I first met Shunnosuke when he was a gangly 19-year-old art student. We both subscribed to the "give art the flick, let's dance" school of thought. And we did.
In those days Tokyo's cool night options were limited. In Shinjuku, where we both lived, there was Tsubaki House and Boogie Boy, but, for a while, the only place with true grit and longevity was 69 -- which, as it happened, was our favorite.
Though we kept in touch, Shunnosuke surprised me one night by turning up behind the bar at Mix -- a cooler-than-cool concrete bunker in Minami Aoyama. From there, he moved on to work at and manage a variety of Mix-sponsored projects, including MC1000 and both Catalyst clubs -- in Roppongi (short-lived) and Shinjuku (better known). His first independent venture was Edge, an event space-cum-bar in Golden Gai, an area in Shinjuku with frail tenancy rights due to an ongoing struggle with a local developer.