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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
Creator Spotlight: Nakama Anime Bar
Ever wished you could combine your love of anime with good food and company? For this edition of the Creator Spotlight, we explore how Shawn Lim, the owner of Nakama Anime Bar and Café, did just that. We also speak to Tom, a regular patron, who narrates his unique experiences at Nakama. In our casual conversation today (recorded in person), we discuss:
- The inspirations for the Nakama Anime Bar and Café.
- Each guests journey into anime and their evolution since.
- Which anime characters do we relate to the most?
These passionate anime enthusiasts share their experiences with this anime haven that offers authentic Japanese cuisine, a lively bar scene, and a hub for fellow anime lovers and event-goers. From participating in anime trivia and Smash Bros tournaments to enjoying karaoke and monthly one-of-a-kind events, there's always something to look forward to with the vibrant atmosphere found at Nakama. So, join us for this incredible journey that promises to be filled with anime, fun, food, and a whole lot of passion.
Find out more info about Nakama Anime Bar (and Café) on their website.
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Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment.
Speaker 2:Wait for it Gaming. Wait for it Anime.
Speaker 1:Plus Ultra.
Speaker 2:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is Wait for it.
Speaker 3:Hey everybody, welcome back to the Wait for it podcast and welcome to the latest edition of Creator Spotlight, a brand new series that we are introducing here in the podcast. This will be our second episode, eric, that we have done And we are super excited to do that here with a couple of local creators that we have gotten to know here over the past few months. And, eric, i've just been looking so forward to this and I can't honestly wait to have this conversation and for our listeners to hear it as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been a little bit in the making. You guys have heard us talk about Nakama obsessively over the past few months. We've been coming into the market, we've been going to the cafe, we've been doing things we're about to get into.
Speaker 3:We were neighbors at BetaQuest.
Speaker 4:We were, we were And one of the things that made us want to start this series and you know we're doing it live in person, which is really, really cool here in Jacksonville, florida We really wanted to highlight people that are doing amazing things, amazing individuals that have different talents. We had Matthew Elkins, the voice actor from Blue Lock, on the last episode. We've got Sean from the Nakama Anime Bar in Cafe here, and then, of course, very sturdy regular Tom. So feel free, guys, introduce yourselves, you know, and talk a little bit about just yourselves, and we'll get into all the specifics in a minute.
Speaker 2:My name is Sean Lim. I am the owner of Nakama Anime Bar and Nakama Anime Cafe, right next door to us. The bar has been open for roughly nine months now, just going pretty well. It's a lot of fun, a lot of cool people coming in and out, and I really appreciate these guys for doing the podcast for us. And here's Tom.
Speaker 1:Tom Panditch. I have been on a podcast called The Greatest Movie Ever for a very, very long time. Another photo a local podcast as one of the co-hosts, talking about movies and male sorts of things, And I am the number one patron and if you want to take that title from me, you have to kill me.
Speaker 4:Well, listen hopefully no killing here, hopefully.
Speaker 1:For God's sakes, please don't kill me. I'm very weak. No, no.
Speaker 4:We did get to enjoy some wonderful sake, but not that much sake.
Speaker 4:So, let's go ahead and jump into it. You know the creator spotlight series that we've created And this is going to be something that you know. We're going to spend some time talking about a few different things. You know, sean, you mentioned a little bit about the Nakama Anime Bar, kind of where it started. Why don't we just jump into maybe both of those topics, since we've already started to get into what really inspired this? Right now, we are located in one of the karaoke rooms in the bar Super cool aesthetic. We actually were customers first Back in December.
Speaker 3:Back in December. Yeah, for Jordan's birthday.
Speaker 4:Before we even got to meet you, before we even got to really do a partnership like this. So what inspired all of this? from here and next door, I have an Asian background.
Speaker 2:My last name is Lim. I spent some time in Malaysia as a kid. I grew up in Asian restaurants. That's my livelihood. That's in my blood is restaurants. The bar aspect of it is my favorite part of the industry. I love anime. My wife loves karaoke. We took everything that I've learned and accumulated from the years and put together and created this thing. It's great. It's a lot of fun. I'm super passionate about it and try to share that with people.
