there was a lot of just names on our list, right? And Ramzu was one place that I think you had mentioned had appeared somewhere online and there was we ha we had the sense that there was like a couple of jazz albums on the wall, but like when we got there actually we discovered just a very, very classic Japanese ja uh Japanese Kisa like a coffee shop which has the

uh just the very Japanese uh morning set though, which, you know, can have a combination of different things. But I think we went for the the simple option which was a coffee and uh a big, big slice of very deep toast with like butter and honey or something like that. But it was a gorgeous place, wasn't it? Like really old school neighborhood capital.

framed, you know, when when someone local newspaper has written an article about the shop, you know, they'll get a copy and they'll put it up on the wall. And I noticed that that they had a Twitter account and then slowly kind of That it was a it was a family run joint and it seemed to be like the guy serving us was was at first it was the old guy was the father, but then the son was there too.

And so you could sense that okay, again, we've seen this in other jazz cafes, right? We've talked about maybe the kids are helping out, they make the new website, they get on social media. So Ranzu Coffee, at Mark Ranzu Underbar Coffee. Have a look. It is pretty interesting. Not many posts, but there's some good pictures. They only follow 17 people and more than half of them are jazz accounts, including Disc Union, Jazz, the the jazz.

you know, was somehow like online and and and was able to like understand that oh yeah, we came there for a reason. We didn't just pop in for coffee randomly. Like not the kind of neighborhood that that many people would do that, let alone two random foreigners, right? So um I thought it was really cool to communicate that way. And uh so if you are in in Osaka and you dig

the old Kisas, whether jazz or not, and if you're listening to the show, you obviously do. And I know a lot of people, um a lot of our jazz Kisa friends online, Philip, you know, they'll go to these places too for their morning a seto of coffee and toast, right? So definitely have to stop by. It wasn't one we counted on our list as technically a jazz joint. We didn't ask to take any pictures.

But it was one of those sort of in-between spots and a very good start to the day because obviously a lot of the other jazz kiss are not open at 8.30 in the morning.

It's a good length of a day. Um, you know, close to my heart because you can't get a bloody coffee in Belfast after about three o'clock. But anyway, that's a separate a separate episode. Um

We went from there and we we ended up we we I mean it was very much a side um like a side journey'cause we went there and we immediately went back to the same station which had this v you know, very familiar and slightly kind of sterile development in and around the the station. There was a w what they call a rotary where the buses come in and and some apartment buildings and things like that. But I feel like from here then we really entered the Twilight Zone because we

We went back to Kobe Station and then we the next place on our hit list was was a place called Swingville. Now again, look on a map. You think, Well, it's not too far, but we did discover that we have to get a bus out there, right? We we we had no car this time, so We were reliant on public transport and unlike a lot of the places we thought look th th the best way here or the the the most efficient way at this time is to get a bus. So we went back to Kobe Station and

We spent a few minutes running around like manically, right? To to to try and find this bus. And eventually uh one of these many people who stand with with High Viz clothing on uh in and around train stations in Japan pointed us to to this the the classic underground bus station and we ran around there and finally, just luckily, nobody seemed to know where this bus was, but we got to the bus and when we got on it and I think from there it was just

It was quite a surreal experience because you almost immediately when you come out of Kobe Station, you go into a tunnel, which lasts for a good, I don't know, maybe 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes. And then when you come out of this tunnel, you're Just in complete countryside, right? So you've gone from like Kobe City to just the the mid it like feels like the middle of nowhere. Do you remember like we just came out, it was like kind of a misty wet morning and

Because right behind right basically right behind the railway, which is running east to west, okay, is mountains. And so like you said, we we we hopped on this bus. Barely got there. Um I do still remember other bus drivers in the station being exceedingly unhelpful and uninterested to let us know.

Um I was feeling how should we say, Philip? Um, a slight adult headache from the previous night's uh activities, but nothing too bad. But I remember we didn't even have time to buy a drink. So all we'd had was our morning coffee, no time for the usual Aquarius or Pocari sweat sports drink to hydrate. So I was feeling quite a quite uh ready to get off that bus. And we finally arrived.

