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Shop 'Til You Drop: Evoke in Osaka

Here's a doozy of a hybrid shopping experience for you: Evoke is an Osaka retail outlet that specializes in furniture, pet supplies AND the cafe experience.

Located on Orange Street, a popular shopping drag known for its furniture stores, Evoke aims to entice window shoppers who might not be in the market for a big, expensive couch. There are water bowls on the sidewalk outside for furry companions, and the ground floor features mostly pet clothing and supplies, plus some furniture for people. Also accessible from the ground floor is a sunken cafe serving coffee and snacks, with options for people and pets.

Of course, if you ARE in the market for some expensive furniture, Evoke's got that too on its upper floor. We're not sure how we'd feel about our mocha if we happened to catch a whiff of a dog treat while dining here, but Evoke is hard to resist if you're a hardcore puppywatcher. It's worth a stop--if only for the novelty factor--if you happen to be strolling down Orange Street, and that is something we highly recommend. One more picture after the jump.

Related Stories:
· Jaunted in Japan coverage [Jaunted]

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Jaunted in Japan: Sayonara

Isn't it trippy when your plane arrives home earlier than it departed? I left Japan at 11:00 a.m. yesterday, and touched down at 10:30. Someone get Stephen Hawking on that piece--it's weird!

So I'm home, and though I still have a few listings to tip you off on, I figured I'd share a few thoughts. I spent 8 nights in Japan--five in Tokyo and three in Osaka--and it felt short. I can do a day and a half anywhere in the world, or a month, but somehow the in-between is always awkward. I had just enough time to think about how tired I was.

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Jaunted in Japan: Wifi Report

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan? Just ask.

Sorry to disappoint, guys, but I didn't come out of my trip the wifi master of Japan. I only sought it out for work, and ended up having to banish myself to LAN hell for the duration of my travels because of sketch WiFi connections. Wires? What are those?

I happen to be typing this from my flight home--it's pitch black and I'm one of the only passengers awake--and yeah, it's a tad ironic that the best WiFi I've found was on my way out, on a plane in mid-flight no less. The free ANA wifi has been a joy, as back in Narita, it was going for ¥500 for 24 hours. Contrast that with the ghastly dinosaur-fi in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Osaka: ¥1000 for ONE HOUR! Their LAN was something like ¥1995 for 24 hours. Truly bizarre.

If I was back there and not up here, perhaps I'd return to Cafe Pause, where Skipper of the Grids Jean Snow is gallery manager, and the complimentary WiFi apparently flows free. In Osaka, I would try heading for Aprecio, which is open 24 hours, although I haven't been able to determine whether or not they've got WiFi in addition to the computer kiosks.

WiFi samurais of Japan weigh in. Let us know where to go for free Internets in the comments below.

[Photo: x180]

Jaunted Field Trips / Japan Field Trip / Nakazakicho / Osaka / Cafes / → All Tags

Jaunted in Japan: Common Cafe in Osaka

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan?  Just ask.

Here's another Nakazakicho pick for you. Common Cafe is a collective space where young, creative types come to take over for one time slot each, every week. Every day and night, different curators are in charge: one afternoon might see someone transforming the space into a Parisian-style patisserie with homemade sweets, while someone else will take over that night and put on an indie music show.

Some curators run separate businesses, while others come here for their only opportunity at running such an operation; the dream of owning a cafe or live space is popular among young Osakans, but many of them find it hard to realize or maintain due to financial constraints. Money made from nighttime cover charges goes back towards keeping the cafe running, while those who sell their food during the day are free to take home the profits.

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Jaunted in Japan: Osaka Cafe Bonanza

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan? Just ask.

There are a whole bunch of new photos up in the Jaunted pool on Flickr. Consider the new additions a mini-tour of sorts, a peek into the creative enclave of Nakazakicho in Osaka. Though some guidebooks will lead you to believe there are no such "cute" things in town, this nabe is packed with independent cafes and shops, almost all of them housed in old wooden buildings (as opposed to those "concrete boxes").