Speaker 2:Let's go to restaurants that you've been a part of. I was one of the owners previously of Okinawa. It's a Japanese girl house on Roosevelt. I've opened several restaurants with my dad in Knoxville, tennessee. He still owns a lot of those restaurants. I actually opened a bar previously in Knoxville too. I had to speak easy. That was a part of I'm self-taught with the craft bar tending. After I opened my bar I worked for a lot of really high-end craft bars. I was a part of Wasabi in Townsend here in Jacksonville, florida. I was a part of Crane Ramen on Riverside here in Jacksonville as well. I've been doing it for quite a long time. There are numerous other restaurants that I haven't listed. It's just in my blood. I know restaurants, but having a bar, an anime bar, is fun. I enjoy it. I try to show that and share that with people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. I think that's amazing Just being able to come here and enjoy everything that you've put together. One of the things that and Phil, maybe you could speak a little bit to this as well. As Tom, we come here often. We're not close to this location. I'm in St John's County. It's a bit of a drive. You're over on Atlantic. We keep coming here, especially for the events that you have going on. There's so many community-led things that are happening here at Nakama that we just had to get your name out there. Help really grow what you're doing here. You're doing already a fantastic job doing that, but we wanted to be a part of that. Phil, what was your impact here being a customer? Now, obviously, we've done a lot more together, but what has it been like for you coming here?
Speaker 3:One thing that I'm sure we won't be surprised Tom talking about is just the sense of community coming in here. And again, eric, you and I have a familiarity with Riverside and Jack's Beach. While we can have fun down there, it's not necessarily the type of communal vibe that we're looking for right now, either in this stage of our life, or not really the like-minded type of people that we're looking for. And that's what is going on here, which is awesome, and, tom, i assume that's what you have seen here just grow from day one as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm very, very close to here in terms of driving distance, So it's very very nice for me to have this place right around the corner.
Speaker 1:So it's like, yeah, there are bartenders here are great. The sense of community here is great. I've met a lot of friends here. Everybody's been very inviting. I have some new lifelong friends that I've met over the past six, seven months that I consider some of my best friends here.
Speaker 1:And you know, it's also the type of thing where it's a karaoke bar but you don't necessarily have to sing karaoke if you come here. Like there are plenty of times when it's just like pre-chill vibes, good selection beer, good selection sake. I had educated myself on sake, which is not something that is something I've always been interested in but have never really had the ability to like get into, because there's been no place like this And you go to other restaurants where they're serving sake for three times the price of here. Like the prices are very fair And it's also the aesthetic here is like the vibes are maculate here. I love this place for the vibes. Just coming in here is like There are very, very few places like this in Jacksonville. I would say even across all Florida There are very few places like this that have like just The vibes that you also don't have to drink alcohol to come hang out.
Speaker 1:No, No there's plenty of sodas.
Speaker 1:Japanese sodas, non-alcoholic drinks, and the thing is is that you have your Pepsi products But you also run stubborn soda, which is pretty cool. It's like kind of like an independent soda type line. So it's like, again It has the vibes of this type of place where it's like you're going to get something different here And it's like maybe I'm not going to get a Coca-Cola But maybe I can get like a black cherry stubborn soda, for example. And you know, it being a bar, there are also plenty of good Japanese beers here, a couple American beers and just Glethrop sake.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, Sean, we're gonna kind of jump to you about just the obvious anime influence. That's here. But some of the cool things that were just mentioned, like the sake, it's not just like a menu, it like talks about sake, which I thought was really cool, and we're gonna get to the cafe in a second And then Sean, watch me put in like three separate orders, continuing to order food. So we're gonna, we're gonna get there the, the new, the cafe next door, but talking about especially the bar aesthetic, you know, you see the, the manga panels, the lighting in the room, all the posters, all the imagery. Let's talk a little bit about your introduction to anime. So a little throwback to a series that we just closed up And kind of harping back to what got you into it. And then from that, where have you kind of evolved with anime? So where was that starting point, that origin story, and where are you now? Are you still obsessed with it? Are you still in the mix? Do you stick with the classics?
