4 ms·

There are also a few cafes which are laptop friendly. (That's notable in Tokyo, as most are not -- a combination of high traffic, poor power/wifi situations, a

by patio11 12y ago

There are also a few cafes which are laptop friendly. (That's notable in Tokyo, as most are not -- a combination of high traffic, poor power/wifi situations, and the staff not being pleased with someone holding a table for extended periods.) The one which I know off the top of my head is Nakameguro Lounge, about one minute from Nakameguro Station. The effective price per hour is 600 to 1,000 yen. Also their lunch menu is really fantastic for only about 1,200 yen. Also, as it is about two minutes from my apartment, if you're ever passing through Tokyo drop me a line and your coffee/lunch is on me.

damian2000 12y ago
Is the lack of free WiFi due to the coverage of WiFi hotspots run by phone companies there, which require an account?
- mrkirkland 12y ago
  A variety of reasons, but I suspect a big one is vested interests from paid wifi services. For years it's been the norm to see a cafe full of people all using their own wifi dongles.
- patio11 12y ago
  Any cafe which wants to make free WiFi available can trivially make free WiFi available. I believe that most which choose to not do this are making the considered product/marketing decision that they do not want long stays from laptop users. They want to turn those tables quickly because $4 to $6 coffees only make Tokyo commercial rents if you sell a lot of them.
  - ekianjo 12y ago
    > They want to turn those tables quickly because $4 to $6 coffees only make Tokyo commercial rents if you sell a lot of them. Then how does Starbucks make money then ? Most of the clients in Starbucks in Japan come for a drink with their computer or iPad and stay an hour or even more without consuming anything else - and they have their own internet access via tethering anyway. Yet Starbucks makes huge profits.
    - patio11 12y ago
      100 million yen per year per store of sales, or roughly 500 tickets per day, is how Starbucks stays afloat.
mrkirkland 12y ago
Does the free lunch offer extend to the (cheapo) author? :D
- patio11 12y ago
  Sure! I'm going to convince you to change the name of the publication to tokyochargemore but you'll get a free meal out of it.
cygnus 12y ago
I highly recommend too. Quiet in the afternoon until 19.00 when they turn the volume up. Plus their banana shake is amazing!
practicalpants 12y ago
Just left after 3 months there, and struggled to find places to work from that aren't Starbucks, few and far between. I frequented a couple Jingumae spots like the Roastery and Suzu Cafe, Mellow Brown in Jiyugauka, Fuglen in Yoyogi, and a lot of cool or charming spots that had no outlets or wifi but were OK to work from, like Brooklyn Parlor in Shinjuku or some spots around Kichijoji I liked (and of course, Blue Bottle too). Nakameguro had nice little cafes but I never worked from there. Overall Tokyo is not a digital nomad, coffee-shop working friendly city (or at least not like other major international cities), which was both surprising and disappointing, for me. EDIT - I'll add the co working spaces I dropped by were all simply terrible. I only went to a few, Open Source Cafe, and Jelly Jelly, and then gave up. I wish I had Tokyocheapo's list at the time. One of them was playing pop music over a speaker system to everyone who was working... I mean, seriously?
- greggman 12y ago
  Wow, it sounds like you had bad luck finding places. I find Tokyo 10x better than SF or LA for places to hang. In SF or LA they are either all full, or you have to by stuff every 2 hours which makes me fat, plus I can't leave anything out so after a coffee or two I need to use the restroom and I lose my space because you can't leave a notebook unattended in the USA. The only exception is maybe the Workspace Cafe in SF. In Tokyo there's co-working spaces everywhere, they are cheap (especially when you take into account free drinks). Have worked from plenty of starbucks as well, except on weekends when they're full. The one behind roppongi hills that's open till 4am has been great. The one at the corner of Meiji-dori and Omotesando on the 6th floor is huge and been great too. Just don't go on a weekend / holiday. I'd be curious to know which cities you think are good. I traveled to a bunch of cities in Europe last year and my luck was like yours in Tokyo. I looked up places, checked them out, all were horrible. But I was only in each city for a week or less so maybe I just failed to find anything like you did in Tokyo.
  - santaclaus 12y ago
    > plus I can't leave anything out so after a coffee or two I need to use the restroom and I lose my space because you can't leave a notebook unattended in the USA. I have a beat up moleskine with some random doodles that I carry around for exactly this reason. Need to use the restroom at a coffee shop? Leave my disposable moleskine and a pencil on the table to claim the spot. If someone jacks the table, easy to ask them what they did with your notebook. Works in: Bushwick, Denver, Seattle, SF, Austin
robzyb 12y ago
Thanks for the tip on Nakameguro lounge. I live rather close to there. Any other suggestions? I spent most of my time at FAB Cafe in Shibuya. They have WiFi, 3D printing, and laser cutters, but I'm looking for somewhere new. This weekend I discovered Alaska, a cafe in Nakameguro. The coffee was great, although my latte was price-y at 700yen. But food seemed to be around the 1,000 yen mark and it wasn't busy enough for me to feel guilty about hogging a table.
fenomas 12y ago
I dunno, I went indie-gamedev a few months ago and I've done nearly all my work in St. Marcs, Ueshimas, Tullys, Forests and so forth. Most have power outlets in at least some seats, and on weekdays they never really get crowded enough to care about space (at least not where I am a few minutes outside of Shibuya). The downside is wifi, but the fact that I work better without it is half the reason I'm at a cafe! With that said for non-chain places with wifi, Streamer Cafe was a short walk from Nakameguro and was a nice place to spend an afternoon. Timeout cafe (Ebisu above liquid room) was reasonable as well, modulo a sales guy using it for an office. Would be great to sponge a lunch off you someday ;)

by patio11 12y ago

damian2000 12y ago

Is the lack of free WiFi due to the coverage of WiFi hotspots run by phone companies there, which require an account?

