Nightclubs and bars in Japan

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Im not that into jazz music but the evening at SONE Jazz Bar in KOBE was a sure hit!
- Classy interior!
- Great live music! Band was very friendly. And singer said a few words in english every now and then to make me feel part of the crowd! She stayed and chatted with us after the gig!
- Good cocktails (and an english drinklist!)
- Good nibbles.
- We didnt have dinner but they serve food aswell and it did look real yummy. A big table next to us had pizzas and I caught a glimpse of squid on them - interesting!

Dress Code: Neat. Smart.

You know ... I opted not to take anyone's recommendations as where to dine and party. I just walked for a long long time in varying directions then randomly selected places to dine or have a drink. Try this out.

Great location.

I found wonderful little Jazz bar. It was nestled in like an upstairs studio. If I recall, it had only room for to high tables and a little bar. When I arrived, there was this moderately attractive woman with a lot of sex appeal. She had a account binder open ... seeming to be doing an audit. She had a few customers in the place. Honest, I'd be surprised if this bar was larger than my guest bedroom.

So, I cozied up to the bar. She was playing Jazz from the USA. The music went back over 40 years. She didn't speak much English. And, I only knew hello, bye, thank you, and how to smile in Japanese. That last action works in any language! This woman knew so much about Jazz that I knew that I had to hurry back to the USA to catch up.

I was in her bar working on some of my freelance writing projects. Absorbing the tunes while my pen rode the melodies in to my personal never never land that I escape to often enough.

When I finished, I left her a $50 Tip. Having stayed there to write for so long I did feel obligated to give her something else.

Dress Code: Dress how ever you like but be respectful to the society that you are visiting.

Japan nightlife in general is as wild as anyone can imagine. Pubs, clubs, disco's all what you can imagine from traditional to post modern I can only assume that whatever you might wish will be available in Japan, especially in the large business cities.

If you are in Tokyo you really MUST see Japanese Kabuki Theatre. This is truly a treat, but like most everything in Tokyo not particularly inexpensive. There is an underground side of Tokyo that caters to MEN ONLY. I was approached on numerous occassions by those who would invite me to the 'redlight' aspects of Tokyo. The adventurer got the best of me on one occassion and I was treated to a very personal experience (the devil is in the details... we will save that for another time). But I caution other adventurers, since the consequences of delving into Tokyo's underground are likely to be unwelcome if an authority figure comes into the scene.

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We never went out to any night clubs in Japan. There was no need for it. Everyone drinks just about all the time there at restaurants or bars. Plus I am not sure what their dress code would be but I do know they like to dress in goth or cartoon charecters costumes so you could imagine. Plus everyone we saw was 25 and over.

One thing to know is in Japan drinking is not exzactly the same as the US. For one they keep drinking massive beer and sake and keep filling up your drink, well maybe its not as diffrent but they just do not stop. They love their beer very much and mostly drink Sapporo or Asahii. I saw them drink more beer then sake however. Everyone young and old drinks and I mean grandmas to grandpas. It is like th social thing to do.

When you go out to their restaurants and bars you may be shocked to find out that they do not carry a whole lot of hard liquor or a lot of mixers to make cocktails unless you are in a big city like tokyo and then who knows they may still not know or have items to make your fav drink. They do have wine though.

Bars that are located outside of Tokyo especially the ones we went to only carried whisky and had no clue what a shot was weather it be my husbands friends or the bartender. So I decided to break them in the american way since they did not know what a shot was. The first shot the bartender made since she did not know how much to put in was a rocks glass overflowing so we had to split it up. There is no way I was going to have any of them drink the whole thing, only trying to give them a new expierence and not give the alchol poisining.
Lets just say Japanese drunk of wine, beer or sake is one thing. Them drunk on american hard liquor is entering a whole new world. Everyone there did not need any other alchol the rest of the night and lets just say it got very funny.

Karaoke-One thing they will probably try to get you to do when you are drunk is Karaoke. This is like huge for them, they love this stuff. It does not matter how bad they sound they do not care. Still I was not singing in front of no one since I am horribly bad. They can seriousley go on all night long.

As for the bar closing I think it was 1 or maybe 2. I was a little drunk so I really do not quite remeber.

GOING TO BATHROOM DRUNK
This is something that you need to know. This can be veryy verryy complecated if there is not a western style toilet, heck even if there is it is still difficult if your drunk. the place we went to had the traditional style toilet that you have to hover over and squat unless you a man then you can prop yourself up against the wall and try to aim. Basically there are no handles in alot of the bathrooms so you have to use the plain wall to keep your self positioned. Basically its luck if your drunk the only thing you can do is hope you dont topple over on the floor into where you just peed and pray that you do not pee on yourself. Using Japanese style bathrooms are hard enough when you are sober. To give you an idea of what its like use a traditional Japanese bathroom that has the whole in the floor on a train while it is moving and stopping and this will give you a pretty good idea of what its like when your drunk. If you can master peeing on the train they you got yourself covered.

Dress Code: Depends

The exterior of the club may be mis-leading to most people as it looks like a large conrete box. Womb is a 4 floor club with banging tunes, 2 chill-out lounges and several bars.

This is not however a place for anyone with epilepsy beacuse of the frequent use of stroboscope lightshows!

Dress Code: Cool and groovy!

There are so many places to drink in Tokyo - as you would expect. The scene is very different from most places you might otherwise go to. I have identified a variety below:
1. Outake Bar - near Ekoda Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line. It has Hoegarten beer on tap. You will generally only meet Japanese people here.
2. The Hub - This is an English pub franchise in Japan. The best branches are in Roppongi, Shinjuku (several), and Hachioji. Jugs of beer are cheap, the food is ok, but its a great place to meet foreigners and friendly Japanese people.
3. Basement bar in Ekoda - There is a really good jazz basement bar in Ekoda to take a girl. They have very reasonably priced beer and food. I recommend the squid.

Dress Code: I've only encountered dress codes once in Japan - that was a Nagoya nightclub, but then I dont normally club. I was wearing a hat.

Karaoke probably originated in Japan and they do it best. There is no open bar full of strangers. It is just you and your mates in a booth. Singing to your hearts content. So even if you suck like me there will be no booing.

Booths vary. I have seen some that even have hot tubs and a view of the bar, others with free ice-cream and costumes. You will be surprised what you can find. One very good option is Nomihodai. It means all you can drink and that is exactly what you get. Times and prices vary.

Dress Code: What ever you want