The exterior, the exciting thing about outside is the sign. We love those great signs, but it's usually just a door or some, you know, building that's about to fall apart. But this was an absolutely beautiful structure, both outside and even better when we came in, because it immediately noticed

the gorgeous wooden beams going across under the high high ceiling. So you had all of these wooden beams and a long wooden counter and all these like wooden chairs. So immediately like wow, we're not in the city, we are in the countryside, but Swing your eyes a little bit to the right and the guy has got do you remember the little record room? I don't even call it a booth. It looked like a room. He had a record room with the glass window, similar to Coltrane Coltrane, and it was massive.

On the outside like of that building you described, which has a s almost like a sort of an alpine kind of chalet like ski resort type feel, very proudly it it um proclaims the audio system. He has the speakers there, Altex uh A fives of the Manturay horn and then AMP is Macintosh. So, you know, you think, well, yeah, you know, music is is is the key thing here, right? But when you go in and I've never seen this before, but between the speaker system

I do remember, but I don't if you know what I mean. He di I remember him putting on an album because we we definitely talked about the album he played. It was either Bill Evans or Coltrain. I can't remember.

advertising because they do live music there and they do other events and stuff because it's a big place. Remember it's a countryside. So I I have in the notes that uh that it can fit about 30 people uh probably pretty easily. And um a lot of the posters I noticed they had that really sort of Japanese almost manga style of caricature.

Filing uh again on a Saturday morning in a village in Yoga Prefecture, she was rocking a fit that that easily could have been seen in Harajuku or outside your Yogi Park on a Sunday morning.

hesitant or cautious. Who are you? What do you want? Do you speak Japanese? And by the time you leave, all their just innate kindness comes out. And um and can you can you remember what they did when we left?

You know, in certain areas, particularly somewhere like this where it's out on a road and other than houses, it's it's, you know, every so often there's a restaurant or a combini or a petrol station or something like that. You know, they probably do a decent trade, right? There was very much like a sense of a lunch service getting ready to kick off, bit like jazz on top.

Um, you know, people drive there, they're coming there for lunch and like it it's a pretty tidy looking menu, you know, so um they they probably do okay out of it. You know, it's ostensibly yes, a jazz, jazz bar, jazz coffee shop, depending on whatever the times are. I I find that um it's it's actually my Vol Funny Valentine Miles Divison concert, that Columbia one. That's I just found a a picture of you staring at it.

Not only did they seem to have uh a lot of live sessions, um, there were also a lot of sort of like it seemed to me like local drinking, I don't know what you'd call, I guess like listening parties. Like people could basically like rent out. You know what I mean? So probably probably regulars who maybe want to have like a particular session um could do what they call Kashikiri in Japanese, where you just rent it out privately, pay like a fee.

And then you set whatever menu you want. And um and because it is a little bit, you know, more spacious, that would be a great spot to have a little party or a listen to. session, you know. Um and yeah, they do they do seem to do about live pretty much every Sunday and then some Saturdays and Fridays as well. So it's a very active place.

um, obviously part of the community and and I just thought it was I thought it was absolutely lovely because it was one of those that I think I you Put that in our list. I didn't have this on my list. I didn't know about Swingville because of the address being in Hyoko Prefecture. I guess when I was looking at Kobe it didn't come up, even though it's fairly close.

So and it wasn't one that my conse friends had told me about either. So I'm wondering if maybe it's it's in some ways not that famous. Um you don't see much about it written by any of the sort of like Japanese jazz. Kisa people that we all follow online.

You know, we were running about to get that bus because there's one an hour or whatever, you know, the timetable was and so you're immediately thinking, right, how do we time this, you know, so so so that you get it uh you know, you get the bus back without waiting for uh an hour unnecessarily but Luckily enough we managed to figure out the trains and actually came back that but

Came back that way, but you mentioned that random act of kindness. And I at first I wasn't, but then I I actually have a picture of you chatting to the owner. And uh yeah, again, one of those incredible things because I was across the road. uh photograph in the building. Um it was drizzling a bit. Um and we had a a short walk to the station. Uh and incredibly this man chased you out, right? Uh not because you haven't paid the bill but

And I think I mean, well, Philip, you know, I've been in Japan for so long. I just went on full Japanese mode, like, oh no, no, no, it's fine. Don't worry, there's no problem. Um, but they insisted and I think I think she even cracked a joke like oh no no like you see that side like little shed we have there we probably got like fifty of them'cause people leave them.

stand when people use umbrellas when it's just drizzling. It it drives me absolutely nuts because it blocks up the streets, you can't walk. It's just like it's barely raining. Can you stop acting like we're in the middle of a hurricane, you know?