mrkirkland 12y ago
A variety of reasons, but I suspect a big one is vested interests from paid wifi services. For years it's been the norm to see a cafe full of people all using their own wifi dongles.
patio11 12y ago
Any cafe which wants to make free WiFi available can trivially make free WiFi available. I believe that most which choose to not do this are making the considered product/marketing decision that they do not want long stays from laptop users. They want to turn those tables quickly because $4 to $6 coffees only make Tokyo commercial rents if you sell a lot of them.
- ekianjo 12y ago
  > They want to turn those tables quickly because $4 to $6 coffees only make Tokyo commercial rents if you sell a lot of them. Then how does Starbucks make money then ? Most of the clients in Starbucks in Japan come for a drink with their computer or iPad and stay an hour or even more without consuming anything else - and they have their own internet access via tethering anyway. Yet Starbucks makes huge profits.
  - patio11 12y ago
    100 million yen per year per store of sales, or roughly 500 tickets per day, is how Starbucks stays afloat.

mrkirkland 12y ago

Does the free lunch offer extend to the (cheapo) author? :D

patio11 12y ago
Sure! I'm going to convince you to change the name of the publication to tokyochargemore but you'll get a free meal out of it.

cygnus 12y ago

I highly recommend too. Quiet in the afternoon until 19.00 when they turn the volume up. Plus their banana shake is amazing!

practicalpants 12y ago

Just left after 3 months there, and struggled to find places to work from that aren't Starbucks, few and far between. I frequented a couple Jingumae spots like the Roastery and Suzu Cafe, Mellow Brown in Jiyugauka, Fuglen in Yoyogi, and a lot of cool or charming spots that had no outlets or wifi but were OK to work from, like Brooklyn Parlor in Shinjuku or some spots around Kichijoji I liked (and of course, Blue Bottle too). Nakameguro had nice little cafes but I never worked from there. Overall Tokyo is not a digital nomad, coffee-shop working friendly city (or at least not like other major international cities), which was both surprising and disappointing, for me. EDIT - I'll add the co working spaces I dropped by were all simply terrible. I only went to a few, Open Source Cafe, and Jelly Jelly, and then gave up. I wish I had Tokyocheapo's list at the time. One of them was playing pop music over a speaker system to everyone who was working... I mean, seriously?

greggman 12y ago
Wow, it sounds like you had bad luck finding places. I find Tokyo 10x better than SF or LA for places to hang. In SF or LA they are either all full, or you have to by stuff every 2 hours which makes me fat, plus I can't leave anything out so after a coffee or two I need to use the restroom and I lose my space because you can't leave a notebook unattended in the USA. The only exception is maybe the Workspace Cafe in SF. In Tokyo there's co-working spaces everywhere, they are cheap (especially when you take into account free drinks). Have worked from plenty of starbucks as well, except on weekends when they're full. The one behind roppongi hills that's open till 4am has been great. The one at the corner of Meiji-dori and Omotesando on the 6th floor is huge and been great too. Just don't go on a weekend / holiday. I'd be curious to know which cities you think are good. I traveled to a bunch of cities in Europe last year and my luck was like yours in Tokyo. I looked up places, checked them out, all were horrible. But I was only in each city for a week or less so maybe I just failed to find anything like you did in Tokyo.
- santaclaus 12y ago
  > plus I can't leave anything out so after a coffee or two I need to use the restroom and I lose my space because you can't leave a notebook unattended in the USA. I have a beat up moleskine with some random doodles that I carry around for exactly this reason. Need to use the restroom at a coffee shop? Leave my disposable moleskine and a pencil on the table to claim the spot. If someone jacks the table, easy to ask them what they did with your notebook. Works in: Bushwick, Denver, Seattle, SF, Austin

robzyb 12y ago

Thanks for the tip on Nakameguro lounge. I live rather close to there. Any other suggestions? I spent most of my time at FAB Cafe in Shibuya. They have WiFi, 3D printing, and laser cutters, but I'm looking for somewhere new. This weekend I discovered Alaska, a cafe in Nakameguro. The coffee was great, although my latte was price-y at 700yen. But food seemed to be around the 1,000 yen mark and it wasn't busy enough for me to feel guilty about hogging a table.

fenomas 12y ago

I dunno, I went indie-gamedev a few months ago and I've done nearly all my work in St. Marcs, Ueshimas, Tullys, Forests and so forth. Most have power outlets in at least some seats, and on weekdays they never really get crowded enough to care about space (at least not where I am a few minutes outside of Shibuya). The downside is wifi, but the fact that I work better without it is half the reason I'm at a cafe! With that said for non-chain places with wifi, Streamer Cafe was a short walk from Nakameguro and was a nice place to spend an afternoon. Timeout cafe (Ebisu above liquid room) was reasonable as well, modulo a sales guy using it for an office. Would be great to sponge a lunch off you someday ;)