Themed cafes are a “must-see” in Japan. The very first one I went to was a 80’s video game cafe in Shinjuku named 8bit Cafe.

The first challenger was finding this place- it’s really well hidden and I was wandering around for half an hour (smartphone with navigation in hand) trying to find the place. After a long walk in the rain I found it- it’s just next to the C5 exit from Shinjukusanchome Subway Station. 

Here's a helpful movie with the area around the entrance to cafe:

Next challenge was finding the cafe when it’s open- because I haven’t thought about checking opening hours I was very surprised to find out that it’s opening at 7pm and is closed on Tuesdays. So check before going!

After figuring out where and when to go, the rest is pretty easy. Cafe is located (like most themed cafes I’ve been to) in a small flat. There’s only one room available, with four tables and a few seats by the counter and a lot of old games. And I mean really A LOT. They are everywhere- on the shelves, on the tables, on the counter and between chairs. Most of them are still functioning so guests can spend time playing Mario Cart or some Game Boy or Family Computer games- there’s a whole collection of them. All of them are available for use at any time. There’s a queue to Mario Cart though (can't say that I'm surprised with that). 

There are some grand rules in this place- not many of them, and they are all listed in English in “instruction manual” section of the menu. Here’s what it says:

Not bad right? After getting in and paying the cover fee me and my friend had to sit by the counter (no free tables available) so we’ve ordered our drinks. The menu itself is an interesting thing- each drink’s name is a reference to some game. There’s Dr. Mario (which looks really cool), Princess Peach Temptation, Puyo Pyuo, Battle Master Lv 99 and many others- each with ingredients listed next to the name. 

The staff is really nice and friendly, so we had a pleasant chat while sitting next to the bar. It's really easy to feel comfortable in this place! After a while we were able to move to the actual table- with the game installed inside it, just next to the Mario Cart console. After playing a while we had to switch tables again- apparently this is a normal thing there- so that everyone can see everything. While at first it might seem strange, it actualy gave us opportunity to experience more of the things this place has to offer.

What I really enjoyed (besides playing old games, of course) was a sketchbook corner. There’s a lot of notebooks stuffed everywhere around the place, each of them full of sketches made by previous visitors. There were drawings, simple schemes, letters and short messages, all of them really interesting. 

After a while of digging, we managed to find the “present” Sketchbook- the one with empty sheets on which we could add something too.