when virtual reality crosses into the irl bar life

26 november 2025 - wednesday

in my time in vrchat, i have seen quite a few takes on the "portal" - an attempt to mix virtual reality and the tangible world by streaming both ends to each other. this last friday, i had the chance of being on the virtual reality side of IZAKAYA, a VR and IRL bar venue located in Ohio.

for the world for this venue, attendees would spawn outside near a conversation pit and bonfire. the first "portal" was to the right of the main doors. the way this essentially works is that the IRL location and the VR location have means to stream the attendees from either end to each other. this front portal was also the only one of the three that had working audio, so attendees between the IRL and VR venues could speak freely with each other. a homie, hails, was at the IRL location and met up with myself and some other good friends to take a picture! it was super cool to be immersed in this way as the venues are one-to-one as much as possible.

what was also exciting for me was that the lineup was full of people i had met both in VR and IRL. this mix of worlds is surreal as it makes the experience more immersive for me, and from hearing others' comments in world, i was not alone in that feeling. every now and then we would see the DJs at the live location pop on the screen, and we would cheer even though we knew they couldn't hear us. people took to the floor to dance and others hung around the bar to converse and socialize - it felt like we really were there at that bar in Ohio, partying with the folks IRL.

the lighting in this world is by far some of the best i've seen for a bar environment. one thing that i am unfortunately aware of for myself is that i am incredibly picky about the places that i like to hang around in for long periods of time. what speaks to me about this world is that the scaling for everything feels very realistic. even though everyone was different heights, it seemed that most people opted to be in a "normal" range of heights compared to being either really really large or really really small. there was also lighting and visuals that reflected the IRL location's, as the lights rotated with the music, shining over the crowd as we moved to the beat.

while IZAKAYA is not the only one that has done a "portal" event - SHELTER and FURALITY have done so several times - it definitely is the first that i have witnessed being in a bar setting. it is also the first that i've seen do several separate portals in different locations of the venue, providing different angles for both attendees IRL and VR. at one point in the portal by the dance floor, we witnessed people cheering each other on and even "clinking" their drinks - it was pretty cute.

i have met most of the lineup, so seeing KITSUNE MIXES live in Ohio made me so happy and proud!!! it's always nice to see people from the VR community IRL and DJ and sometimes i get fairly envious of those attending IRL!! kitsune's set was also a complete heater, i was jumping around most of the time.

by the end of the night, the sentiment around the VR venue was the hope that this sort of event would happen again. IZAKAYA expressed in their Discord server that they are interested in doing more of these portal events, with them having maybe once a month. it's exciting to even think of such a promise, because running portal events is not only tedious but intense on hardware, requiring the venue to invest largely into the immersive experience for both venues. my hope is that all those who are interested in these events voice out their thoughts and concerns so that this kind of experience can be continuously improved AND provided!

i cannot help but be excited for the future of portal events. virtual reality is still very new to many people and is definitely not /in/ mainstream media. currently, VR is a very particular niche, and making it interesting to other people is a very skillful thing to do. IZAKAYA probably has an advantage with being an anime-themed bar and events that surround cosplay and anime culture. i shall wait for the next event with excitement!