I I really hate that. So I was totally fine to walk to the station without the umbrella, but but because they were so insistent, I felt like, oh, okay, we better, we better take it. And I don't actually even know, did it last a day? Did we even get those back together?

as part of their J Jazz masterclass series. But um and we're gonna talk about another place uh in a couple of episodes time that we went to separately, but this one we did go together and I think this is one of my favorite signs because When you get there there's there's quite a few signs, like so many of these Jaski Sub button.

Um when you get there, uh there's one just as you're coming in on the door and it's just painted in these beautiful colours and very simplistic and it has the word mokha in in kanji and then it just says provides jazz since nineteen seventy seven. And I just think I mean that that what a beautiful definition, right? Just providing jazz. I mean that's what it does.

exactly who we should speak to. There seemed to be two guys that could have been the owner, but you weren't quite sure. And then eventually sort of narrowed down the younger of the two and he immediately took me to the older guy who was obviously the owner.

you get the sense that that was always there and then the cafe's been kind of developed around it. So, you know, there's there's a a a kind of a dividing wall where the table we w we were sitting at and then there's other tables on the other side of that. So It's not necessarily like set up in the way you would maybe expect, but it does have that sense of it it's developed beyond just being a jazz keyser to being more of like a neighborhood.

like tea shop, restaurant place and they had like quite a serious selection of drinks as well, if I remember correctly.

Um, which was I don't think I've seen that before. We've seen jazz joints that sometimes like people have made their own liquor. I don't think I've ever seen anybody make lemonade before. Lemonade doesn't seem like a very Japanese drink to me. So that was a real

spotlessly clean. It's it's very beautiful. And it is very welcoming because they run it. They don't run it like you could tell right away, they don't run it like the the usual jazz kisa. Like you walk in, you immediately get the irashaimase, which is like the Japanese shop greeting. So it's quite formal.

The they tell you to wait a second and then they will seat you. You don't go in and just grab whatever seat you want, like you do in some jazz joints, you know. Um so it's it's run very much like this kind of like, you know, tea salon or high class coffee shop. But The music is great, the sound is great and yeah, j all around just just a top notch and a very Found out a little bit later on, Philip, was um so it dates to 1977, but apparently the the owners

sort of presence in the jazz world in Kobe. And Kobe is a great jazz town. Always have a li they've always had like a live street festival, tons of Kisa back in the day. Um apparently his presence predates that by even even further. So so it's got that connection to the local history and and like I said, like he knew I when I was rattling off the names of the places we'd been and the places we were going.

Every single one of you is like, Ah, so this nice nah he's like, Yeah, oh that's a great spot. Oh, I know that guy's my good friend. You should tell him I sent you all of that, you know. And so so it was really uh again another sort of surprise because I didn't have all I had on my list was Mokuba in Kobe, another one. Didn't know anything about the place.

And like you mentioned, that's the third that's the third one. And in fact there was there was even another one that had closed previously in Tokyo years ago, decades ago. So obviously Mokoba a very important common name and uh but yeah, easily the equal to the others, just just love the joy.

the station area. Now the uh by this point it's about lunchtime, so we we actually managed to get another couple um

We kind of slipped into the evening really and um we're already a a a fairly uh long way into this episode and we've got quite a bit to cover. So the next place we The next ne next two places we went, um the first of the two certainly was unknown to us and actually I think as you said the owner uh of Mokaba knew a lot of people and I think he gave us a name but

They don't even put ashtrays on the table. They just put like a like a metal barrel under the the table to where you're standing and drinking really cheap beers or sake. And that that that barrel will be full of cigarette buttons. Okay, that have been just like piling up for weeks and weeks. Okay. So it's got an incredibly strong stench. So walking into voice was was for me pretty much the equivalent of sticking your head all the way down into one of these giant ashtrays.

I've never and and listen, man, people there are s places in Japan with ferocious amounts of smoking when you walk in the bars, right? I've never experienced any place that was like this. I mean, I think my eyes started to burn within seconds of walking in this joint.