Rent is still low in Nakazakicho, meaning that many of the young generation who come here to open up shop do so as a means of artistic expression rather than of getting filthy rich (or perhaps doing more than breaking right above even). The shops are full of handmade goods, and the cafes are teeny-tiny.

Pictured above is Le Flacon, a small cafe/shop that serves drinks, cheesecake, and, as is popular here, French-themed goods. More Nakazakicho spotlights just for you coming soon.

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Guide to Cool Tokyo Record Stores

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan?  Just ask.

There are so many record stores in Tokyo, it's no use trying to list them all. If you're pressed for time and want maximum impact with minimum effort, Daikan Plaza Tower B is your place--a few steps in any direction will take you to a new, cool store. The building itself is pretty ugly, a brown box with zig-zagging terraces. Good thing I forgot to take a picture! The interior, however, is a different story, at least if you like music. This pretty nondescript building in West Shinjuku is home to five awesome record stores, and though not officially so, it's basically a rock 'n' roll mini-mall. Here's your guide to the inside:

Beat Collectors (3rd Floor): Only place I did not really spend much time in. Small and seemed to be centered more around DJ stuff.

Hal's (3rd Floor): Pretty good jazz store with a selection of vinyl, CDs, and books about jazz. This is a great place to come if you just want to flip through some LPs and listen to music; the guy behind the counter is always going through good stuff on the turntable. Super bonus points for this text on their shopping bags: "OUR POLICY: We grew up, listening to pop and listening to jazz. The pop music made our hearts flutter, and the jazz made our souls ache. We grew up, yes, but our feelings didn't change...Hal's: where the young and middle-aged baddies hang out!"

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Jaunted in Japan: Yes, I Like Iron Maiden

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan?  Just ask.

I didn't even skim the surface of Tokyo's record shop offerings today, and already I'm overwhelmed with love for the scene. It took me long enough to find Shinjuku Records, the place I decided would be my starting-off point, though I later discovered (on my way home, naturally) that exit D5 at Shinjuku Nishiguchi station will drop you right in the middle of the action.

I can't get into it all, but let's talk about Shinjuku Records ("Record") for a sec: this teeny metal and hard rock shop is decorated with pictures of bands who have stopped by...you know, Megadeth, Tesla, etc. You can tell some of the pictures are really old (and the bands now universally considered cheesy), but that the people who run the place are probably so pure of heart that they either don't care or truly don't know what year it is.

There's lots of power metal and prog, but my favorite thing about the place wasn't the selection. When I visited, there was a lady of a certain age working the counter--about 45, probably, and sweet as pie. I'm guessing her son owns the shop, as there were a bunch of pictures of a young guy on the wall with all the bands. As I was leaving, she said something to me in Japanese that, naturally, I didn't really understand. Thankfully she had someone helping her, who translated: "Do you like Iron Maiden? Have a sticker." Not that 45-ish is old, really, but I'll never forget the quiet, conservative little lady who offered me an Iron Maiden sticker. Someone, please hook her up with a Bruce Air vacation.

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Jaunted in Japan: Sloppy Seconds

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan?  Just ask.

Not including human beings--I can now speak from experience--random pieces of crap are the most lost item on the Tokyo Metro. And you can shop for those secondhand gems to your heart's content at this store in the Nakano Broadway mall. It's dedicated exlusively to unclaimed lost-and-found junk from the subway.

There are watches, wallets, beat-up umbrellas, clothing, 8-tracks and, as of 10/12, not one but two VHS copies of some documentary about the making of Titanic the movie.

The store is located on the first floor of Nakano Broadway. To find it, make a right at the first "Information" counter within mall limits (that means AFTER the neighboring Sun Mall that leads right into it), a left at Poco a Poco, and look to your left a few steps down.

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Jaunted in Japan: The Cutest Little Bum Ever

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan? Just ask.

Besides being better looking and nicer than Americans, the Japanese are also obsessed with illustration. Apparently in Japan, if you can't draw something cute to go with it, it's not worth doing--like a trip to the restroom, for example.