Speaker 2:talk to us a little bit about you know, your experience with anime, definitely so, like a lot of people, mine started Dragonball and Pokemon and to this day I'm still a huge fan of Pokemon, the anime I follow it just to keep relevant. But you know it's not really adult themed anymore. I play Pokemon cards, we run Pokemon League here. You know I'm still highly involved with Pokemon. Same thing with Dragon Ball too. And then you know, in the teens with adult swim and Cowboy bebop, that kind of always stuck around with me a lot. And then My early 20s, a lot of working just full-time into it. And then you know I'd watch some here and there.
Speaker 2:Some one piece, definitely big inspiration on this place with the name Nakama and the sense of community and you know Being more than friends. You know, just to call someone friend, this is a lot more to that. You know being good friends. So huge influence from one piece. And then One punch, that's really like when that came out. One punch, like it's so funny, it got me right back into Anime, got me out of you know. So some hard places. So one punch man, definitely top favorite. I can put it on any day and it's hilarious to me. I love it. Um sword on online introduced me into isekai's, so those are top favorite for me also. And then nowadays, the new stuff. You know. I like to say relevant, like to talk to people that come in here, because you get all kinds of people, so even Demon Slayer like it's beautiful, it's, it's good to watch, like yeah.
Speaker 4:We were watching Demon Slayer when I came to the cafe. We had the episode on. We got sucked in. So I totally agree with that. With the anime that's coming out, obviously there's so much going on, but sticking with that intro theme, tom, let us know a little bit about your introduction as well, if you had anything to add on as well.
Speaker 1:Well, i'm a little older than Sean So I started in the VHS days. I'm not that much older So I didn't start with like Robotech in the 80s or anything like that, but started with like going to blockbuster and renting tapes and stuff. It was like I think the first day I saw was An old dub of Dragon Ball before it got syndicated, before Z was syndicated, where they had the first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball. I saw this stuff and it's like Wild Hand would catch reruns of Speed Racer on Nickelodeon and Got into it there. And then Dragon Ball Z, sailor Moon on USA Network and Dragon Ball Z on like the local Fox affiliate.
Speaker 1:At 7 am They get to that damn Freeza song and then Goku lands and it's like, okay, here we go, we're gonna fight freeze, the fine, like. And then it just starts all over again. It's like when Cartoon Network picked that stuff up, it was like incredible that it was like, okay, we're finally going to fight freeza. All these voices are different, weird, huh. But yeah, i've been huge fan of anime 30 years now. Did the whole fan sub thing, with first VHS fan subs and then digital fan subs, have a metric ton of DVDs and now Blu-ray is even a couple 4k's things, and I Watch old stuff, i watch new stuff, i'm pretty current with a lot of stuff, and the thing here is that Sean's always running anime in here, so it's like, okay, i know this thing, i don't know this thing, i don't know this thing. Let me ask about what's going on here. And It got to the point where there would be days where, like every Saturday, we would come in and we'd have chainsaw man Saturdays.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we have. We have. We brought some people that are watching for the first time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we're watching her right now. She actually just texted me about something She's very upset about, an episode one.
Speaker 1:Season one has a bunch of bombers Yeah we told what happened, season two will have so many bombers. Oh my god, are you current with manga?
Speaker 3:I am on volume 10 because I had to take a break if I said If I took a break from the manga too, if I said the worst snowball fight to you doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm there.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, i'm there.
Speaker 4:Let's put it this way Phil Phil gives me so much shit all the time for how much manga I read Like I will just go through Shonen Jump Especially what are you reading right now? Ka Kaidu, number eight. Okay, kaguya Sama, love is. Kaguya Sama is great. Yes, yes, i am a huge Kaguya Sama fan.
Speaker 1:I just want people to watch it. So bad.
Speaker 1:The thing is is that it's one of the few shows that I'm like you have to watch. I'm not a sub dub guy, but you have to watch the subtitle version of it because the dub gets something fundamentally wrong. The narrator in the sub is like straight lays, like I'm going to talk, like this is all very important, i'm going to be the straightest narrator I possibly can be, and the dub makes this horrible choice where it's like oh, it's a wacky situation, oh, here we go. Okay, something funny is happening. So, yeah, watch the subtitle of Kaguya.
