Believe me, that’s something I’ve been asking myself a lot…
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Okay right. Yeah, that sounds cool. Are the games near finished, or are they still pretty WIP? Are any of them online?
i don’t think there are hard rules in our case; certainly the game i submitted is very small (basically a proof of concept made in a week), but it’s relatively complete and available on my itch. i’m sure it varies by preference.
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This just popped up as a recommended topic, and I was wondering if this project is still in progress or if it’s been shelved.
Also to the idea that having games in a bar is considered illegal by Nintendo, what workaround is Space Station in Osaka using?
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Oh man, I feel bad about not having made any progress, but I’m also glad for an opportunity to brain dump.
So, basically it’s really hard to rent cafe space as a single foreigner. AFAICT all commercial properties that are in an even slightly desirable location (i.e. aren’t desperate) require a guarantor/連帯保証人 (basically a cosigner). I was taking with a real estate agent and asked if I could just put down a longer deposit or get a guarantor company or do escrow or something, but something something industry conventions that’s impossible.
So I hoped something would show up for a couple months, then I looked into share spaces or subleasing restaurants, I went to Tully’s (coffee chain) coffee school to maybe meet someone with an abnormal interest in coffee, contacted the chamber of commerce about buying businesses, called some banks (I guess they won’t connect people with failing businesses etc, I thought maybe someone would have started a place with a loan that I might be able to take over), called guarantor companies to see if they could get around the rules, called culinary schools to see if there were some way to get introductions with graduating students/alumni (no), and lately I’ve been going to various patisseries and chatting them up, both because renting a space for a patisserie has gotta be rough (they’re usually only open for a couple hours in the morning/mid afternoon) and from what I can tell they all worked at hotels or other places before going independent and might have industry connections or know other people looking to go independent.
A few patissiers were frendly and I’ve been chatting with them since, but no bites so far. Actually one guy had a too-large space for his patisserie so I think he was considering letting me borrow part of the space, but it’s in a back alley a 10+ minute walk from a small station outside of Tokyo so even if it’s a good deal I’m not 100% sure about it… There was one failing indie food court (small eating area with 3 separate kitchens attached) closer to Tokyo and the station that was also interested in the idea, but the interior architecture wasn’t really amenable to the arcade thing.
So TLDR no progress, but trying to approach patissiers seems to be the best lead I have at the moment. One other idea I had was to put together a business plan and try to pitch it to an organization that specializes in “concept cafes”.
I’ll be honest though, I’m still a bit daunted by the idea of putting resources into it for 3 years and since I haven’t crossed the threshold of no return I’m dragging my feet a little bit. It sounds great while I’m single, I’m strongly considering leaving my job, and the job market is bad but any of those could change…
Since my faucet is thoroughly on, I just want to say that the whole guarantor thing is nuts because 1. it’s a money problem that they refuse money solutions for (i.e. larger deposit)… why exactly, 2. the requirement of a guarantor disproportionately affects foreigners who don’t have family they can rely on for this and 3. in a lot of cases I see the guarantor being the husband/wife of the owner, whose financial status isn’t independent, so it’s questionable what sort of guarantee it even provides in the first place. (I mean I get it, requiring a guarantor doesn’t hurt them so why not)
Oh yeah, one other thing is I think “introduction” might have connotations of “refer me as a person of confirmed character” so I’ve been trying to think of ways to ask for introductions that don’t use the word introduction (紹介).
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Oh but if anything good came of it getting out and seeing more of the city, visiting patisseries and talking to people has been pretty cool. @razorbeamz are you in Japan? Near Tokyo? Apropos of nothing if you want to get Chinese in Ikebukuro just hit me up.
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Oh oh yeah, one other interesting tidbit. I was talking to the owner of that food court which is at the entrance (so technically part of?) the town shopping arcade 商店街 (sorry, I’m basically making up translations) and he mentioned that there are a bunch of properties on the arcade that are basically permanently shuttered because the property owner thought finding a tenant was too much hassle.
There’s definitely weird stuff with taxes and laws here (also how you see like 500 square meter farms everywhere that nobody’s farming, etc) and incentives are not what I’d expect e.g. from the US.
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I am in Japan, I live in Kawasaki. Ikebukuro is a bit of a trip but doable!
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Oh nice! Well I’ll watch this space. Not-Ikebukuro is fine too of course, I’m just more familiar with that area.