Free Tokyo-style listening bar nights come to Shoreditch's Mitsu this August

Mitsu in Shoreditch hosts two free Toki-O Nights on Thursday 6 and Thursday 20 August, bringing Tokyo’s kissaten listening-bar culture to London with Technics hi-fi, Japanese highballs and DJ sets from Philip Arneill and Shuya Okino.

Kissaten culture is built on the opposite instinct to most London nightlife: sit down, stop talking over the music, and actually listen to it. Toki-O Nights, a touring series from Suntory Toki and Technics that’s been running since June at venues including Spiritland and Equal Parts, brings that idea to Mitsu, the vast Tokyo-inspired izakaya that took over the old Nobu Shoreditch site on Willow Street this spring. Both dates are free, with no booking required, though Mitsu suggests reserving a table given the size of the crowd these nights tend to pull.

Tonight – 6 August: Philip Arneill

Arneill spent 20 years living in Japan before turning that time into Tokyo Jazz Joints, a photography project and best-selling book documenting the country’s disappearing jazz kissa bars. He’s since built his own immersive jazz-listening event, JUJU, running it as a pop-up across Belfast, where he’s now based, as well as England, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.

20 August: Shuya Okino

Okino co-founded Kyoto Jazz Massive, the Japanese crossover jazz duo that Gilles Peterson championed on Radio 1 in the early 2000s. Their single Eclipse spent three consecutive weeks at No.1 on Radio 1’s dance chart in 2000, a first for a Japanese act, and Okino still runs The Room, one of Shibuya’s best-known listening bars, when he’s not touring.

The kit and the drink

Every date runs on Technics’ own SL-1200GR2 turntables, the hi-fi brand’s contribution to a series built as much around sound quality as the lineup. Toki Japanese Highballs, the whisky and soda serve that anchors Tokyo’s listening bars, are served throughout both nights, and guests can win Toki and Technics prizes as the evening goes on.

The London x London Take: Free, vinyl-led and built around actually paying attention to the music, this is a genuinely different proposition to most of what passes for a night out in Shoreditch right now. Okino’s date on the 20th has the bigger pedigree on paper, but Arneill’s opening night on the 6th is the one for anyone who wants the deeper dive into why this culture exists in the first place. Get there for 7pm, these nights fill the room once word gets round.