And so you realise very quickly when you're back in a smoky environment how used you are to not having that environment when you're eating or drinking. And to walk but to walk into voice was like a whole new level. I mean, it was Suffocating, right? Like it was so bad.

in uh it written down in my notebook here, um, can seat about 40 people max. So it's pretty big. And it was almost full when we went in there. And I would say uh almost every single person, including the owner, was puffing away. And it was as if there was just not a single like millimeter of ventilation in this place. It was again just

just beyond belief. And it it's you know, unfortunately it kinda overwhelmed the experience because, you know, I I remember looking at the they had a huge wall of vinyl, which I think both of us did get some pictures of. Um they had a lot of framed albums, including some some very recent um releases that they had like sort of taken the jacket and framed it. Um quite a lot of vocal albums, so I know that you would have dug that.

But, you know, in addition to the in addition to the lunchtime crowd, and maybe again, this could have been a function of it being Saturday. The location where it is in this gigantic shop, old school Shotengai shopping arcade, and people having lunch. So they had the great alt another Altec Lansing speaker setup, but the volume was very, very low. And so it was much more of kind of a lunchtime crowd of peop everybody was talking very loud.

Um, including the owner. I remember the owner was telling some very long convoluted story in the Osaka dialect to two of the customers who were cracking up hysterically. Um, which was cool to see because it made you feel like, oh, okay, this is like a local place. It's very warm. Um, they were very warm welcoming us in as well. Um so we sat down, we ordered our coffee, and um but I think uh I've got written down here

Left after 17 minutes. I don't even know if it was that long, Philip. I remember I think you were you drank you drank half a coffee and you're like, James, I c I can't, man. Like I can't I gotta take.

I mean spare a thought for the goldfish swimming about in that in there's a goldfish in there that was behind you just swimming about in a boat and I would say it's it's unlikely that that goldfish is still swimming around in circles, I would say, because I've

Uh that goldfish must be must be a heavy smoker at this point, just passively, if nothing else. But yeah, I mean like it it's one of those places where I think it was really disappointing because for me in the sense of you know you You're on a roll and you want to get some photographs, but From a photography point of view, you know, I think there's a point where I just ha you have to say, look, this is not gonna happen, right? You know, we almost got ushered into this.

um little corner seat from which you could have probably got a few photographs, but we didn't miss that. And then, you know, that that w there was a chance to take the speakers and then bef before you knew it uh someone was sitting there. And that was definitely an aspect of that seventeen minutes that we spent there because it the turnover was unbelievable because when we came in, there was only a couple of tables. When we left the they they had flipped over the sign.

Um, which said uh which said, you know, uh fully s fully seated, like there's no seats left. So people were waiting for seats, but also there was a real sense of that neighborhood like a a pub or a bar. Like all the regulars were sat at the counter. It was all kind of oh what have you been up to this week? And oh did it that get sorted out. And it was very much like a familiar familiarity, you know? And it was a conversation

and uh did the did register for us. But then then sort of the the the guy came over as well very briefly and then I I just kinda just kinda shouted at him like, Oh, you know, Konichi San Vokoba sent us over here. We go around uh you know, we go to jazz cafes. We we're going around. And he had a huge smile on his face. And I don't know if you caught that. He actually said, like, Oh, you know

Yes, sorry you came at this time, it's just very crowded at this time of day, you know. If you come back a bit later, you know, maybe we can have a chat. And I was thinking, Yeah, not very likely, man. But yeah, that was part of the that was part of it. Like getting there at that time you know, on a Saturday, that location, that time of day. Um, you know, we just we just didn't know. In retrospect it seems obvious, but like we didn't know that it would be that past

And we wouldn't really get the chance to to move around. It was impossible to really move around to take any pictures, you know? Um

When we had a look around, I remember noticing and saying to you that the albums that you're talking about, the framed ones that were vocal, they were by someone called Carol Sloan. It wasn't like it was Ella and Billy Fitz uh Ella Fitzgerald and Billy Holiday or whatever. It was this person called Carol Sloan. And I have to say I'm not familiar with who that is.

you know. Um and then yeah, well she had quite a lot of difficult oh, quite a lot of difficulties. Oh, here we go. By nineteen eighty seven, Miss Long was working steadily again. She found a new audience in Japan. So there we go.

