After the amazing, star-making success of my previous forays into the Japanese movie business (appearing for a half a second, out of focus, very far in the background of “Tetsuo: The Bullet Man”, ...

The latest act of one-upmanship between the Asahi and Kirin super-breweries comes from Asahi, who have decided to compete in the convenience stores with Kirin’s evil 8% chu-hai canned cocktails, by ...

The airline ANA are doing their best to make flying less tedious- as of July 20th, draft beer will be available on some of their domestic flights!As Japan Probe has discovered, apparently they are the...

After several years of wearing the same mouldering clothes (which no doubt went out of fashion in the late nineties) I’m pleased to have found a site, T-shitsu, which has lots of funny Japanese/Engl...

Beat Cafe is one of the best-known bars in Shibuya, thanks to it’s handy location at the end of the busy Center-Gai shopping street. It’s one of my fave hang-outs in the area, especially on week-n...

The Fuji Rock festival, Japan’s less muddy answer to Glastonbury, is coming soon (July 30th-August 1st) to the remote, sun-dried pistes of Niigata, where hedonistic folk can rock-out with uninterrup...

Rocknococoro is a fine place to rock yer coconuts. A fun little DJ bar in Shibuya, it’s frequented by the kind of enthusiastic teenybopper fanboys/girls who attend the Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic fes...

Golden Week has come to an end, and bleary-eyed, sunburned Japanese workers are trudging back to work (mercifully only for two days until the weekend.) If, like me, the Golden Week festivities have le...

Here’s another groovy all-night party I’ll be attempting to DJ at if I’m sober enough and still awake!The all-night, all-mix FREE DJ party in Tokyo is back, and this time it’s personal.無料 ...

I was asked to write a post about terrible TV adverts in the UK for my friend’s blog. There are some real stinkers on there! It made me grateful that I haven’t been subjected to English telly comm...

I’ve just tried Asahi’s brand new “beer”, the oddly-named “Strong Off”, which sounds like a sexual act performed by an arm-wrestling champion. Strong Off doesn’t taste all that wonderful...

What is supposedly Japan’s second largest annual St Patrick’s Day celebration (after the one in Omotesando, Tokyo) took place last week in Matsue.Matsue, in Shimane prefecture, is rather remote, a...

Thanks to everyone who came to the “Wild Mood Swings” shindig I put together, (not least all my ace mates who did a top-notch job of DJing!) And the usual apologies to anyone I trampled while danc...

Here’s a recommendation from Andrew Hill. It’s a bar called “The Bourbon House” in Nishi-Kawaguchi. Sounds ace!Cheers, Andrew.This bar isn’t particularly crazy, but it is particularly awesom...

The other day I stumbled upon a Jackson Five-themed bar in Nakano, Tokyo. Groovy!Perhaps the bar was named to commemorate the famous quintet’s epic 1979 concert in nearby Nakano Sun Plaza.Unfortunat...

Here are a couple of new Japanese TV commercials for Kirin’s alcoholic drinks, courtesy of Japan Probe.The first is for Kirin’s Highball in the can, and features gleeful, bowler-hatted, multicultu...

I haven’t posted many bar reviews lately because I haven’t discovered anywhere ridiculous or surreal enough (although there’s a bar in Tochigi with monkey waiters that I keep meaning to visit). ...

Valentine’s Day, like everything else, has been warped by Japan’s cultural filters like a reflection in a funhouse mirror. Here’s what I had to say about it a couple of years ago.It is tradition...

Hey, I’m DJing at a wild, all-night shindig in Tokyo in a few weeks, so I thought I’d plug it here.It’s at Sangenjaya Hell’s Bar on March 21st. Should be fairly raucous and rad!Here’s the in...

I’ve had a chance to see a preview of the new film, “White on Rice”, which will be shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival in March.The latest offering by Dave Boyle, the U.S-based Japanophile wh...