L'escargot Design

L'escargot Design Office is a freelance graphic design service based in Tokyo, Japan.  

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Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.51, Scorching Summer Special 

The monthly event "Live From The Kitchen Disco Scorching Summer Special" will be held at Restaurant Papera in Shinjuku-Gyoenmae, Tokyo, on Sunday, August 19th. This month’s Kitchen Disco stars are Mild Forest (Electric Soul), Bonnou (Japanese minimal electro psyche mandolin experimental), m(emu:) (Japanese real-time overdub bing loop music), Priscilla (International pop duo) and Pavement Candy (International indie pop rock band).

Live From The Kitchen Disco showcases the talents of both Japanese and overseas musicians active on the Tokyo independent music scene. Each show features five to six bands or solo artists. The cosmopolitan atmosphere is complimented by the international audience and restaurant staff.

Poster by L'escargot Design Office —————————— Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.51 https://www.facebook.com/events/651351188578039/ on Sunday, August 19th. Doors open: 6pm. Show: 6:30-10:00pm. Restaurant closes at 11pm Admission is FREE. All ages welcome

Guests are asked to order one item from the menu (Snacks from 350 yen, alcohol from 550 yen). No minimum charge.

Please try to support all of the musicians by watching the whole show. The Kitchen Disco is a NON-SMOKING event. There is an ashtray outside the restaurant in the entrance hall. -------------------------------- Tokyo Weekender

read more about Live From The Kitchen Disco. ---- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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7th Creators' Expo

L’escargot Design Office will exhibit at the 7th Creators' Expo at Tokyo Big Sight from Wednesday, April 4th to Friday, April 6th. 700 individual creators including  illustrators, photographers, game developers, animators and designers will exhibit their work. The event is a part of CONTENT TOKYO 2018, which is a comprehensive trade show for content businesses, gathering 1,540 exhibitors.

L'escargot Design Office has a flair for creating inspiring graphic designs targeted at women and families for cosmetics, health and food. I can produce a comprehensive package of designs, including magazine ads, pamphlets, company guides, point of purchase marketing and packaging.

I can provide a full or selective service covering art direction, design, layout &planning, tailor-made to your requirements. I'm looking forward to your visit to my booth, C20-08 at Designer Zone.

---------- 7th Creators' Expo: Wednesday, April 4th to Friday, April 6th, 2018. 10:00-18:00 at Tokyo Big Sight. *Ticket required for admission, please request on the official website. L'escargot Design Booth C20-08 at Designer Zone.

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Lots of events in Nerima on October 15th

L’escargot Design Office and illustrator Sachiyo Niikura will exhibit at Nerima EXPO 2017 at the Toshimaen amusement park in Nerima, Tokyo on Sunday, October 15th. The event is a trade fair at which companies and groups from Nerima will exhibit and sell their products.

I ordered printined items such as a poster, a flyer for the day, and a pamphlet about L'escargot Design. I also made other display items, which are price tags and banners. Sachiyo is making original blackboards with her illustrations for shops. She will exhibit and sell them at the fair.

Along with Nerima Matsuri, Eco-style Fair, and Nerima Animation Carnival, Nerima Expo is one of several annual festivals held at Toshimaen and near Nerima station.

For the 70th anniversary of Nerima Ward's independence from Itabashi Ward (see here about the details), 3,000 people will take part in an anniversary parade held from the south of Nerima station to Minamicho primary school.

The parade will include Mikoshi (portable shrines), cheerleader performances, brass bands, several kinds of dances, such as yosakoi, Awa-odori and even samba, and residents of Nerima wearing green (Nerima's colour). On the stage at Minamicho priomary school, many performances will be given such as hula and hip hop dance, and Japanese traditional performances.

The parade will be held from 14:15-17:00, so it would be a great plan to see it before or after going to Toshimaen, which is the main venue of the day, with your friends or family.

In addition to the event, you can also enjoy roller coasters, the Carousel El Dorado, an art nouveau merry-go-round built by German engineer Hugo Haase in 1907, and other amusements at Toshimaen.