There was the w the photograph that I have just from my seat on the phone is is um there's three framed uh albums on the wall and all three of them are Carol Sloan. So you know, there must have been some specific connection with

and knew her personally, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, something something if we ever do if I ever do get back there, I would love to ask. Because yeah, you're right. Like, you know, uh Philip, you and I listen to a lot of jazz, man. And and even with joking about me not being a big vocals fan. I know all the names, and I didn't know who that was.

Yes, Kat you were you're just you were just down trying to breathe. But but you know, like people were people kept walking in front as you as I was photographing, um, because they were trying to get in. So it was just it was amazing how busy it was. But I don't know if you remember as well, you mentioned the record, but actually there was It was part of the same building, but there was actually a separate door next to Voice was also glass, uh, door and window.

that had that that was a side room that was full of records and what it seemed like also was that they repaired audio equipment there. Do you remember there was like a a collection of amps and different bits and pieces, right? Yeah.

It you know, it it's um it seems like a very active place. Like there's a lot of boxes on the floor that like are taped up and have uh you know packaging notes on them. There wasn't a sense of like it being a place that It was it was so active and so d so vibrant, I think, despite the smoke.

I hope we're not at this stage of the podcast where I hope we're not in a sort of a nineteen seventies prog rock uh phase of the podcast where we're just letting it all sort of bleed out into far too long an episode because I I think we thought this was gonna be relatively short. I looking at the counter we're up to about I think an hour already. So

Probably not massively long time into the project, um, and it was the same time that I went to Goodman and Jam Jam. And um this place was called Java and it's a really interesting place because When I photographed it then, um and this is documented uh in more detail on the on on a previous episode, I think it's episode seven, but

you know, uh there's only really a photograph of the outside and the uh inside. And I always find the photograph of the outside kind of fascinating. But it it's in the book and it to me it almost looks There's something almost unreal about the photo. It looks like a like it's a a prop or a set or like a a facade or something like that. But when I went in,

that back then, which must have been, I don't know, maybe twenty sixteen around then, um, I did ask permission to photograph and was given permission only to photograph the the stereo system. And actually to the point where My camera was checked to make sure that I hadn't taken any other photographs. Now, when we went back this time,

It was a similar policy, wasn't it? Now we didn't actually ask this time about photographing or really talk to anyone that was there. There was a man this time, and I remember previously there was two older women who seemed like they maybe sisters um that were running it, but Do you remember just quite how th there was a lot of signs, wasn't there? Like no recording, no photographs. It was very, very strict, right?

Um Java is and and I had never been there because on my previous trip to Kobe, uh for whatever reason I I didn't make it, which is v uh unusual. I don't know why. Because they're pretty much always open. Um Java is old. It it it it first opened in nineteen fifty three. So that makes it one of the oldest remaining jazz. Um it's a fairly big place, but it's under the train tracks. And you know, remember we were talking about Kobe. Kobe runs along the coast east to west.

Okay. So the JR line and then Sanno Mia Station is sort of like one of the main stations where, you know, a lot of the shopping and the restaurants, a downtown area. So there's so many different shops located under the track. But when you walk into Java, it's a narrow entry, but it goes deep towards the back and it's split level as well.

It's got uh it's got a whole bunch of like, you know, old posters and and and artifacts on the wall, including some really cool movie posters from the nineteen fifties. Java was in a famous movie uh in nineteen fifty eight in Japan called Mayakusango, which was sort of about street youths and whatnot. And basically like you you feel it when you walk in. It is really, really old and I I don't I don't wanna call it decrepit though because it is kept

in fairly good shape, but you know, it's dark. Um it definitely needs a couple, you know, some new furniture. And and what Phil, this is strange. I don't know why this stuck out to me so much, but The front of Java, where the actual two old gals and the old guy were, like a sort of a counter where the register is.

