Show overview
TOKYO JAZZ JOINTS has been publishing since 2020, and across the 6 years since has built a catalogue of 112 episodes. That works out to roughly 85 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a monthly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 36 min and 54 min — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Music show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 2 weeks ago, with 11 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2020, with 42 episodes published.
From the publisher
An Irishman and American walk into a bar...Two obsessed foreigners share the stories behind their pseudo-religious pilgrimage around the unique beauty of Japan's hidden world of jazz bars and coffee houses, documented on www.tokyojazzjoints.com and in the Tokyo Jazz Joints photobook published in 2023.
Latest Episodes
View all 112 episodesTop Ten Countdown #1: George, James, Philip & Charles
Top Ten Countdown #2: Expression...Transition...Ascension.
Top Ten Countdown #3: A Long Way to Go Out To (Curry) Lunch
Top Ten Countdown #4: Daytime Drinking
Top Ten Countdown #5: Count Yourself Lucky Ray
Top Ten Countdown #6: It's Always Sonny in Kyushu
Two saxophone colossi dominate this episode as we hit a couple of epic Kyushu joints.
Top Ten Countdown #7: Walls Come Tumbling Down
More craic than intellectualism as our Top 10 countdown continues north of the wall.
Top Ten Countdown #8: Enter (and Exit) Number 8
Our Top 10 countdown continues in two very different apartment buildings.
Top Ten Countdown #9: The Weird and The Welcoming
We continue our 'Ten Year Tokyo Jazz Joints Top of the Pops Top 10' countdown in style at opposite ends of the country and with the mandatory mention of the magically replenishing horse oil.
Top Ten Countdown #10: Charles in Charge
We begin our 'Ten Year Tokyo Jazz Joints Top of the Pops Top 10' countdown in style with two joints linked by an underdog.
Tokyo Jazz Joints on the Stephen McCauley Show [Radio Ulster]
Philip chats all things jazz kissa with Stephen McAuley in his 'JUJU' pop-up as part of the 2025 'Sound of Belfast' festival. Originally broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster on November 21st 2025.
STILL Standing Men! [Live from Pithecanthropus]
*TW: Intense ASMR-style chewing at the beginning of the episode* A milestone that no one expected to see! Least of all us… We finally reach the 100th episode of the podcast, and where else to mark the occasion than the project’s spiritual home, Kamata’s inimitable Chokuritsu Enjin (Pithecanthropus Erectus).
Back in Black
A double tap on the new and improved Incus and the usual chasm of James’s pop culture knowledge, followed by a few old and familiar friends, as our May 2025 adventures come to an end.
Ryukyu Rhythms
Philip's map-reading skills desert him before an awkward intro at Eagle. We also discuss two incredible Okinawa joints as the project finally expands to the fifth of Japan's major islands.
NOT a tourist attraction
Mostly talk about bananas, with a jazz kissa soundtrack.
Another Bricks in The Wall b/w The Bird Has Flown
In Episode 96, after a subterranean trip to Japan's bubble-economy yeatrs, we survive our very own Squid Game on the way to see an old friend – and all the mixed emotions that stirs up.
One mug, and adult hot chocolate in a cup (not mug)
Good stories told badly as we take bickering to the level of an Olympic sport, and get deep into the true nature of crockery with the truly ying and yang of Kyoto jazz joints.
Third Egg of the Day Drives Coltrane Away
We are California dreamin’ on this episode until Philip’s ideal world is shattered by some devastating breaking news. Was it merely a mirage?
Double-Edged Coin
James continues to offend people with mixed metaphors and cultural pitfalls before we end up whiling the evening away in an absolute gem of a spot to cap a long first day back in Osaka.
Blueberry Submuffins
Reunited in Kansai we hit the trail with a shaky start for nearly not quite three joints, well sort of three...