—————————————————————— Nerima EXPO 2017

Sunday October 15th, 2017, 10:00-16:00 at Toshimaen (Admission free on the day) + L'escargot Design Ofiice ft. Sachiyo Niikura booth K-03 (Kurashi no Zone) Toshimaen (English) Park map (English)   (Japanese) ——————————————————————

Nerima Matsuri (Festival): Sunday, October 15th, 2017, 10:00-16:00 at Toshimaen　 Nerima Animation Carnival: October 14th−15th, 2017 at several places around Nerima station The anniversary parade:  Sunday, October 15th, 2017, 14:15-17:00 from the south side of Nerima station to Minamicho primary school ——————————————————————

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Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.41     

The monthly event "Live From The Kitchen Disco" will be held at Restaurant Papera in Shinjuku-Gyoenmae, Tokyo, on Sunday, October 22nd. This month’s Kitchen Disco stars are Les Zend Uz (Japanese solo electric rock), Mike & Ade (International "rockin'" guitar and mandolin duo), Parallel Lives (International acoustic duo), Manami Nix (Japanese solo acoustic passion), The Applepie (Japanese rock/pop trio), and Anthony Mastrullo (Australian solo acoustic blues influenced rock) for a promotional tour .

Live From The Kitchen Disco showcases the talents of both Japanese and overseas musicians active on the Tokyo independent music scene. Each show features five to six bands or solo artists. The cosmopolitan atmosphere is complimented by the international audience and restaurant staff.

Poster by L'escargot Design Office —————————— Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.41 on Sunday, October 22nd. Doors open: 6pm. Show: 6:15-10:00pm. Restaurant closes at 11pm Admission is FREE. All ages welcome

Guests are asked to order one item from the menu (Snacks from 350 yen, alcohol from 550 yen). No minimum charge.

Please try to support all of the musicians by watching the whole show. The Kitchen Disco is a NON-SMOKING event. There is an ashtray outside the restaurant in the entrance hall. -------------------------------- Tokyo Cheapo read more about Live From The Kitchen Disco. ---- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Nerima EXPO 2017

L’escargot Design Office will exhibit at Nerima EXPO 2017 at the Toshimaen amusement park in Nerima, Tokyo on Sunday, October 15th. The event is a trade fair at which companies and groups from Nerima will exhibit and sell their products.I went to the pre-meeting about it this week.

I asked illustrator Sachiyo Niikura, who also took part in the fair last year. This year, as a corroboration. we are planning to show what we can offer to the local companies, shops, and entrepreneurs. We discussed what we will exhibit and what we need to prepare.

Along with Nerima Matsuri, Eco-style Fair, and Nerima Animation Carnival, Nerima Expo is one of several annual festivals held at Toshimaen and near Nerima station.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Nerima word's independence from Itabashi ward.  Just after the Second World War ended, representative of Nerima went to GHQ(The office of the American Ocupation). However, GHQ misunderstood and thought Nerima wanted to become independent from Japan. The local people were surroundd by armed soldiers. That must have been frightening, but it is a funny story now.

Nerima ward planned several special events this year, including a fireworks display and a concert on the 1st of August, Independence Day. A parade will be held on the same day as Nerima EXPO, Nerima Matsuri and the other events.

—————————————————————— Nerima EXPO 2017

Sunday October 15th, 2017, 10:00-16:00 at Toshimaen (Admission Free on the day)

Toshimaen (English) Park map (English)  (Japanese) ——————————————————————

Nerima Matsuri (Festival):Sunday October 15th, 2017, 10:00-16:00 at Toshmaen Nerima Animation Carnival:October 14th−15th,2017, at several places around Nerima station ——————————————————————

about NerimaEXPO 2016

http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.39

The monthly event "Live From The Kitchen Disco" will be held at Restaurant Papera in Shinjuku-Gyoenmae, Tokyo, on Sunday, August 20th.

This month’s Kitchen Disco stars are Santiago Parce (Latin/Bossa Nova duo), Magic Marmalade (International folk rock duo), The Applepie (Japanese rock/pop band), Mini Miracles (International UK covers from Radiohead to Joy Division), Takashi Umemiya & the Comrades.

