['Tokyo Beat' is a new, bi-weekly GameSetWatch-exclusive column by writer Ryan Winterhalter, focusing on expressions of game culture in Japan]

A small white sign marks the entrance to Super Deluxe, a bar in Tokyo’s party center, Roppongi. It’s easy to miss, but it catches my eye just as I pass. I enter the building, and make my way downstairs. I arrive in time to find a table, but not early enough to score a place to sit. The venue is packed.

Over two hundred and fifty people mill around drinking, chatting, and waiting for the event to start. The crowd is diverse, mostly comprised of expatriates from one country or another. English and Japanese seem to be the languages of choice, but occasionally I hear a bit of German or French. Finally, the lights dim and Pecha-Kucha Night begins.

Pecha-Kucha Night is simple. A presenter comes on stage with a slide show prepared. He or she has twenty slides and twenty seconds for each one, for a total of six minutes and forty seconds. The first presenter is a photographer, John Sypal, who discusses his photography featuring f