Monday Board Game Nights

Hello!

Every Monday, we host boardgame nights from 6pm since we opened in May of 2021. At the beginning, I would be lucky to get even a group of 2-3 people for some games. Fast forward to the present, we regularly have about 8-10 people and sometimes even 3 games happening simultaneously. Shoutout to James for helping me out starting a few months ago. Without his help, I can assume the boardgame nights wouldn’t be as big as it is now.

So who usually comes to boardgame nights?

• You want to play some games but no one to play with

• You want to play specific games but not enough people to play with

• You want to make some friends

• You want to introduce some excitement and social life to your Monday nights 😄

• You want to know what the hype is at LA on Monday Nights

• You want to know why more and more people are getting into boardgames

On other days/times, you can always come in and grab a game to play. Boardgames are not limited to just Monday nights and there is no charge to play. (but please do buy at least a drink so I can pay rent. Here’s the menu)😂

If you are interested, you can check out our Meetup Page or Instagram for more information. Or you can just drop by on Monday nights. There’s almost always a person or two, if not more looking to run some games.

Here’s little bit about the boardgame collection at LA and playing boardgames in Japan

Most of the games at the cafe is my (Erik) personal collection. When I moved back to Japan from America about 3 years ago, I filled up maybe around 3 suitcases just boardgames. (I also had 2 friends bring me a suitcase each because they were planning to visiting Japan a month after I moved back to Japan) Since then, the cafe collection has increased significantly thanks to my impulse buys and some customers who choose to store their games at the cafe or donate it to the cafe.

For many who don’t know (If you live in Japan, you probably know), most apartments aren’t very big and there isn’t a very big culture of inviting friends over unless they already live close or a special event. So the issue of where to play and how to get there has to be taken into account. Most people don’t have cars so public transportation is the only way to get around. This results in smaller boardgames and card-based boardgames to be much more popular and well-known in Japan.

Cafe LA is conveniently located in the heart of Osaka, specifically in Osaka-Namba where most tourists and locals end up whether it’s shopping during the day or planning a night out for dinner and drinks. With many shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, etc in the area, you can easily spend all day within a few block radius.

We get many locals and tourists alike who come in for a short boardgame and a latte (or cocktail😉, or coke (ahem, James) for a short break in their day, wind down for the evening, or pre-game for the night.

So if you are in the area, drop by and hang out. Maybe pull out a boardgame and give me a shout to join your game 😉

Erik