Live From The Kitchen Disco showcases the talents of both Japanese and overseas musicians active on the Tokyo independent music scene. Each show features five to six bands or solo artists. The cosmopolitan atmosphere is complimented by the international audience and restaurant staff.

Poster by L'escargot Design Office —————————— Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.39 on Sunday, August 20th Doors open: 6pm. Show: 6:30-10:00pm. Restaurant closes at 11pm Admission is FREE. All ages welcome

Guests are asked to order one item from the menu (Snacks from 350 yen, alcohol from 550 yen). No minimum charge.

Please try to support all of the musicians by watching the whole show. The Kitchen Disco is a NON-SMOKING event. There is an ashtray outside the restaurant in the entrance hall. -------------------------------- Tokyo Cheapo METROPOLIS read more about Live From The Kitchen Disco. ---- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Bicycle

I bought a bicycle last week. It is like a company car for me. Recently, I sometimes work for companies which are comparatively near. I thought I could use it for visiting them.

Luckily, several train lines run through Nerima station, which I usually use. They connect the suburbs and the centre, so it is convenient when you go to the centre of Tokyo. However, when you go to the north by train, you have to go to a terminal station first, and change to another train goes back in the direction you have just come from at the slightly different angle. If I could go directly, the distance itself would be much shorter than the train route.

There are bus routes, but sometimes very few, and often unreliable compared with the train. It is surprising that buses in Tokyo, Japan's capital city, are far less regular than in my hometown of Kawasaki, a much smaller city adjacent to Tokyo.

If you miss a bus in Kawasaki, the next one usually comes along very soon, at least in my area, the south of Kawasaki. You don't even need to check the timetable. However, if you miss a bus in Tokyo, depending on the route, you usually have to wait for a very long time.

When I go somewhere for the first time, I have to add extra time to my journey to get to my destination because I don't know how long it will actually take. So, I think the bicycle may be a better way to get to some places. It will be comfortable in a good season such as autumn. There would be no traffic jams, or over-crowded rush hour trains, and it will be cheaper, and probably quicker.

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Promotional Goods EXPO

Recently, I have been going to the Promotional Goods Expo every year. It is a very big fair held at Tokyo Big Sight. I visited it this year, as usual.

Many companies show their promotional products and services, at the fair. These include items such as paper fans, pens, calendars, notebooks, and both paper and plastic bags. This year, some companies were offering surgical masks as unique promotional goods. I thought it was very Japanese. They offered lots of samples, so I could collect them to show to my clients and recommend that they use these kinds of promotional tools.

Some companies were handing out their thick catalogues, which contained so many kinds of products on which you can print your original design or logo. I was impressed with the variety. They were not only traditional promotional goods such as bags, mugs, and pens, but also newer items like mobile phone accessories. You can even print your logo on mobile camera lenses or selfie sticks.

Sometimes some clients say they are thinking about making promotional goods for a special event. Although these events are infrequent, I am always prepared to be able to offer suitable suggestions from a wide range of choices from many companies.

-------------------------------- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.38       

The monthly event "Live From The Kitchen Disco" will be held at Restaurant Papera in Shinjuku-Gyoenmae, Tokyo, on Sunday, July 16th. This month’s Kitchen Disco stars are Rich Loffman (English solo indie/alt rock), Ian Gronow (British solo acoustic folk pop), Manami Nix (Japanese solo acoustic passion), Parallel Lives (International acoustic duo) and Miniminx (Classic, original, British-styled pop music in the vein of Madness, the Kinks and The Squeeze.).

Live From The Kitchen Disco showcases the talents of both Japanese and overseas musicians active on the Tokyo independent music scene. Each show features five to six bands or solo artists. The cosmopolitan atmosphere is complimented by the international audience and restaurant staff.

This is a special edition which will cerebrate the wedding of Manami Nix, one of the musicians performing, and the whole gig will be the wedding after party for her and her husband, Stephen Nix.  