Speaker 4:Sama Absolutely, and like the manga is so good and there's there's so many other ones. I think one that I just started is called like Tenmaku Cinema And I'm starting the one piece journey, nice, because I can't quite set aside the time for the anime. And you mentioned like Dragon Ball Z and talking about like the weight and anticipation. The anime for one piece is very much like that. I'm enjoying it. People told me to wait until, like the alabaster arc to enjoy it. I enjoyed it from the beginning.
Speaker 1:But my brother is watching one piece again and he made it through Water 7. And now he's watching on Netflix And he's like, yeah, this is great, this is fun. And one piece like I have watched most of one piece. And the thing about one piece is that, like somebody said, something like the current arc that they're on in the anime and they finished in the manga, what is it called Wano? Wano is like longer right now in terms of episodes than all of Hunter Hunter. Like it's a commitment. If you want to get into one piece And that's one arc, that's not even the entire show, that's one arc You can watch full ass shows in the time that would take you to get through the current arc of one piece.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's definitely tough And you know, one piece is really great. I love it from the start. I've got so much to go, but just what I've already seen has been amazing, you know. And then, talking back to Phil, like he just started back to that original point of the manga, he just he had to start the manga for Chainsaw Man because he loved it so much. Now, when he had to go over chapters of names of people that had been killed. So if you've read the manga, you know what happens.
Speaker 3:It happened once he got to about. That was like Eric what's happening here?
Speaker 4:He just kept going to the right. He's like what does it stop? It's amazing.
Speaker 3:I can't wait for season two And by the more blue lock. So I did start that.
Speaker 4:Yes, and blue lock is so good. So many shows, right, yeah, so many shows that we could talk about, kind of bringing it back to where we are and, like you know, with Nakuma, sean, tell us a little bit about the cafe idea next door. So, this bar you know you talked a little bit about when it started. The cafe just recently started its soft opening And, as I've mentioned, i'm such a huge fan of the food, the environment, the vibe Once again transferring over there. Can you talk to us a little bit about what inspired you to the idea of a cafe next door? You obviously have a background, but doing a bar in a cafe right next to each other, how'd that happen?
Speaker 3:We drink to the cafe first.
Speaker 4:It's true, let's do that. The answer is always yes, all right, here we go. Oh, that is so good. It should also be noted that I've never drunk like any of this type of like, anything like this, until I got here. Absolutely addicting, absolutely addicting. So good, but Sean, tell us a little bit, now that we've cheered to it, a little bit about what inspired that idea of running a bar and a cafe and how it happened. Right next door.
Speaker 2:We looked out on the space became available and you know I talked it over with my wife and it was a no brainer, you know, to be next door and have that opportunity to provide guest or food for our guest. You know I see people bringing in food every day which is allowed. They bring McDonald's or pizzas and everything which is fine, but you know there's not much around here and that fits the theme. So if you're here for a cultural experience, you want to stick to that same theme with the food too. I think it blends very well And that's what I'm good at, that's what my background is, is restaurants, and it just kind of was a perfect storm. It worked out and I'm really excited for it. We still have another week of soft opening and we're going to do official grand opening on the fifth and have some fun things coming up Eventually. We'd like to connect it to you also and have where you can just walk right through from the bar into the cafe.
Speaker 4:Yeah, i think that's gonna be amazing. By the time this episode releases, i think that will probably have all already happened, which is amazing, in addition to the fact that there's a market every single month, which is so crazy. You know, we've had a lot of vendor friends that have been here as well. Joanne draws. We'll throw her link in the in the show notes as well, if you like to. You know, get some art. We've definitely shouted her out before, but you know, tom, what? have you been to the cafe? Have you checked out?
Speaker 1:Have I been to the cafe?
Speaker 1:I'm on a first-name basis with Ed chef there. So The thing about the cafe is that it's all authentic Japanese food, so you can get Octopus balls, for example, takoyaki with Japanese mayo and bonito flakes, miso soup, odin ramen all sorts of great options there and relatively affordable too. Like I got a couple of what? where? where you call them yaku Niku, onigiri, yeah, which are Yakiniku, sort of like a sweet, like teriyaki sauce, and onigiri is rice balls. So I got that. I got some miso soup. I'm also vegetarian, so it's like very, very Nice to have a lot of different options over there, but there are plenty like they're Incredible chicken from what I've heard. From what I've heard.
