Jikan Ryokou - CLOSED May 2014

Jikan Ryokou outside.jpg
5-56-15 Nakano, Nakano-Ku
Nakano 5 Chome 56-15 Nakano-ku Tōkyō-to JP
03-3389-798003-3389-7980

Jikan Ryokou (the sign is in Japanese 時間旅行, it means “Time Travel”) is simply wonderful. It’s a tiny 12-seat joint in the back streets of Nakano, an area full of small drinking dens. The owner Asai-san is in her late 50s and opened the place about twenty years ago..she was being coy about dates and her age as bar mama-sans often are.

As you can see from the video below, the walls are covered in classic rock album covers as well as jazz records. In one night there I heard John Coltrane, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Cannonball Adderly and as I was leaving late at night I think she was pulling out some Mozart. So it’s not exclusively a jazz spot but most music geeks I know would have no problem with any record in her huge collection.

Size
11-20
Directions

Station: Nakano Station – JR Chuo, Sobu lines, Tozai Subway Line

Exit: North

Distance from station: 6-9

Date published
01/24/2012
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