Was really, really cramped. Do you remember? Like it's like really cramped. And all three of them were behind there, sort of like fumbling with each other to get receipts and money and teacups and stuff. It was very unusual.

the rope and go in the back and it feels like there's an even bigger bit in round the back. Like there's another whole bit at the back with like a piano and stuff, right? Like so

my experience was that a few years ago, but it was it was like as if they were having, you know, uh gigs out the back and then the signs were like to not you know um photograph them or something. I I don't really know.

this enough. The three people running it, average age had to be above eighty. Okay. So I can totally understand maybe they want to keep a certain limited number of seats. It'cause if the place was full, it might be just too hectic. You know, you'd have to be running'em back and forth. It could be a little much of them. I I don't know. Um they didn't give off the vibe of being the most friendly people we've met in any cafes. But Philip this

Which is sort of semi-professional looking. And it's really, really bright. And it makes it look like it's, oh wow, what a bright, cheery place with plants. which is completely not representative of what it feels like. I mean, I still really loved it. I loved it. Oh I don't mind the grime and I love the historic nature of it, but I just felt that, you know, Again, uh running into that sort of Saturday crowd. I mean, that was just when our trip happened to be. So, you know, what are you gonna do?

But one day when I'm back down in Kansai, I I wanna go back to both voice and Java, like on say like a Thursday afternoon, two o'clock when, you know, it's gonna be quiet.

maybe can talk to them a little bit more and get a good feel for like what is the joint, you know, who comes here, you know, what are you guys gonna do with it and all of that. Because It just seems that with a place that that old, like you know, we know uh one of our favorites, Charmont having closed, which was opened from nineteen fifty uh five. Um, there's not many places left that are this old. Umi in Saitama maybe beats it by one year. Umi was opened in nineteen fifty-two.

So I uh but other than that, Java is one of the oldest continuous running jazz cases. So definitely a lot more mystery about it that that that we need to go solve. Um Uh I've asked a few people about it, but they had the same experience as us, Philip. I asked people in the c friends in Osaka and they were like, oh yeah, it's nice, but yeah, it's a little scary.

around that place Java just being there and playing um, you know, jazz. since nineteen fifty three. It's quite staggering, I think, like that it's you know, you you sort of say nineteen fifty three, but when you think actually how old that is, like it is astonishing that that place is just still going and long may it continue.

And for Port Town that goes doubly. I mean, I heard a lot of stories about Yokohama being crazy violent in those days with gangs and this and that and everybody trying to get settled in territory So you've got this this just jazz cafe that opens there right under the tracks, right in the center of the downtown entertainment district. And somehow they're the only shop that's been able to survive all of the downtown. Seven seventy years this year, you know?

or some kind of state funded organization or heritage type organization is stepping in to protect something like that because it is such a unique and it is such a historical place. But yeah as you say, the chances are and w I mean we're this is all complete conjecture obviously on our part, but, you know, there's potentially that it will just when it closes, it will close and and you just think what an incredible

loss to have a place like that, uh, just disappear, you know, with all that history and all the the kind of, you know, uh stories and and and amazing kind of memories that have been made there and and and it could be gone like that.

to maybe come together, whereas in Tokyo it's just too big and, you know, the neighborhood's not in the center, etc. So but yeah, it's it's uh it it's a historic place and and yeah, uh you know, definitely, definitely have to go and get the get the the scoop. uh on my next trip down to the consulate, which will be very, very soon, Philip, actually. Breaking news. Um Give me some more about that later. Okay, so we...

We go out of Java and we decide, um so we're gonna get on the train, um, back to Osaka, which again, you know, very close. It's a twenty minute express ride along the coast. You get back into To to the center of Osaka. Philip, this is interesting. Both of us had been there previously on our own, but for some reason there was miscommunication where I had forgot that you had been there, and I think you had assumed that I had never had been there.

But but we both we both had been there. And it's it's a place called Nancy. Um oh wow, this is another Wow, Tokyo Jazz joins flashback, the great Boonka Bunker debate of a couple years ago, which you must be a complete maniac for our show if you remember. Um we had a little ruckus about the name of Nancy, do you remember?

Very earthy, um, very raw. A little a little bit run down, maybe compared to some parts of of Tokyo. And extremely local. So when you're walking around there, especially Philip, I don't know because we were together, but when I'd walked around there alone, I remember getting a lot of side eyes from people. What's this guy doing here? So extremely, extremely local area, um, is you know, where you get out of the train.

And you just walk onto the tracks and immediately you're confronted with like local standing bars, the kind of place where guys order cups of sake for like fifty yen, which is basically fifty cents, you know? So it's that kind of neighborhood.

um with a wariness, particularly at night, of where you are. But I would say there's something and it could be complete projection on my part, but there's definitely something about that Yeah, there's just a there's definitely more of an edge than you are used to feeling, I think, in in Japan in general, and certainly in the big cities, right?