Speaker 4:I think I'm just. Is onigiri over there now? Yep, okay, i don't think it was there when I tried it last time, so I'm so excited, see, it's like.
Speaker 3:Every single time we get here.
Speaker 4:Is there anything you're specifically excited for that you've seen already or that you've heard? because you already knew? we tried like everything to Tom's point. It's so affordable that you could either get a meal or you could just share with a bunch of people, which I recommend bringing a bunch of people. Get a bunch of food, try one of everything, because you're gonna get addicted. But, phil, is there anything you're looking forward to?
Speaker 3:Nothing specific, as you guys talked about everything last time you here, but my daughter went to a sleepover with her friends. She's a teenager, doesn't ever want to hang out with adults, right? She asked can I come with you to the interview first so I can eat and then you can drop me off? Sorry, liz, when you know we'll be back plenty of time. So no, i'm excited to try everything because you guys had to come. You guys came last week.
Speaker 4:I saw fast 10, which was also Yeah, so totally different but you know, just kind of transitioning into, you know, as we talk a little bit more about Each other and kind of our experiences. One of the questions I want to pose and Shawn, you've had time to prepare for this time. Yeah, you probably have not. You have Good, all right, that's. You're an overachiever. So I want to ask if you were to pick three characters From anime that you relate to the most, who would those three characters be?
Speaker 2:so, shawn, let's go ahead and start with you and then let's bring it over to Tom I knew the questions at a time I I talked with Tom about it, so I I Love Hunter Hunter and I don't go. He's not my favorite character, but he's super positive and I feel like I relate to him the most. I see the positive in everything. You know, i keep, i don't think anything negative of any, anything or any one. You know everything's positive, so a perfect, perfect fit for me. Go freaks and then Let's see.
Speaker 2:That was a big one Top, top 10, maybe top five for me favorite shows. I mean, i could say Saitama, you know, like just all the hard work and everything it takes to put in, and then you know, stuff pays off over time. So I could say that and he's one of my favorite characters, so You know it's another one man, the third one that's tough there ones tough.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we're coming back to you, tom.
Speaker 1:I think you might have some, but Shawn, i gave it a little bit of thought ahead of time. Have you seen the show Bulfury? I have not but I have heard great things about it. Okay, the main character in maple is named maple That's her like MMO name and a big fan of that show. She is just the sweetest person on the planet and a lot of times she Deals with her problems by eating, so she like eat sponsors and stuff, and it's like I can absolutely relate to that.
Speaker 1:Beyond that, though, there's this another show he brings up Saitama from one punch man and I'm a big fan of the manga artist other Among the ones show mob psycho 100. Yeah, so I really like the mob, just because I like to think I'm an earnest and honest person, like I, like to think that I see the best in people. And then third one, i Guess maybe jet black from cowboy bebop, because I'm too old for the shit And, granted, he's only like 28, which is very funny.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, that's a good one. I mean, that's a good choice. I've watched Cowboy Bebop recently, so that tracks. Yeah. yeah, i like that, phil, while we're giving Sean a chance to figure out his third. I don't know if you prepared for this question, but I'm going to ask you two.
Speaker 3:I'm not, but I you've heard me talk about this. I'm not sure if you guys ever watched Autaxi. Autaxi, no, otakawa. Definitely I would like to. I definitely mask all my problems and not think about them until it's way too late. So definitely that, denji, because I'm a huge simp. Sometimes That's a I can, i can. I didn't want to come out and say he said it, not me, and then if I had got a third one, that third one is is difficult. Um, i just love Reagan.
Speaker 1:Reagan right.
Speaker 4:I love that supporting character in any anime. He really, he really is fantastic. He's so good Yeah.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, I think.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's good. You just, Sean, did you figure out your third?
Speaker 2:Yeah, aaron, attack on Titan.
Speaker 4:Aaron, attack on Titan OK yeah, that's kind of kind of scares me a little bit. So you're going to burn down just one day.
Speaker 2:It's just like I don't want to hurt the world. Just how he's just so caring about the people around him. You know he's just looking out for them kind of deal. I like that a lot.
