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The Izakaya
居酒屋

Hello and welcome to my little project - The Izakaya. This is a place for academics, professionals, and all those intellectually interested in Japan to come together anytime and find likewise interested people. My reasoning for this is simple - there are no permanent and easily accessible ways to meet those interested in Japan that is not structured in some way. Conferences and zoom calls are singular events, organised by rules, and controlled in some way (by a host, a topic, etc). 

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Instead, here in The Izakaya, I have created a space that you can drop into anytime and which I have no control over. You can meet anyone you like and talk about anything you want. I have divided this Japan Studies project into ten themes: 

  1. Society

  2. History

  3. International Relations

  4. Politics

  5. Technology

  6. Business

  7. Art

  8. Culture

  9. Economics

  10. Religion

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There are a few different ways you can find people. 

  • Networking - GATHER TOWN

  • VR - SPATIAL

  • Text - WHATSAPP

  • Text - DISCORD

 

GETTING STARTED - GATHER TOWN

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Each of these platforms offer different unique ways to connect. The main meeting space - the conference lobby so to speak - is GATHER TOWN. You can enter here and this is its own self-contained space that you can stay in if you like.

* One-2-One: If you move close to someone you can start talking to them, when you move away you will be silent again.

* Small group: Within each theme area if you stand together you can talk with a group and the main room cannot hear. 

* Large group/theme only networking: If you want to meet people only within your area of interest, go through the red mon gate. You will enter a dedicated space outside of the main lobby. 

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You can use your browser or download there app here

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Join here - http://tinyurl.com/japanizakaya 

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It looks like this....

 
 
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MISSION STATEMENT

Talk without limits and you find a truth. Speaking limits create thinking limits. “What about….?”, “what if….?”, “what about….?”, “what if….?”....just this, this is good. Riffing and playing with difficult ideas...thats what this projetc is all about. 
 

Not being a fan of conferences but a fan of conversation and meeting new people, I think there is another way and this might be it. 

 

Long distances far away, increasingly expensive, annual or periodic only, and formats often not conducive to real idea exploration (20 minutes for a presentation…not enough, discussants, roundtables…urgh!) mean that conferences are not the best way to network ideas. Many without the research budgets, those in poor areas/countries, or simply those with either ideas in development or those with complex ideas that need more than 20 minutes are either left out or filtered through the narrow pipe of the conference format. 

 

My solution is simple - make an intellectual exchange space that is forever open, free, and open to all disciplines and people. Using this app - Wonder.me - anyone interested in the subject can come and meet people and discuss topics of any discipline. Its like the pub, izakaya, or cafe that you can drop into whenever you want.

RULES...THERE ARE NO RULES!

  • Anything is OK here. Absolutely anything. 

 

  • You can meet and discuss with people in four ways. 

    • You can mingle in the general space area and chat with anyone. 

    • You can form your own circle by moving closer to people. 

    • You can join in the theme areas and discuss along that theme.

    • You can join a spatial VR area and explore through exhibitions. 

 

  • Each theme area has a discussion points doc. Anyone can edit and add points for people to riff from. Add links, picture, whatever you want. 

 

  • This space will be open all weekend, every weekend. Come and go as you please. Obviously time zones are an issue. If I take a few global points (Tokyo, India, London, New York) it seems a good average is:

    • 8pm Tokyo

    • 4.30pm New Delhi

    • 11am London

    • 6am New York

 

I will open the space on Friday evening Tokyo time and keep it open all weekend.

ABOUT ME

British but long time resident in Tokyo, my academic research interests are in Japan’s foreign relations, Southeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific. I might be swimming around the politics, economics, and international relations of our space but anything is interesting. 

 

I consider myself an intellectual generalist and ideologically homeless. I am interested in everything, all ideas, and all sides. I am genuinely interested in anything that others have a passion for; be it artistic, religious, or political. Interesting people make me interested. This is why I am creating this project, its a place where I can learn as much as anything else.

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VR - SPATIAL

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In each room you can also enter my VR virtual galleries. These are full of pictures, maps, data, links, and hopefully other the things to discuss. ​

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Spatial is a 3D / VR space where you can explore with an avatar my personal thematic spaces. 

Website - https://www.spatial.io/  

Download - https://www.spatial.io/download  

 

If using a computer or an app you can use an avatar to look around. You can also use your camera and mic to discuss the various gallery images together. 

If using VR goggles you can look around in VR. 

 

TEXT - WHATSAPP & DISCORD

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For those who dont want to meet in real time face to face, or those who want to chat regularly anytime, or for me to announce things, I have created the same theme spaces in WhatsApp and Discord. 

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WhatApp is not so popular in Japan so I think Discord will be better for everyone (and it has more features and privacy), but for Europeans maybe they prefer WhatsApp. 

 
 
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