L'escargot Design Office creates all of the posters for Live From The Kitchen Disco. I used "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue" in the poster for this special Kitchen Disco, with lots of love for 'Mana' who has often shown us her amazing performance.

"Something Old" is the tins from one of our Kitchen Disco posters in 2015. "Something New" is the ring next to Mana's name, which is a material I bought recently.

For "Something Borrowed", I asked illustrator Mii Yoshii to lend me her work as the background illustration. I collaged her illustration, a car driving on the road in the woods, and the tins, and create the scene of newlyweds going on their honeymoon.  

Then for "Something Blue" is simply the word 'Just married!" right under the title.

Although it is the wedding after party, every one, including people who don't know them is welcome. Please come and enjoy this magical evening of music and romance.

—————————— Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.38 on Sunday, July 16th Doors open: 6pm. Show: 6:30-10:00pm. Restaurant closes at 11pm Admission is FREE. All ages welcome

Guests are asked to order one item from the menu (Snacks from 350 yen, alcohol from 550 yen). No minimum charge.

Please try to support all of the musicians by watching the whole show. The Kitchen Disco is a NON-SMOKING event. There is an ashtray outside the restaurant in the entrance hall. -------------------------------- Tokyo Weekender Tokyo Cheapo read more about Live From The Kitchen Disco. ---- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Summer Schedule

When a new job starts, I often make a schedule for the whole process, from the first meeting to delivery of the finished products, such as pamphlets and cards. Although the schedule is only one piece of paper and may look easy to create, but it is actually complicated.

Apart from the number of days needed for the actual creation, you also have to consider how long clients need to confirm the contents. You should allow enough time, but if it is too long, you may go over schedule, miss the deadline and create extra, unnecessary work for yourself. However, the process of the clients can differ from company to company. Generally, small companies make a quick decisions. Even very big companies can sometimes agree immediately to my proposal in a meeting. But, when the process is clear in the first place, sometimes someone new suddenly becomes involved in the middle of the process, which can result in unexpected changes and delays. You need to consider the possibility of this happening and build it into your schedule. You must also add some condition such as, if there are delays caused by the client, the deadline must be adjusted.

In several periods during the year, you also need to consider the short holidays people usually take. The ones which people take at the same time, such as New Year and Golden Week ( a succession of national holidays from April 29th to May 5th) are easier. The Obon holiday, however, is a little more complicated.  

Obon is the time when the spirits of our ancestors to return to us. Many people still hold some ceremonies for it in their hometowns. It usually lasts for four days from August 13th, however, in the areas which cerebrate Obon by the lunar calendar, it is one month earlier. When a whole company takes the holiday at the same time, it is mostly in August, but which days they take depends on each company. When several companies are working on the same job, they may all take different days off, which can complicated the process. Therefore, you often need to consider that the time when no progress may be longer than the actual number of days they take off.

Making a schedule seems a small job, but it is very important that everything goes well.

-------------------------------- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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A Visit to a Nursing Home

I visited a nursing home last week. I had met the director at a local fair last year, and was pleasantly surprised to receive a telephone call from him eight months later.

It was an unusual meeting. I had expected it to be just myself and the director, but there were representative from several companies. We discussed our individual businesses and answered questions from the director. After the discussion, we were shown around the nursing home's facilities. These included an exercise machine, a private room and a roof garden with a special bed which you take can be tended while siting in a wheelchair.

I had heard about nursing homes from my mother, who has a friends living in there, but this was my first opportunity to actually visit one. I could see and hear in more detail what a nursing home is really like. This home offers high quality services to the residents. The floors are divided by the residents' condition. For example, one of the floors is for residents suffering from dementia. The staff is double that of standard Japanese nursing homes, allowing individual residents to be cared for by the same members of staff, and therefore receive more personalized care.

The facilities themselves are also all high quality. The residents' private rooms are not very big but look like individual homes with their own entrances. The air in their rooms is separated from that in the shared corridors by curtain of air. They care about smells, which may seem like a small thing, but can be a big issue in shared environments.

