Tokyo’s nightlife: top areas to go out in Tokyo !

I’m stuck in a bad routine. I live backwards. I avoid the sun and enjoy the neon lights. My alarm is synchronized with the opening time of the Golden Gai bar. My breakfast comes in cans, bottles and shots.
The days are so hot. From six to six the sun crushes everything, and feverish nights follow the sultry days of a burning summer.

And because Tokyo is so big, I feel tiny.

Golden Gai (see map):

During the day, there is nothing to see. At night it’s easy to miss. You need to be looking for Golden Gai to find it.
Golden Gai is the secret heart of Shinjuku: Rows of microscopic bars behind closed doors. Tiny rooms, only two or three stools, it’s a bit expensive and you have to be a regular. How do you become a regular? Nobody knows.
Groups of expats kill Queen, Oasis, and the Beatles on the Karaoke machine. Local people vanish at the top of stairwells, in the shady dodgy corridors.

A night here is like a game of Snakes and Ladders: You randomly jump from bar to bar. In the morning the street smells like piss, beer and saké. Your pockets are empty and the world is spinning.

Kabukichō (see map):

All the Red Light Districts of the planet look the same: Half-naked girls on colorful signs. Sex shops, lady bars with weird guys -open shirts, gold jewelry, tattoos- at the door trying to get you to come inside. So you walk along the street like a parrot, repeating “no thank you” a hundred times.
Kabukichō is the Yakuza neighborhood; it’s where you go if you want to trade money for sex. Here hotel rooms are rented by the hour and the whole area screams, “SCAM!”

You don’t visit Kabukichō, you walk through it without stopping, without looking, without saying “yes” to anything, to anyone.

Where to eat/Where to have a drink in Kabukichō:
The Robot Restaurant is clearly overrated; the food is bad, the drinks overpriced, but it’s still worth going to: For the crazy show, for the place itself, for the shinny gold toilet!

Omoide Yokocho (see map):

Wrongly –and quite poetically – named “The Piss Alley”, Omoide Yokocho is one hundred meters of concrete under the intimidating shadows of two big buildings. Two rows of yakitori restaurants; people bumping into each other and blue smoke coming out of the grills, climbing to the high voltage cables, the purple sky, the big UNIQLO sign above the street.

Here it’s all about beer, grilled meat, grilled fish, and grilled pepper. And plastic cats on the countertops, their mechanical lucky arms swaying back and forth, back and forth…

Shibuya (see map):

 Bob: I don’t want to leave.
Charlotte: So don’t. Stay here with me. We’ll start a jazz band.
Lost in Translation

Shibuya, the world’s busiest intersection: With every red light a wave of pedestrians sweep from the sidewalks to the streets. Groups of students -short skirts, white socks- and businessmen in working suits, in the headlights of taxis waiting for the green light.
Around the intersection: Cybercafés, Pachinko parlors, Purikura, and Don Quixote -the shop that sells everything, everything all night.

Where to eat/Where to have a drink in Shibuya:
Nonbei Yokocho, a tiny street under the train tracks. Only four or five bars, only a few seats, but the atmosphere is amazing!

Yurakucho (see map):

 Rusty air conditioners hanging over the sidewalk, dirty beer posters, a winding maze of dark alleys under the metro tracks. Rays of light passing through the clouds of steam, coming out of restaurants.
It’s Blade Runner. It’s an old vision of the future. It’s the future seen by our parents. A Dystopian vision of Asia where modernity mixes with tradition, where you eat seated on a wooden crate, under the artificial light of oversized ideograms and giant screens.
A guy is selling beer; walking in the streets with a bell in his hand, he’s looking for customers through the coming and going of blurry silhouettes under their transparent umbrellas…

A few tips to enjoy your nights in Tokyo:

– Tokyo is safe. Super safe. But like anywhere; if you’re going out, if you start drinking, you need to stay aware of your surroundings, you need to keep an eye on your belongings. And be careful who you drink with. Better be safe than sorry.

– A rule that works in Tokyo and anywhere else: If there is someone at the door of a bar or a restaurant trying to get you to come inside, then something is wrong. Maybe it’s the food, maybe the prices are too high, but you can be sure that something is not right. So keep walking and look for a place that doesn’t need to grab clients from the streets.

– If you’re going out in Roppongi, keep and eye on your drink: Stories of drugged tourists are coming up way too often these days.

– It’s late, your head is spinning and the name of your hotel is lost in the drunk blur of thoughts. Don’t worry: Go spend the night in an Internet Café or a Manga Café. You’ll get a comfortable chair, some private space, movies, Internet (obviously), tea, coffee and even a warm shower if you feel like it. The perfect set up to wait for the sunrise while sobering up.

– “Table charge” is a common practice in Tokyo. So don’t be surprised if a fixed price is added to your bill, you’re just paying for your seats. When in doubt, you can always ask before ordering your drinks.

What about you? What’s your favorite area to go out in Tokyo?

If you would like to see more pictures of Tokyo, Louis from Louis Traveling shares amazing views of Japan’s capital city on his website. He just started his blog – check him out!