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Azure Travelers Tokyo: A Meetup, a Yakatabune Cruise, and a Day in Nakameguro

Published 2025-10-04

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Azure Travelers Tokyo: A Meetup, a Yakatabune Cruise, and a Day in Nakameguro

On October 4, 2025, we held the seventh Azure Travelers meetup, our “Tokyo Trip.” This time, we co-hosted it with the Japan Azure User Group’s 15th anniversary event at Microsoft Japan’s Shinagawa headquarters.

Tokyo did not feel like much of a journey for our regular members, so we planned the pre-event aboard a yakatabune, a traditional Japanese houseboat, to see the city from a different perspective. The day after the meetup, I headed to Nakameguro for mabo noodles and craft beer.

Here is my recap of the meetup and everything I ate and saw along the way.

The Meetup
The Trip
Wrapping Up

The Meetup

Meetup Overview

Azure Travelers is a community built around a simple idea: travel to different parts of Japan and have a great meetup with the local community. We started in Sapporo in January 2024, then traveled to Kobe, Yamagata, Fukuoka, Okinawa, and Ehime. Tokyo was our seventh destination.

7th Azure Travelers Meetup: Tokyo Trip with JAZUG

Date: Saturday, October 4, 2025

Venue: Microsoft Japan’s Shinagawa headquarters

Co-host: Japan Azure User Group (JAZUG)

Hashtags: #AzureTravelers, #jazug

Event pages: Azure Travelers / JAZUG

Pre-event: 7th Azure Travelers Meetup: Tokyo Trip Pre-Event

Posts from attendees are collected in this Posfie roundup. It brings back the atmosphere in the venue across both the JAZUG 15th anniversary event and Azure Travelers.

A venue wall displaying Azure Travelers stickers from the first meetup in Sapporo through the seventh in Tokyo — Stickers tracing the journey through our seventh meetup in Tokyo

A table covered with JAZUG 15th anniversary, Azure service, and Azure Travelers stickers — JAZUG 15th anniversary and Azure Travelers stickers

Looking Back on 15 Years of JAZUG

This meetup was co-hosted with JAZUG’s 15th anniversary event. During the morning panel discussion, we looked back on JAZUG’s 15-year history and talked about what has kept the community going, what has changed, and what has stayed the same.

Azure Travelers can keep visiting communities around Japan only because of the relationships formed through groups such as JAZUG. Being able to discuss both that history and our current travels in the same room on JAZUG’s anniversary made this event special.

The morning panel discussion is available in the YouTube archive.

Watch the livestream archive on YouTube

The Azure Travelers Room

Schedule

Time	Room C+D	Room B (JAT)	Room A
13:00-13:10	Welcome and announcements	-	-
13:10-13:50	15th Anniversary Panel Discussion Me, You, Azure, and Community (JAZUG and JAT members)	Satellite room	Satellite room
13:50-14:05	Break	Break	Break
14:05-14:45	Pitfalls and Practical Lessons in AI-Driven Development with GitHub Copilot Coding Agent and Agent Mode 1 Person × 1 Week: Building Enterprise-Grade Microservices (Yoshio Terada)	A Cost Optimization Journey: From Building an In-House Azure Cost Management System to Becoming a Microsoft MVP Through Cost Discussions, with FinOps Along the Way (Onarimon Programmer)	Cloud Adoption Framework or Well-Architected Framework (Tentative) (Kusaba)
14:45-15:00	Break	Break	Break
15:00-15:40	An Infrastructure Engineer’s Journey Toward Application Engineering Through Learning AI (Tentative) (Kotaro Harada)	AI Agent Developers, Take Note: Extending an Azure and OCI Coexistence Architecture with Today’s Oracle Technologies (Kohei Ogawa)	Azure Tips You Might Not Know: Practical Help for Operations (Yoshino)
15:40-15:55	Break	Break	Break
15:55-16:35	Automating Azure API Management Policy Operations with GitHub Actions (Ryosuke Hyakuta)	A Practical Overview of Azure Kubernetes Service Networking (Kazuki Wakaba)	1000 Azure Troubleshooting Drills (JAZUG members)
16:35-16:50	Break	Break	Break
16:50-17:20	Recommended Technical Book Bibliobattle (Suzumaru, Oppii, and Sakemi)	The Evolution and Current State of Microsoft Sentinel (Gucchi)	Behind the Scenes of SE Notes (Masayuki Ozawa)
17:30-19:00	-	-	Social gathering

The afternoon Azure Travelers room featured sessions across a wide range of topics: Azure cost optimization with FinOps, an Azure and OCI coexistence architecture, AKS networking, and Microsoft Sentinel.

This time, we asked every speaker in the Azure Travelers track to begin by sharing a memory from the community: which destinations they had visited and what had stayed with them. Starting each technical session with that personal connection brought the time we had spent together around Japan into the room with us.

The venue tables were also lined with snacks brought from different parts of Japan. Since we were celebrating JAZUG’s 15th anniversary, the usual Azure Travelers stickers were joined by stickers from all kinds of Azure services and communities, making the room even livelier than usual.

Snacks from Tokyo and other parts of Japan arranged on a table at the venue — Snacks gathered from around Japan

Water, tea, and other drinks beside the reception desk for JAZUG's 15th anniversary event — Drinks that kept everyone going throughout the day

Supporting the Venue as a Microsoft Employee

I usually work behind the scenes as part of the Azure Travelers community team. Because this event took place at Microsoft Japan’s Shinagawa headquarters, however, my role for the day was primarily to support the venue as a Microsoft employee.

