Overcrowding at Joshin

[Primarch]

More and more recently there has been a case of more players than tables at the Joshin Kids Land events. Whilst it is great that more people are active in the hobby in the area, it kind of sucks to turn up and not be able to get a game in. It is also unfair on the Japanese players when all the Ex-pats show up and hog the tables.

Whilst there are sometimes games run in Ogaki and Kuwana (Cheers to the Admiral and DLord), I feel that there is definitely more demand for games in Nagoya and we need to do something to sort out this problem.

So what are we going to do guys?

[Admiral-Badruck]

To be honest I think there needs to be a new event scheduled once a month in a bigger venue and perhaps on a Saturday. I would go as far as to say the Joshin event is a very good place but it has totally been out grown..
while team games are loads of fun 1 on 1 games are in most cases more fulfilling.

I have recently changed Jobs and I am going to keep my Saturdays open. 3 week ends Family time 1 weekend Gaming in Nagoya

If I can find a good location in Ichinomia or Nagoya I would be up for organizing something monthly on Saturdays

[job]

I think it would be a good idea to find another location. Hopefully one that is cheaper then the Kanayama location (even though that is really nice place).
In the meantime, is there no chance we could ask Joshin to keep a few folding tables? While there may be no more tables to play on at times, it seems like there is space to place a few more.

[The Other Dave]

I think a bigger venue will solve many of the problems - my understanding is that we're basically only using Joshin for "historical" reasons anyway (namely, that back in the mists of time they actually sold GW stuff), right? A little bit of poking shows scads of community centers in Nagoya.

Feel free to schedule more events, but I, for one, can't really take an 8-hour day of gaming more than once a month. If it was feasible to have 3-4 hour evening sessions I could probably make more of those, though.

Splitting off from the Japanese guys strikes me as something I wouldn't like to do under any circumstances.

[Mike the Pike]

What TOD said.

I've been saying for a while now that it's time to move on.

However, If we do move to a new location, it should definitely be in conjunction/consultation with the J. Players. Let's put it to 'em on Sunday.

As for venues, there must be other suitable places in Nagoya. The only problem is finding them.

Any new venue must fulfill a few stipulations though:

- Open all day on Sunday (preferably 9am onwards)

- At least 6 gaming tables i.e. 18 standard conference tables

- Good access. Must be within one short transfer from either Kanayama or Nagoya station. Preferably with some reasonably priced parking nearby.

-Ability to make a standing booking, rather than having to do every month.

Now, who wants to set about finding such a place?

[asch]

I respectfully consent to MtP.
I agree that bigger venue will solve many problems. It matters how good a new venue we can find.
Besides the historical things, good things about Joshin are its cheap cost, good accessibility, and availability. It takes less than an hour to reach there from most of Tokai area. It also provides motor park ( though it costs another 1000 yen. )
We can book Joshin venue without worrying about going into red, almost every last Sunday of month. It's availabe almost everytime we want, partly because it's a sort of "back yard" of the shop, partly because of good relatioship between the shop manager and Kondo-san. There are many bad things about it, of course. Poor condition (air conditioner,
It's worth noting that even in the last year there were a few events when only a few people came and played. Number of foreign players coming to Joshin goes like ebbs and tides. In Holiday seasons from Halloween (or Thanksgiving Day) to the New Year's day and summer holiday season, we expect much less foreign people to come because many of them coming home to their countries.
When we search for a new venue, we should check out if it has (1) rooms of various capacity and (2) internet or phone booking sysytem with some certainty to book a room every month as well as capacity, access, and prices.

[Primarch]

It's worth noting that even in the last year there were a few events when only a few people came and played. Number of foreign players coming to Joshin goes like ebbs and tides. In Holiday seasons from Halloween (or Thanksgiving Day) to the New Year's day and summer holiday season, we expect much less foreign people to come because many of them coming home to their countries.
When we search for a new venue, we should check out if it has (1) rooms of various capacity and (2) internet or phone booking sysytem with some certainty to book a room every month as well as capacity, access, and prices.

Well said.
One of the things I have found is that sometimes there are only a handful of people at the event (I think Underdweller went once and she was the only non-Japanese player there all day) and at other times the Mie and Gifu crowd all come down on the same day and it gets very cramped.
Joshin isnt a bad place to play, but having more days and more space for games would be better. If there were more days available for gaming, people wouldnt have to come along for the full 8 hours if they didnt want to (ToD). You could come along, play a game or two and then head back home because you could always get in more games a week or two later, rather than feeling that you HAD to play for 8 hours because you wouldn't roll a dice for another month.

[Admiral-Badruck]

I think that is the kicker for guys in Nagoya a 3 hour game night once a week could be the real ticket...that way you could come in have a game and go home... only trouble is Mie and Gifu MTP would not like to make the trip in to Nagoya for just one game then head back home... although that is what I normally do and it is normally what an after noon game of 40k is like at my place...

[Konrad]

Another good thing about Joshin is that there is like, a great big, geeky toy store conveniently downstairs. If we could get another couple of folding tables. Think that if we chipped in and bought some the store managers would let us keep them/donate them to the room?

[me_in_japan]

I havent had the time to come up to Joshin for ages, but I still consider it as something i want to do every month if I can. But, as has been mentioned, Im not about to come up for anything other than a full day of gaming. It takes too long and costs to much to do otherwise. Im also dead, dead against splitting off from the Japanese guys there. Theyre all good guys and we should be building as many bridges between the two groups as possible, not splitting off.

I'm really only available to game once a month, so if the Nagoya-ites want to organise once weekly short gaming sessions then I'm all for it, although I likely wont be involved in them at all. I'd also be fine with an alternative venue, as long as it ticked all the boxes on the (long) list already mentioned.

In short, I like Joshin, but I appreciate that it has its shortcomings. As those shortcomings havent really affected me much, I leave it to those it has to sort it out