
Drop-In Coworking Spaces in Tokyo - shadylane
http://tokyocheapo.com/business/drop-in-coworking-spaces-tokyo/
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patio11
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.

~~~
practicalpants
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
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.

~~~
cageface
Vietnam is in general an amazing place to work from cafes. Free WiFi is
standard, most cafes serve a decent breakfast for less than $2, and many of
them are quite elegant and beautifully appointed. The biggest downside is that
_everybody_ smokes here so if you're sensitive to cigarette smoke you might
have a hard time finding a seat that isn't close to a smoker.

~~~
practicalpants
Any city in particular you'd recommend in Vietnam for cafe workers? I might be
heading that way soon.

~~~
cageface
Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City) is the best place if you want to meet other tech
people, but I find it a little too hectic to stay here too long. I prefer the
smaller towns like Nha Trang or Hoi An if I really want to knuckle down and
get things done.

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klinskyc
Drop In should probably be Drop-In. After reading the title, I though there
was a fall in the number of coworking spaces in Tokyo, which is the exact
opposite of the article.

~~~
TulliusCicero
I also thought this, and was very confused once I started reading.

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greggman
Four more

The Terminal - Harajuku (where I'm posting this from ;)
[http://theterminal.jp/about.html](http://theterminal.jp/about.html)

ii Office - Ueno
[https://iioffice.liginc.co.jp/](https://iioffice.liginc.co.jp/)

Jelly Jelly Cafe - Shibuya
[http://jellyjellycafe.com/](http://jellyjellycafe.com/)

Open Source Cafe - Shimokitazawa
[http://www.osscafe.net/en/](http://www.osscafe.net/en/)

The Terminal is around ~$13 a day if you pay ~$20 for a year membership.
Includes free soft drinks. Yea, just $20. Or you can get a monthly pass for
~$160

II Office is around ~$10 a day also including free soft drinks

Jelly Jelly is really tiny and the one time I went it was 100% full so I
haven't actually used it.

Open Source Cafe is also pretty tiny. It's 2 small rooms, both hold maybe 7
people though I've seen them cram in 15+ for a meeting.

I've been to a few on the list

co-ba I signed up for a year ago. Plus, if you become a member they give you a
security card and it's open 24 hours. Minus, it's pretty minimal, especially
the 2nd floor. Feels like I sitting in an elementary school class.

kokemasaz feels like someone decorated their garage. Nice DIY vibe. The guy
making Voxatron ([http://voxatron.com](http://voxatron.com)) who goes by Zeb
online says he sometimes hangs out there.

I guess I should mention he runs the picopico cafe
([http://picopicocafe.com](http://picopicocafe.com)) in Kichijoji. It's only
open 3pm to 10pm Saturday and Sunday and even then only if they haven't rented
the place out (check their calendar) but, possibly because he's an indie game
dev a lot of other mostly non Japanese indie game devs hang out there.

What kind of shocks me is how much more expensive co-working spaces are in SF
and LA. They claim you'll get _networking_ but they're usually > $500 a month
for just an unassigned seat at an open table.

~~~
shawnps
Do you know if it's pretty competitive to get the monthly membership at The
Terminal? Only the first 10 people who sign up can get it right?
("毎月先着10名様となります。")

~~~
greggman
I haven't checked. Given it's 1295 yen a day after the 2000yen yearly
membership I'd rather pay by the day. The month price is better after 12 days
a month but I'd prefer to move around so I come at most probably 9 days a
month and visit other places on other days.

~~~
shawnps
I see, that makes sense. By the way, there's a burrito place 2-3 mins from
there that I frequent:

[https://ja-jp.facebook.com/burritastesgood](https://ja-
jp.facebook.com/burritastesgood)

Staff and owner are very nice people, burritos are good, and they have a
variety of hot sauces.