I helped with the setup, equipment, and everything else needed to host the event inside the office. It was a different role from the one I usually take when we travel, but it was still an important part of keeping the joint event running smoothly.

We held the social gathering in the same venue as the meetup. With no need for participants or speakers to travel elsewhere, the room stayed full of energy.

At the social gathering, Ushigami got a copy of Azure OpenAI Design Patterns. Somehow, the moment was unusually photogenic, which made it even funnier.

Ushigami holding a copy of Azure OpenAI Design Patterns at the social gathering — Ushigami with his new book at the social gathering

Azure Travelers has a tradition of rolling a large die to choose our next destination. The roll in Tokyo sent us to Ishikawa Prefecture, with Kanazawa selected as the host city for a meetup around spring 2026.

The Trip

Tokyo was not a faraway destination for our regular members. Even so, spending the pre-event on a yakatabune and heading to Nakameguro the next day turned it into three days that felt different from our usual time in the city.

October 3

Yakatabune Hirai | Official Website | Tabelog

We held the pre-event aboard Yakatabune Hirai. After boarding, we sailed into Tokyo Bay, stopped near Odaiba for dinner, and then traveled a short way up the Sumida River.

White lanterns bearing the boat's name at the Yakatabune Hirai boarding area — Lanterns lining the yakatabune boarding area

Pre-event attendees boarding a yakatabune at the pier at night — Boarding the yakatabune

Dinner was a lavish spread of sashimi, tempura, and other dishes. Eating while looking out over Tokyo Bay at night was nothing like holding the pre-event in an ordinary restaurant.

A yakatabune dinner of sashimi, tempura, edamame, and other dishes covering the table — Our pre-event dinner spread across the table

A platter of tuna, salmon, and white-fish sashimi served aboard the yakatabune — A generous platter of sashimi aboard the yakatabune

The entertainment did not stop with dinner. A karaoke contest and lightning talks soon got underway, and the pre-event already felt like a meetup and social gathering rolled into one.

Pre-event attendees eating and talking inside the red interior of the yakatabune — Dinner, karaoke, and lightning talks inside the boat

After stopping near Odaiba, we stepped out onto the deck for a view of Tokyo at night. Seeing Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree from the water made even a familiar city feel like a proper trip.

Tokyo Tower and the city skyline at night across Tokyo Bay, seen from the yakatabune — Tokyo Bay and the city skyline at night from the yakatabune

If Tokyo did not feel enough like a journey, all we had to do was experience a different side of it. The yakatabune pre-event delivered exactly what we had hoped for.

October 4

This was the day of the meetup. I supported the venue at Microsoft Japan’s Shinagawa headquarters as a Microsoft employee, while checking in on the Azure Travelers room whenever I had a free moment.

A speaker presenting a session at Microsoft Japan's Shinagawa headquarters — Our Tokyo Trip at Microsoft Japan’s Shinagawa headquarters

After the meetup, we moved straight into the social gathering in the same venue. People celebrating JAZUG’s 15th anniversary mixed with Azure Travelers attendees, and the day stayed lively right through the end.

October 5

I had an errand in Nakameguro the next day. Once that was done, my first stop was Niigata Sanpotei Tokyo Lab’s Nakameguro location.

Niigata Sanpotei Tokyo Lab Nakameguro | Official Website | Tabelog

I ordered the mabo noodles. The spicy, numbing sauce clung to every strand, making it just the bowl I needed after the previous day’s event.

Mabo noodles topped with a red, spicy sauce at Niigata Sanpotei Tokyo Lab Nakameguro — Mabo noodles at Niigata Sanpotei Tokyo Lab

Baird Beer Nakameguro Taproom | Official Website | Tabelog

After the noodles, I had a craft beer at Baird Beer Nakameguro Taproom. One beer was all it took to get me going, and from there I headed straight to the next place.

A glass of craft beer on the counter at Baird Beer Nakameguro Taproom — A glass at Baird Beer Nakameguro Taproom

Spring Valley Brewery Tokyo | Official Website | Tabelog

Next, I went to Spring Valley Brewery Tokyo and sampled several beers. One was unlike anything I had tried before: nearly the entire glass was foam.

Even though it was almost entirely foam, it still tasted and smelled unmistakably like beer. It was delicious, but the sensation was so different from drinking a regular beer that it made for a wonderfully unusual experience.

A white, foam-only beer beside a tasting flight at Spring Valley Brewery Tokyo — My first wonderfully strange glass of foam-only beer

I kept eating and drinking through the day after the event. Even a meetup in Tokyo can become a real trip when you make the most of the time around it.

Wrapping Up

Azure Travelers had already taken us to Sapporo, Kobe, Yamagata, Fukuoka, Okinawa, and Ehime. Bringing the meetup to Tokyo gave the people who had shared those journeys an easy place to gather, and I think it also gave new people a chance to join us on the trips ahead.

We looked back on JAZUG’s 15 years, heard Azure Travelers speakers share memories from their journeys, and ended by rolling the die that sent us to Kanazawa. It was a day to reflect on the connections that brought us here and give others a reason to join the next trip.

Choosing a yakatabune to give our Tokyo meetup a sense of travel turned out to be a huge success. Travel does not have to mean going far away. Even in a familiar city, heading somewhere different together can lead to new views and new conversations.

Those who joined us in Tokyo and those who have traveled with us around Japan will all head to Kanazawa together next.