Speaker 1:He wants. Yeah Well, what you say? season one, season two.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we won't. We can pick and choose Which version Exactly, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not quite rumbling Aaron yet Yeah.
Speaker 4:That makes a lot of sense, but this has been a ton of fun. You know a lot of the conversations we're having, you know, just talking anime, talking about the great stuff that's happening here as we're kind of transitioning to the end of our spotlight here. You know Sean and Tom too, but Sean kind of focusing on the event specifically that you have going on, things that are coming up. You talked a little bit about like what to expect with the cafe. This is an opportunity for everybody watching and or listening. You know, what do you have going on? You know, and what are your plans for the future? We've kind of talked about some things that you might be interested in doing. So kind of looking at the rest of 2023 and beyond. You know, what can we expect from Nakama?
Speaker 2:We love doing events. We're filled with events every week. We're doing something. Every Thursday we do anime trivia, which Tom absolutely crushes. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Is it teams or is it individual? It's a ton of fun.
Speaker 2:It's awesome. It's mostly anime trivia. We'll throw in a sports question to throw everyone off every now and then, but it's, i'll say 80, 90 percent anime, right, so a lot of fun knowing that Wednesday we do Pokemon League and it's sanctioned by Pokemoncom, so that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Tuesdays, we just started doing smash tournaments. We'll probably throw in some other games, maybe Mario Kart and maybe some other anime related fighting games, but Smash Bros, it's a lot of fun. I just found my main character too, so it's Tom's witness, some of that. Nice, okay.
Speaker 2:So many more events though I mean you first Sunday of the month is the market, which you guys have mentioned already. We have maybe 12 vendors that come into our small space, but still makes it. We still make it work And it's. It's a ton of fun. A lot of cool people come in and do that Gundam Gundam day The third Sunday of every month. So this is every month. We have these things going on And then we'll throw in. We've done some sake pairing events with my head chef next door, Evan. He's came and catered and we've done full pairings with sake experts, Some sake sommeliers. Is it like a? is it like a white?
Speaker 3:Like a sake tasting, yeah, right Tasting, yeah, those are ticketed private events.
Speaker 2:We have another one probably coming next month. I think we're still working that out.
Speaker 1:And you don't. Well, if you want to dress up like You don't have to dress up for any of those things, it's just usually like show up for him. But every Friday is Saturday. There's a DJ in here every time Tonight, which doesn't help the listeners right now but tonight there's an old school versus new school cosplay night.
Speaker 1:Nice, it's happening, but you run cosplay events once a month, some type of cosplay thing. But every Friday and Saturday there's a DJ, different people Satellite Frank is on there, awesomest Prime is on there. He's done a bunch of nerd events around here, a couple other guys who pop in every once in a while, so it's It's a very good time. And Again, you've got the DJ going playing anime music, video game music, some other stuff occasionally. And then you got karaoke, which is always fun to see somebody get up there and like Should I be nice or should I?
Speaker 3:They do.
Speaker 1:Karaoke. If you don't want to sing in front of everybody, there are private rooms. We're in one of the private rooms.
Speaker 3:I'm worried right now.
Speaker 4:I'm there were in. There was some people singing from the TV and they were yeah, you're afraid don't worry don't worry about that, but really awesome stuff, you know.
Speaker 4:Sean Tom, any other final words, and then Phil, you know, kind of throw anything in there as well about Nakama, anything you want to say. If somebody hasn't come here, you know why should they come, and this has been awesome. It's been so much fun being able to do this. But just closing us out, any closing remarks about Nakama, about the podcast interview we've done here, just anything in general.
Speaker 2:Just want to let everyone know we're super welcoming environment, very positive, very good vibes. Everyone is welcome And if this place is for you, if you're about sake or gaming or anime or just Japanese culture, you there's something here for you and you know, if you, if you get it, then you know you're gonna fall in love with the place. That's, that's really it. Just it's super welcoming environment.
Speaker 1:I love it one thing is I think that needs to be emphasized here is that I'm friends with a lot of anime people who don't drink and even though this is a bar, you do not have to drink here to feel like a part of the community and you can go play. There's a dedicated n64 hooked up. There's a dedicated switch hooked up. Sean's got a couple other TVs. They rolls out on occasion for smash nights and things like that. So you don't.
