Working at a Japanese Shisha Café: Work in Progress Japan #1 [BONUS], Daichi Isokawa
We're back with the first bonus episode of our ongoing YouTube series, Work in Progress Japan!
As we were filming our first episode, we had some leftover footage from our time at the Iwashi Club shisha café—namely a conversation between Alex and the café's owner, Daichi Isokawa. We found the conversation really interesting and decided to bring it to you here! Since we were using the same recording material as in Episode #1, the sound quality isn't great. Apologies for that, and we promise we're working on getting better sound for future episodes.
The concept behind Work in Progress Japan is to take you deep into the lives of a few Japanese innovators who are busy reimagining Japan's cultural and societal landscape. It can be pretty hard for those not part of Japanese society to form an accurate impression of what it's like to live and work in Japan. Overseas media are usually not much help, publishing only stories that feed into a preconceived narrative regarding Japanese culture. Running a stylish shisha café in downtown Tokyo definitely qualifies as an innovative job description, which is why we were so eager to talk to Daichi!
Feel free to leave a comment on our Youtube page or reach out to us on social media with any feedback or ideas of workstyles you'd be curious to see in our series!
Once again thanks for watching, and stay tuned.
Directed by Dan Takahashi. Written and produced by Alex Steullet. Videography and film editing by Naozumi Tsukamoto. Special thanks to Daichi Isokawa and the Iwashi Club shisha café.
Writer
Alex Steullet
Alex is the editor in chief of Kintopia and part of the corporate branding department at Cybozu. He holds an LLM in Human Rights Law from the University of Nottingham and previously worked for the Swiss government.
Photographer
Naozumi Tsukamoto
Naozumi is a Japanese cameraman who, together with his associate Ryo Kawano, does freelance creative video direction. In addition, Naozumi is a member of JapanMade, a video production project seeking to introduce the work of Japanese artisans to the world. He also loves soccer.
Editor
Dan Takahashi
Dan is an editor and photographer for Kintopia's Japanese twin website Cybozu-shiki. He is the most recent member to join the corporate branding department at Cybozu.
