AKB and their sister groups have their own cafe. Glay and L’arc-en-ciel also have their own cafe, even for a temporary. A little bit different case with LDH, even though the cafe is not related to any group, at least Amazing Coffee is managed under LDH. Then…. how about JE?

JE true to its nature as an anti mainstream agency of course doesn’t have one. So, some fans actually made their own cafe/bar as a hanging place for JE’s group fans. One of them is Bar Kanpachi. Based on the name, you may guest which JE group this bar is dedicated for. Yup, it’s Kanjani8.

We know…. it’s kinda awkward for Muslim like us hanging out in a bar. Worry not, they also serve a non-alcoholic beverages. So just pretend we were chilling in a dim lighted cafe, lol. The bar is located in Osaka, open from 6 pm to 12 am. All the information available (at the time we visited this bar) are all in Japanese. So we relied on Google Translate so much to find this bar. But now worry not because we will give you all the information in English. You’re welcome.

The first struggle we faced was to find the exact location. We knew it’s around Namba area, but since the building is written in Japanese so it wasn’t an easy task. Therefore, we suggest you to try find Holiday Inn Hotel in Namba, because the building is just right across the hotel. The bar is in the same building as Cafe Arashick (blog post coming soon).

When we arrived there, no one was visiting because it seemed like the owner close the bar temporarily as preparation for K8 concert the next day (which we found out the day after, will explain it later). But again, we barely understand the notice written in Japanese that he put in front of the door so we just walked in. Gladly, he still welcomed us.

We opted for the cheapest (non-alcoholic) drink set, which cost us around 3000 yen (inclusive tax) for two types of drinks (so expensive!). If you choose the drink set, you can stay for 90 minutes. If you choose individual drink (cost around 800 yen per drink), you have to pay another 500 yen for entrance fee (or maybe staying fee) so you can stay for 60 minutes.

There are several options (which is cleverly named after K8’s song) but we went with whatever the owner choice. We also ordered Takoyaki for snack, partly because that’s the only snack that is written in romaji and we know the ingredients are safe for us. The owner asked our favorite K8 member (Yoko for me, and Ryo for A), then he gave us a coaster with color according to our favorite member. The takoyaki taste good, while the drinks taste like flavored soda (of course lah….).

The interior of course decorated with everything about K8. They use posters and uchiwas to cover the walls and even the ceiling. There is a TV that play self-edited version of K8’s concert DVD. We got one for free (DVD, not TV) after the visit for souvenir.

We didn’t know whether it’s okay to take picture inside the bar, so we took it candidly. Hence the blurry pictures…. Later we found their twitter account, so apparently it’s okay to take pictures.

If you want fanmade goodies, they also sell it there. Sometimes they hold an event for K8’s member birthday party. Kindly check their website and SNS for event information.

We went there twice, not because we love to spend another 3000 yen that can easily give us satisfying lunch/dinner, but because we didn’t understand the notice written in Japanese, again. We initially want to visit Cafe Arasick for lunch which is located on 6th floor. To our surprise it turned out to be Bar Kanpachi!! We also stupidly said yes when the owner asked something in Japanese (later we thought about it, probably he said something along that whether we want to visit Bar Kanpachi or else).  This time, there were quite a lot of customer that were ready to go to K8’s concert that day. To accommodate the increase number of customers, Bar Kanpachi switched place with Cafe Arashick that has larger space. It also happened that day they didn’t serve individual drink, only drink set. Moral of the story: learn Japanese language can save you 3000 yen, lol.

What: Bar Kanpachi, Osaka
Where: 4-5 Souemonchō, Chūō-ku, Ōsaka-shi, Ōsaka-fu 542-0084, Japan  [map]
How to go: About 8 minutes walk from Namba Station (exit 14 or 15B)
How much: Drink set start from 2800 yen (exclude tax); drink start from 800 yen (+500 yen entrance fee, exclude tax); Food start from 770 yen (exclude tax)