Press kit

Nomicho (飲み帳, “drinking journal”) is a record-predict-reflect app for adults 20 and over, designed from the ground up for drinkers in Japan. Where most drinking apps here assume you want to cut down or quit, Nomicho is the opposite — it never nudges you to drink less and never scolds. Log what you drank and how you felt in a tap, watch your estimated blood alcohol concentration and intoxication stage shift in real time as you drink, and look back gently afterward. It’s a warm, bilingual (Japanese / English) companion for understanding your own drinking, out of curiosity, at your own pace. iPhone, with all core features free.

Availability

The iPhone app is available now on the App Store.

Includes the app icon, key art, screenshots, and the descriptions (Japanese & English).

In one line

Keep a record of what you drank and how it felt — a journal for understanding your own drinking, at your own pace.

The core hook

Not about cutting down or quitting.

Most drinking-related apps in Japan assume you want to cut down or quit. Nomicho is the opposite. It never scolds and never scores you — it's a warm place to understand your own drinking, out of curiosity.

Supporting angles

Japan-first, not a localization

Around 45 izakaya and bar staples, JAN barcode scanning for cans and bottles, sake, shochu and sours — built from scratch for how people drink in Japan. The UI and the AI reflections are fully bilingual (Japanese / English).

Real-time intoxication prediction

Watch your estimated BAC curve and intoxication stage shift in real time as you drink, tuned to your sex, weight, height, flush response and how often you drink, and built on a model of how alcohol is absorbed and cleared by the body, with errors that always lean toward caution. (It is not a measuring device and must never be used to decide whether it’s safe to drive.)

Warm and playful, a world away from clinical health apps

Hand-drawn drink illustrations, a soft sunset gradient, smooth animations. It never grades you or tells you what to do — it simply reflects the shape of your day. In a Japanese landscape dominated by reduce-and-quit apps, it deliberately sides with curiosity instead.

Why I built it

Chris Hashimoto, the developer, loves the time spent drinking with friends — but kept hitting one problem: in the moment you think you’re fine, and by the time you get home you’re not. What he wanted was a way to know, from how much he was drinking right now, what state he’d be in a couple of hours later. Nothing he found fit how people actually drink in Japan — the izakaya staples, the eating-while-drinking — and let him simply observe, without being scolded or scored. So, drawing on his background as a software engineer, he built Nomicho himself in the hours between work and family life.

Developer’s note

It began as something just for me — I’d come home a little tipsy and hear about it from my wife. Drinking isn’t something to cut down or be scolded for; I just think knowing a little more about your own drinking can make the time better. There’s some heavy math under the hood, based on how alcohol moves through the body, but I wanted to hide all of it behind soft colors and hand-drawn drinks — something that feels good to hold. I’d be glad if it gives people who love a drink a way to look at their own habits, out of curiosity.

Chris Hashimoto, developer

Fact sheet

Visual assets

Click any image to download it. Want everything at once? Grab the ZIP below.

• Key art
• Record screenshot
• Predict screenshot
• Reflect (calendar) screenshot
• Insights screenshot
• Barcode scan screenshot
• Home Screen widget screenshot
• Lock Screen Live Activity screenshot
• App icon 1024×1024 PNG

Writing about Nomicho

A quick guide so Nomicho’s positioning comes through.

Please do

• As an app for understanding your own drinking, out of curiosity.
• For its real-time intoxication / BAC prediction (always an estimate).
• We’d love a mention of the three layers — record, predict, reflect — and the bilingual JP/EN support.

Please avoid

• Framing it as a “drink-less / quit / liver-rest” app — Nomicho is the opposite.
• Implying the prediction can tell you whether you can drive (it is not a measuring device).
• Suggesting any health or medical efficacy.

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