I am just coming off a three-day pop-up store event in the downtown Sapporo area. We took over a friend’s cafe in the downtown area for a Pop-Up style event. I worked to make some good tacos (actually a rolled Flauta) as I miss eating tasty Mexican food and I am hoping to start providing this menu here at our Jozankei location. So this worked as a great test to develop the menu and get some reactions from the customers.
A long-time friend is the owner of a large complex of stores in the central Sapporo area. A high fashion clothing store (Garage 69), a surf and snow shop (Acoustic Rock), and a small cafe (Blue_Cafe) at the back alley of the shop!
During the three-day event, I was also DJ’ing with analog records from my collection, so I had to keep checking to see when the songs would finish and I needed to flip the record over or select a new album to play. The cafe itself is equipped with Altec speakers, making for incredible sound. It was a real pleasure to listen to and share some of my favorite records.
I think my takeaway from the three-day event came down to two points.
#1 Sound and vibrations are far more important than we think. The music and sound quality worked as a magnet to pull and hold together the event and mood. The sound fills the empty spaces making the room comfortable and relaxing. This allows the customer to open up and enjoy the food and drinks while soaking in the atmosphere. It would have been a completely different event without those amazing Altec speakers.
#2 Events are very hard work, but doing everything yourself is rewarding in more ways than one. I planned the event, created the menu, designed a flyer using Chat-GPT 4o, played the music, cooked the tacos, promoted the event on Instagram, did all the cleanup, and even bought a new freezer for the event. So in hindsight, I learned a lot and gained some new and important experiences.
I was able to make a lot of connections with some old friends and a bunch of new soon-to-be friends.
Recommended listening
During my drives back and forth each day I was of course watching a bunch of podcasts. Here is a good one from Joe Rogan interviewing two brothers involved deeply with the AI field. Quite an interesting conversation and work your time to listen to at least the first half.
I have become quite intrigued by this whole AI circus that is going on. Join me for the ride. If you are also interested and want to keep up-to-date with the new tools that are being released at a breakneck pace, you might want to follow this guy Matt Wolfe.
He does some good weekly videos about the latest AI developments. He falls under the “I love AI and I am so excited about the future” group.
I also like to follow the “I am not excited about the dystopian future AI is creating” group. Always good to hear both sides of the story right? If you are interested in that you might want to follow this guy Upper Echelon.
Now for a personal promo shout-out! I have separated my podcast from my original YouTube channel. If you are interested in hearing my commentary, rants, and interviews please follow the new “Hartmann Podcast channel” I presently have 2 subscribers, so you can still become one of the first ten subscribers! LOL.
One more YouTube channel news item. My recent Triton truck purchase and my subsequent YouTube channel are taking off in a big way. Closing in on 700 subscribers and one of the videos I released now has 22k views! The interest in this truck is quite impressive! More videos to be released soon!
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Recent Acquisitions.
The container purchase! I bought a premade container room (used) and it was delivered last Saturday! I have been able to create a good relationship with the importer of these container rooms and I can organize delivery and sales in Hokkaido! Let me know if you need one as I can get a discount rate! This container is made in China and comes complete with all the insulation, electric wiring, two windows, and a steel door. The base is a 20 ft shipping container and they are made from a brand new frame. Custom designs can also be made! I will keep you updated on the interior and my build-out to turn this into my personal office space! Stay tuned.
Streets of Sapporo
One more selection of photos to showcase! This is a classic building on Road South 3 in the downtown area. It was close to the site of the event I talked about so I walked right by it several times. This building must have some incredible history attached to it. There is a barber shop, a small restaurant an Izakaya on the second floor and on the far right side is the self-proclaimed “Japan’s smallest standing bar” and I think they are probably right about that, it is tiny! Old buildings like this one stuffed with a variety of shops and restaurants are what make Sapporo and Japan, in general, a great place. So much character and history and the owners and tenants continue to preserve and use it until it completely falls apart. I am sure a building in this state would not be allowed to open for business in the USA. At some point, these old buildings will fall apart or an earthquake will take them out and they will be gone forever. I have decided to stop and document each one I find whenever the chance arises. At least I will have a few pictures to look at when they are gone.
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