And it's just, yeah, I think that was a good way to describe it, Philip, because you know, we've traveled all around Japan together. And One of the one of the great things about Japan, and again, we're speaking as uh tall Western men who really don't get hassled at all, uh so that is our experience, but you pretty much can go almost anywhere you want, and even if

Other people might think that that's a oh, that's a that's a nightlife neighborhood. There's some scary Japanese gangsters there or whatever. Nobody hassles you. If anything, the person you see in the street that you might be afraid of is probably afraid of you because, you know, you're the the dull, strange foreigner walking through their neighborhood. But when you walk that walk from Kyobashi to Nancy, it's exactly as you said. It's it's one of those few places in Japan where you feel like

I don't want to get too drunk here and maybe walk into the wrong joint. And I wanna make sure that I keep my wits about me. Uh because it looks like the kind of place again, I don't think you're gonna get robbed, but definitely there's a little bit of uh Again, my favorite word, a little bit of ruckus at night. Um and I've heard that from local people in Osaka too, when they said like

Oh, you were drinking around Kyobashi at night? Oh, you know, you shouldn't you know, be careful round there, there's some rough joints. You know? So and if a Japanese person says that casually to you, take it seriously, because it's not something that would normally be said here, you know.

Like it's a nice it's it's actually quite a nice sort of it feels like a residential neighbourhood just where it is. There seems to be apartments and this kind of greenery um there. So it's it's it's quite surprising. Not as surprising as when you go in though, right?

Yeah. Almost all the seats at the counter of a of an L bar, I mean there was about eight of them. Almost all of them were completely full of like just just random things. Not even books or magazines or records, just random stuff. There was a wooden like toy soldier on one of the seats next to me. I uh you know, just it was it was as if the guy had like moved house and just brought all the stuff from his home and left it in the jazz keys and it was just sitting there.

Um, and then, you know, barely a few seats. And then when you go down the back, there's lots more pals and stuff. But on the left, just as you're going to the toilet, there's this beautiful paragon system, which is where the sound is coming from. And it I mean it's just we've talked about Paragon many times, it's a stunning

stunning thing to look at, you know, and it it's there in amongst all this clutter. And the owner himself as well is tucked behind you. It's one of those places where you wonder how he gets in and out of the bar. Um and uh it's completely surrounded by bottles and and um you know half half half open bottles of different things and stuff like that.

Um and again extremely thick Osaka dialect. So I had to read

Um and thank God when we were ordering those beers he had that menu. I think w I distinctly remember one of them being Brit like a British some sort of British stout or something. I remember like a U Union Jack flag on the menu.

Um the kind of place that you know, if you are i if you dig the deep spots you've

Uh he made a couple of interesting comments. And then um I mentioned about the project that we were doing and it turns out that he also knew. uh, who we were, right? He knew that we were Tokyo Justin. He'd come across the project and he I think follows us online for sure. And of course then I couldn't help tell him about the book and

I hope if he's listening, which is highly unlikely, but I do hope that he's somehow managed to procure a copy of the book one way or the other, right? But it was such a lovely thing, right?'Cause you you know, you're in these places. in order to to see them, experience them, photograph them. Um and then, you know, people are sort of saying, Oh, I know peop people who are in there as customers or sell themselves have come across the project that you're literally

sitting doing at that very moment. Like it's it's quite something.

So it was sort of it was sort of just like what great timing, you know, after that long day when we're just settling in to order a couple of craft beers. Oh, I don't think you had a craft beer. You stuck with your usual

you know, w why do you do this? Who are you doing it for? And it's like, well we're doing it for obviously we want to introduce this world to people outside Japan. That that is that is a major, major part of the project of everything we've done for years. But it's also super super hip to know that there's Japanese people out there who go to these Kisa

And are like, oh yeah, yeah, I know you guys. That's great what you're doing. You know, even if they can't speak English, they can't follow the podcast. But they can see the pictures, they know the effort that's been put in. So yeah, I absolutely just a great, great pit stop at Nancy.

And then um I guess after

to Nancy and um, you know, just put another stop in between the the final place that we're gonna talk about today. But like we, you know, c could have just as easily not gone there, right? You know, gone got some food or gone got a drink somewhere else or something like that. So Just again, you know, a nice kind of vindicating moment where you're like, Oh well, I'm glad we stopped by because like you say, the owner's just like a charm and then, you know, just to have that very brief

interaction with that other customer so randomly, it it just always makes it it kind of just it's like a cherry on the top kind of situation, isn't it, really?