Speaker 1:It's important to think that even though this is a bar, there are so many things going on that aren't like typical bar things. There's trivia where, like one of my best friends in the world doesn't drink at all and he comes out for trivia and has a great time. There's karaoke At any time. You can just go up to the stage, even if you don't want to reserve a private room, and just see your heart out Smash. There's n64 where you can play like old school Pokemon stadium or Super Mario 64 and all that stuff. There's an arcade machine. He has the Jojo's fighting machine, the old 2d capcom fighter which takes quarters, and Pokemon League, all sorts of things. There's always something to do here and there's actually Even if you don't like want to buy a drink or anything like that. There's a pretty good selection of merch here. That's and may merch if you want to buy stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, you walk in, It's it, you. It's right there before you even get to the bar, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like and Pokemon cards, magic, the gathering cards, all sorts of card games, some D&D miniatures, all sorts of stuff. So there's a good selection stuff here that if you want to do something like that, it's a perfect place to have board games. We never talk about the board games in here. Like people come in, set up and they're like, okay, this, i'm going to get a raman a, i'm going to play magic for the next three hours. I'm going to get a raman a, i'm going to play cards against humanity for the next two hours and hang out. It's a good place to come and just hang out. It again, the vibes are immaculate here.
Speaker 3:Like Tom said, don't let the word bar Scare you if you, if you don't drink, certainly fine, as we pour By the word bar, i guess just to kind of. You know to wrap this up here with the guys and Just to say for Sean and as well as you, tom, just one of the things that draws us so much to all these conventions that we have gotten to go to and now we get to work To, is a lot of these, a lot of people that are into this fandom. It's really the only location where they feel like they get to be themselves. They're around like-minded people, they get to hang out with their friends, and now there is a dedicated place for that here in.
Speaker 3:Jacksonville. So thank you so much for creating the space and, like I said, a safe space and you know getting letting us meet people. You know every single time we come here and Tom Yeah, I'll just be passed out on the floor most days.
Speaker 1:The only person here who is not only doing the shots of sake but also drinking beer during this interview, yeah, you guys. Fine, I'm just a degenerate.
Speaker 4:No, we're gonna be alright. Well, again.
Speaker 1:Post-airview. That's why you're the professional. I'm the guest, i know Listen this was a blast.
Speaker 4:Really, really enjoy this. We're gonna get ready to take a shot here And then we are gonna go into our closing, so let's go ahead here. One more for Nakama Worth worth the price of admission, i gotta say.
Speaker 2:Phil, go ahead and start closing us out.
Speaker 4:We have any member for it. Please don't say that, cuz I'm nervous the entire time we do this.
Speaker 3:No, guys. Thank you so much again for joining us here. And then we are enjoying the hell out of this creator spotlight. Can't wait to bring you more. If you are brand new to the podcast and you'd like to find the rest of our episode as well as offer social media pages, make sure you check the show notes in the link of this episode As well as if you are listening on either Apple podcast or Spotify. Please leave us. A five-star review is one of the best ways you can support the show, and all links for Nakama will also be in The show notes for this episode, and if you find yourself wanting to support the show a little bit more, eric will let you know how to do that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so in addition to our buzzsprout page, where you can just leave a subscription payment, you can also donate to us on patreon and get exclusive content, such as the video version of this episode, in addition to early access, and you'll be able to support us like some of our patrons named Breyer, who's our?
Speaker 2:favorite person on the pod.
Speaker 4:Yeah he has. If he was closer, he would also be here. Should tell you everything you need to know. But with all that being said, gentlemen, thank you so much for giving us your time again. Such a great vibe here, you don't want to miss it. Something's always going on at Nakama and on the wait for a podcast. So, with that being said, don't forget we've released new episodes every Monday and Wednesday, and all you have to do is wait for it.
Speaker 3:So I heard you're looking for a go-to source for entertainment wait for it gaming.
Speaker 2:Wait for it anime. Plus ultra mr Eric, almighty and fill the Filipino.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they've got you covered and all you got to do is Wait for it. This is the wait for it podcast.