The residents can join several clubs, such as Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, and singing. The nursing home also often plans short trips.

At the end of the tour, we were given a souvenir. It was a box of sembei, Japanese rice crackers. The director had bought it for us the day before, and, surprisingly, it was a special product of Kawasaki, my hometown. It was the first time that I had received such a souvenir while on a job-related visit.  I'm impressed that they care a lot about such small details. It is probably because of the nature of their work.  

-------------------------------- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Colours

Recently, I have been writing tips for people who commission designers. The current theme is colours.

In my last article, I wrote that the way in which people, even individual designers see colours can defer depending upon the environment or media. For example, when you see a design on a screen, it is different from seeing a printed design on paper. Even if everyone sees it on a screen, different screens can show different colours. Even when everyone agrees on the colours in a printed sample, the colours in the final professional printing can be quite different.

I did not mention it in the article, but there is another factor about colours that is worth considering. Geographical location can influence colours.

In addition to possible technical issues, but also must be cultural tastes may also play a role. When I was working at my third design company, they asked several printing companies to print design for the Tokyo area, which is in eastern Japan. One of the printing companies they commissioned was in the Kansai area of western Japan while the others were in Tokyo.

People in these two areas have quite different taste. People in Tokyo like delicate tones, while people in the Kansai area tend to like more showily tones. This resulted in the finished product from Kansai looking different from those printed in Tokyo, and not being suitable. It is important to understand and consider these kinds of regional differences especially when working internationally.

I also feel that colours abroad and colours in Japan are different. They have their own characters. Seeing and thinking about those kind of things is very interesting.

I have just written a tip for reproducing product colours. Colours are always difficult, but a kind of opportunity to show design skills.

-------------------------------- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Studying Colours

Cintinueing to study something new is important for freelance workers. It can be something fun like going to exhibitions, observing life as you walk along the street or watching films, but sometimes it involves actual studying.

At the moment, I'm studying colour coordination at "career-up" lessons at the Tokyo Metropolitan Vocational Skills Development Center. They have many business training classes which are all very reasonable priced, and I think the lesson quality is great. This four-day course is for gaining a colour coordinater qualification. Designers don't actually need the qualification, but I thought there must be some knowledge I can use.

Gainning a basic knowledge of color is far more difficult than I thought. Before studying color coordination, we have to learn about color in history and culture and many color order systems.

I already have a basic knowledge of things such as hue, value and chroma, but these systems were created from different ideas which are expressed using differnt symbols and terminology as well as different basic colours. It is all very interesting but also very confusing.

Studying colours is not about art or sense, but more like science or maths. The lesson goes quickly because we have to finish a whole book in four days.

Although I was struggling a bit to keep up with the class, I found some interesting topics such as why the sky looks blue and the sunset looks red.

The light is scattered when it hits particles in the atmosphere, such as vapor or dust. Blue light which travels as shorter waves is scattered more than other colours, making the sky appear blue.

In the evening, the distance between the sun and us becomes longer, so blue light becomes more scattered and mostly red and orange light reaches us. That is the sunset. We also learned why clouds are white, and other natural phenomena.

I studied colours at all of the schools I went to, but I didn't learn about details. This is a good opportunity for me and I hope I can get some good inspiration and fresh ideas from the study.

-------------------------------- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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PR film posted on the Net

The Tokyo Metropolitan Small and Medium Enterprise Support Center PR film, in which I took part early this year, was posted on their homepage this week. The film was promote its database of designer information. I and one of my clients, who commissioned me to design a pamphlet after finding my details through the database, were interviewed about our project in front of three cameras.

The pamphlet featured in the film is compact-sized, one third of A4, but contains many strategies and ideas for showing my client's bland-new service effectively. Their "Sports Sitter" service combines sports coaching and babysitting. The point was how to make it easily understandable for Japanese people. It was a little challenging because not only is baby sitting itself not popular in Japan yet, 'Sports Sitter' is a combined service which hasn't been introduced in Japan before .  