Take this fine latrine found at the Seiyo Ginza Hotel in Tokyo: it's actually a bidet-toilet hybrid. Look at the bidet controls where it says "front" and "back." Isn't that curved "W" the most adorable little bum you've ever seen? You'll find the same graphic in many public restrooms, where bidet-toilets are common. When we first saw it at Narita Airport, we thought it was the international symbol for "squat toilet." Fortunately it is not.

This particular model has controls for water temperature, direction, and pressure, as well as a seat heater. Just like you pay $1000 for at the German sports car dealership. We've got one quip with that last whistle though: you know how when you take someone's seat on the subway, you can still feel their body heat on it and it's totally gross? Yeah, replicating that experience is not something we consider high-class.

Related Stories:
· Toilets in Japan [Wikipedia]
· Field Trips Coverage [Jaunted]

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Jaunted in Japan: For Relaxing Times...

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann is currently touring Japan. All this week, we'll be running stories from her Jaunted Field Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Have something you absolutely need to know about Japan? Just ask.

To me, the Suntory beverage company was immortalized when Bob Harris (Bill Murray) filmed a commercial for its relaxing whisky in Lost in Translation. Turns out that Suntory was part of the Japanese consciousness long before Bob had anything to do with it, since 1899 to be exact. That's because, you know...turns out it's actually real.

Fans of the movie will get a kick out of knowing that Suntory stuff is everywhere in Tokyo. The company even runs art museums here and in Osaka. I bought this fine bottle of "Natural Mineral Water, From The Minami Alps" at the Family Mart down the street (to go with my aforementioned delicious convenience store dinner).

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Liveblogging ANA Flight 009, JFK-NRT

Jaunted editor Davie Kaufmann will be updating this mid-air live blog throughout her long flight, so check back! Better yet, say "hi" to Davie in the comments.

Greetings from All Nippon Airways flight 009, with service from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Japan's Narita Airport. Yes, we're on our way to Tokyo and the Connexion service on our flight is FREE!

1:50 PM EST: First impressions of the economy cabin are good. Leg room: decent. Flight attendants: nice. Water: tasty. Unidentifiable snack (pictured): not trying it. Internet connection: generally strong with only one lag so far. We're pretty much positive that our opinions of the seating will change once we've been on here for 10 hours (it's only been about 1 hour; total flight time is 14), but for now, all is good. Check back here later for more updates.

4:19 PM EST: The internet connection has slowed down a bit, but for $0, it ain't half bad. Passed on the meal, but it seemed edible. AVOD works great, but we don't like the movies--lots of Sandra Bullock and family stuff. Lost all our yen in video blackjack. Also, that special time has come when economy pax start jolting their seats back, thus propping up the laptop to type gets harder. Time for a nap!

8:45 PM EST: TWO Ambien and still, just a few winks here and there. I gave the man in the seat next to me a name: Paul. Paul's knee is totally invading my space, but I refuse to say anything, because I feel bad that he has the middle seat. As for whoever in front of me has their seat reclined, that's another story. Like, where are the margaritas, dude? Is this Club Med Airways? Lessons learned: I am the nicest person you can possibly sit next to on a long haul; you want to sit next to me. I, however, do not under any circumstances want to sit next to you.

12:06 AM EST: Screaming baby count: 1 (muffled). Snacks consumed so far: 1 almond from new, still otherwise unidentifiable mix. Yen lost on video blackjack: too much to count. Jimmy Buffett in front of me has eased up a bit, and Paul is just a doll as always. I feel at one with my fellow passengers...very calm bunch we are. With about two hours left, I'm ready to say this is way more pleasant than I expected. I did a 10 hour flight from Vienna to JFK on Austrian that was WAY WORSE.

1:04 AM EST: Someone turn on the AC! It's WARM! This is the most conservatively air conditioned flight I have ever been on.

5:30 AM EST: Not on the flight anymore. Made it from Narita into the city with great ease. ANA gets an A-/B+ for its economy product. Too bad Connexion is going the way of the Dodo (for now, at least). Seeing as I fasted on the plane, I'm due for a snack. Time for nourishment like only my beloved North Asian convenience stores can provide. Sayonara.