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jordwest
This list is missing Open Source Cafe, where I'm sitting right now! I'll be
here for another few weeks if anybody is interested in dropping by.
[http://www.osscafe.net/en/](http://www.osscafe.net/en/)

It's in Shimokitazawa, really cool neighbourhood not far from Shibuya.

~~~
intruder
+1 to this. OSC is great. Really adore the place and their activities.

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alexbowe
I'm an ex-Melbournite doing a PhD in bioinformatics algorithms (and succinct
data structures) in Tokyo.

I'm mainly interested in co-working spaces for cross-pollination of ideas, and
friendly challenges.

So, if anyone in Tokyo wants to meet up to work on some stuff (together or
separately, but in proximity), let me know.

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jason_tko
There is also a pretty comprehensive list of co-working spaces (all in
Japanese though) here:
[https://www.makeleaps.jp/%E9%83%BD%E5%86%85%E3%81%99%E3%81%B...](https://www.makeleaps.jp/%E9%83%BD%E5%86%85%E3%81%99%E3%81%B9%E3%81%A6%E3%81%AE%E3%82%B3%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AD%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7/)

Also if you're in Tokyo, don't forget to check out the Hacker News Tokyo
community meetup events.

The next one is on the 13th of May. Hope to see you there !

[https://hntokyo.doorkeeper.jp/events/24116](https://hntokyo.doorkeeper.jp/events/24116)

~~~
robzyb
Thanks, just signed up!

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dk__
Places I haven't tried! All your base are belong to us!

Coworking spaces are pretty hit or miss. There's also Academy Hills
([http://www.academyhills.com](http://www.academyhills.com)) on the 49th floor
of Mori Tower in Roppongi that runs you 10,000yen/mo.

Other options:

Jiyugaoka — Robek's Juice — no WIFI, but spacious and has lots of power.

Near Jiyugaoka — Radio Plant Cafe — free wifi, but quite small.

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radikalus
I'll be back in Tokyo May 1-3ish -- psyched to check out Nakame lounge; that's
new to me.

Fuglen and Maruyama are my two go-to places though neither are great for
"working"

Streamer/Lattest I would say are not really appropriate for 'working' either.
Sure, I've sat in them for an hour or two on occasion, but it doesn't feel
exactly appropriate.

I'm in and out of TKO a lot. (Live in Shanghai) Will happily trades beers and
coffees for tips on good cafes. ^^

Interesting that people mention Shanghai as having a good cafe scene; I like a
few of the places here okay but I'd never choose them over a bunch of the
better options in tko or the US...

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saryant
This is great! I go to Japan about once a year and for 2016 I'm thinking about
spending a month or two working remote from Tokyo. I recently got back from
doing the same at a coworking space in Thailand.

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sgdesign
Nice tips. In Osaka there's Knowledge Salon in Umeda, but you need to know
somebody there that can invite you as a guest, so it's not really drop-in…

Oh, and you should also post this over at
[http://www.startjapan.org/](http://www.startjapan.org/) :)

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rhia
Interesting to see how Tokyo work culture impacts the co-working scene: A lot
of them only open at 10 but stay open late in the evening. This is because,
due to its size and property prices, many people commute up to 2 hours one
way.

~~~
nandemo
I don't follow. I know many salarypeople who have 1.5h+ commutes, because as
you say central Tokyo is expensive. But if you're self-employed or doing a
startup, why would you travel that far to a co-working space instead of just
working from home?

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chunkiestbacon
Cool, been looking for one. thanks! I've also considered working from internet
cafes, but if a coworking space is cheaper, it would make sense to go to one.

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hudibras
It's good to see all the Japan-based HNers goofing off at work today. HN
usually starts dying this time of day (1445 JST) as the West Coast heads to
bed...

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akassover
Anybody found any good spots to work from in Machida? I'm out that way and
have a hard time making the 1 hour trip to go into Toyko to work.

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mathrawka
No mention of Jelly Jelly Cafe?
[http://jellyjellycafe.com](http://jellyjellycafe.com)

~~~
mrkirkland
They didn't reply (or their contact form is broken!)

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ekianjo
Nice ! I'm going to be in Tokyo this weekend, I may drop by one of those
places.

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kimar
Nice job Mr Kirkland. When can we expect Cheapo guides for other cities?

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GreaterFool
Anyone knows one with standing desk?

~~~
mrkirkland
I know a few cafes with wifi and standing/able desks

Streamer Coffee Shibuya ->
[http://streamercoffee.com/shibuya](http://streamercoffee.com/shibuya) Lattest
Omotesando -> [http://tokyocheapo.com/place/lattest-
omotesando/](http://tokyocheapo.com/place/lattest-omotesando/)

~~~
GreaterFool
Thanks. They look great.

What I need to find though is a proper co-working space / shared office. While
I love hanging out in coffee shops I need a place where I can reserve a desk
;-)

There's a lot of variety in Tokyo so I should be able to find something.