In addition to the interview, several photos of L'escargot Design's work appears at the beginning of the film. They are for cosmetics, an esthetic salon and food, which are quite different from the featured pamphlet. These are the featured photos.

Tokyo Metropolitan Small and Medium Enterprise Support Center will show the film in booths at exhibitions, such as Toshima Monozukuri Messe, at which I exhibited as a designer registered with them this February, and also at their design seminars for companies.

In the pre-shoot meeting and the interview itself, I found that some small and medium enterprises hesitate to approach designers because they don't know how to deal with them, which had never occurred to me before. To dispell their worries, I started writing some tips on how to deal with designers on L'escargot blog. This is an unexpected benefit of the film.

> Read more about shooting the film and Sports Sitter

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Golden Week

It is now Golden Week in Japan. Golden Week is a succession of national holidays from April 29th to May 5th.  April 29th, May 3rd, 4th and 5th, are fairly large holidays and this year they run into the weekend. The name “Golden Week” was coined by a film company’s executive for a promotion in 1951. As a result, NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, never use this name for these holidays.

Some people take the days off between the holidays, and travel somewhere such as overseas. Other than traveling abroad, many people go outside of the Tokyo area, their home towns or the usual leisure spots. City centres become quiet. Everyday places, such as trains and shopping areas are not so crowded. Some people, including myself, prefer to stay in the Metropolitan area. You can enjoy shopping and going to the cinema without stress.

Secondhand fashion boutique Cabourg in Ebisu, Tokyo, which is run by my sister and her husband, is now having a fukubiki (lottery) campaign. For each 10,000 yen you spend, you can have one try. The first prize is a 10,000 yen gift token. They always sell high end brand clothes and fashion items such as bags and shoes at reasonable prices.

L'escargot Design Office is open on May 1st and 2nd as usual, and reopens for regular business on May 8th.

——————————– http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

>Secondhand fashion boutique Cabourg

>more detail about Cabourg

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My Father's Tools  

I found several interesting things in my late father's study.

He was a furniture craftsman and had lots of tools such as planes, saws and things you have no idea what they are. Like many people who survived the war, some parts of his life are still mysterious. We found that he had studied engineering at university and learned about electricity, drafting, and also English.

I found a very thin box inside his drawer, which I couldn't open. My brother thought that it must have been a photo stand, and forced it open. It was actually a very old drafting tool set.

The tools in it were very rusty, but beautiful.  They must be at least almost 70 years old if he bought the set when he was at university. I have similar, more modern set, but it isn't as beautiful and decorative. I posted a photo of them on Facebook, and someone said they are English style. He said that there are both English and German styles, but the English is handmade and decorative, and more accurate.

There are more things for making furniture in his small storeroom. I think I will take photos of them and can make a museum on the Internet.

-------------------------------- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en

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Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.35      

The monthly event "Live From The Kitchen Disco" will be held at Restaurant Papera in Shinjuku-Gyoenmae, Tokyo, on Sunday, April 23rd. This month’s Kitchen Disco stars are Layer of Generation (Japanese 60s/70s rock covers band), Rich Loffman (English solo indie/alt rock), Mud Jam.S (International jam blues/rock band), Parallel Lives (International acoustic duo), Smoke Thief (English underground artisan).

Live From The Kitchen Disco showcases the talents of both Japanese and overseas musicians active on the Tokyo independent music scene. Each show features five to six bands or solo artists. The cosmopolitan atmosphere is complimented by the international audience and restaurant staff.

Poster by L'escargot Design Office

—————————— Live From The Kitchen Disco Vol.35

Sunday, April 23rd

Doors open: 6pm. Show: 6:30-10:00pm. Restaurant closes at 11pm Admission is FREE. All ages welcome

Guests are asked to order one item from the menu (Snacks from 350 yen, alcohol from 550 yen). No minimum charge.

Please try to support all of the musicians by watching the whole show. The Kitchen Disco is a NON-SMOKING event. There is an ashtray outside the restaurant in the entrance hall. -------------------------------- Tokyo Weekender read more about Live From The Kitchen Disco. ---- http://www.lescargotdesign.com/en