Where again underneath the train tracks there were a lot of these old sort of like storage uh space

Because I I've actually got'cause I've got on my notes very comprehensive summary w which says industrial district, car showroom next door, older couple, full of antiques and collectibles, Beatles, Union Jack outside, and then the final bullet point just simply says Who are customers? Which I think really sums up just how odd this place was, right? Because if you remember we tried to get a tack we we got so

l sort of turned around when we're getting there. We tried to get a taxi, but we couldn't get a taxi, right? There were no taxis. So we were just walking and walking and we're like, are we gonna find it? And then eventually when we got there, like you say, it was this dead zone, all these under under the track kind of um

you know, warehouses and and uh like auto shops and those kind of places and then just this Ems Hall. Now it apparently it was open nineteen ninety four. They had a big flag up said nineteen ninety four and it was an older couple running it but it was Quite a cavernous kind of again, like a lot of wooden furniture, some really nice

like red armchair, like s kind of soft armchairs, lovely bar, beautifully stocked bar. So you do wonder like who who is going there, right? Because it's not a place that you would be passing by, right?

and the ventures album. So immediately those very very American things jumped out right to me. Um, but also the kind of the the shape of the place, this sort of y yeah, cavernous is a very good word. You know what I mean? Because again, We've talked so many times. Japan, small country, rather crowded, especially in urban locations, you don't get that space.

Um but here, because where it was in this sort of dead zone area, it had this gigantic feel to it, you know, spacious, high ceiling. Um, you know, again, lots of music stuff all around the place. And yeah, it's interesting. Looking at the website right now, he, you know, they talk about how the owner, uh, so uh Shudosan is his name. So he's born in 1949. Um, huge Beatles and Ventures fan influenced him as a young man. So he joined he joined a band.

He played the drums and the saxophone, um, and he was really into jazz as well and bossa nova. And so when he had the chance, he opened up his own place there. So they're you know they so you can obviously see that he's got that double influence of the British rock plus the American, plus the jazz and the bassa, very, very Japanese in that sense.

But I mean I really like the place. I to me uh you know, it's not a place that I would probably go out of my way, but if it was near where I lived, it would be a wonderful spot to pop in to drink because you know that.

photographs of the Beatles and and all these people up on the walls, beautifully framed and so on. But for me one of the standouts was when you go to the toilet, um just s just stuck on the wall, quite low down on the way back from the toilet is this

Folded. Very clearly it's been folded. You can still see the fold lines. Poster. I mean, I don't even know where you would get a poster of Elvin Jones, but Anyway, it was a poster of Elvin Jones and signed by him in a silver pen and again you just think there you go and it was sort of hanging off the wall a little bit, like a little bit um, you know, uh torn and so on, but just Uh to me one of those things that just sums up the extent of the incredible memorabilia and stuff that is

Not it's it's about in like not in a casual way, like not in a sense that people don't care, but just I suppose there's so much of it, you know, and it's become so much a part of the furniture and just stuff that's you ex you expect to find in these places or For the owners at least. those kind of things being there is just par for the course. But for me and for you, when you go and you're like, well

First of all, where would you get it's actually sponsored by Yamaha, so it's like a Yamaha Elvin Jones poster and it's signed by him and yet it's just kind of half hanging off the wall. There's like a tear on the left hand side and you think These places are just repositories of this culture and I never will not be surprised by what what you find in them.

And so, you know, he's a major, major figure for Japanese jazz fans. Um so not surprising to see him, but to see that exactly the way you described it was just yeah that

Uh if you're listening to this, it's more than likely you've already um yeah you've already come across it, but we've had a fantastic opportunity to get some real uh really worldwide publicity um on top of what we've already had for the book. in particular from a a uh fantastic someone who's been a fantastic supporter of the project.

completely randomly, I must say. And uh we're very happy that that he has been so supportive of the project. But look, that'll all be clear once you've heard this and once you've seen what's going on on our social. So keep an eye on that. Uh keep an eye on to uh W W Tokyo uh W W dot Tokyo W It's been an hour forty minutes.