Drinking Out, Tokyo

If you are looking for a Gaijin (Western expats) bar, here is the place. It was one of the ist few bars with foreigners clienteles. Many view this place alittle sleezy being perceived as a pick up place.

If you come across a table of Japanese ladies sitting by themselves with a glass of cocktails staring into blank space, they are most likely to be your target. Why? Think about it, if they were just there for drinks, they would have chat among themselves and not focus into the crowd. Obviously those ladies have finished their chat long ago and waiting for their chance now.

Dress Code: No slippers definitely.

Yes I know what you are thinking of. Can they be more original than having a similar name and naming it the 2nd?

This is the sister bar of Motown House 1. Its probably opened to cater to the huge influx of foreigners. I personally prefer Motown 2 to 1 as the decor is classier and air is fresher. Nice collection of music mainly spinning the 60s and black music. You can even make a dedication.

Let me start with a warning:

Look out for drink spiking when you go to Roppongi bars!

Here is my story:

We went to Tokyo with three guys for new year. Later the night we explored Roppongi and were brought to a small bar by one of those many black guys. We had some drinks and the next thing I remember is that we sat in the corner of the bar with terrible headaches and our wallets gone! Me and one of my friends had our credit cards in the wallet which were completely emptyfied as we had to learn some days later!!

We asked in the bar what happened, no answer. We went to the police told them about the bar, no reaction. Just recorded the loss of our wallets.

We even know the name of the place, A-point, in the third floor above a Kebab restaurant.

In the embassy we learned that we got drink spiked, which seems to happen rather often in Roppongi, especially in those small bars driven by the black guys out on the street. The embassy is even having a warning on their webpage

These bars are all over Tokyo especially the main areas. They are an imitation English pub chain which is fairly reasonably priced both for drinks and food with a considerable selection of both.
They are good for the new person to tokyo as they provide a familar setting with the staff speaking english and a considerable amount of foreigners going there. If you are there longer than a vacation they do a good loyalty/discount card scheme, the happy hour is well worth it especially the pints of long island ice tea at 1/2 price. You usually get to meet an interesting amount of people and the one in roppongi is one of the cheaper places to drink. My favourite ones in central toky were the ones in Shibuya.

Dress Code: Anything but you got alot of english teachers in them so you may see a lot of people in shirts and ties.

If you find yourself in Shimbashi area just under the JR train line station is a small step in bar. Happy hour is 4PM to 7PM and the beer is 300 yen. The normal beer price is 500 so it is a good savings. The clintel varies depending on the day and the busiest time are Thursday and Friday night. Very small bar and they have a DJ on the weekend.

Dress Code: Casual dress

Now it can get rather pricey when drinking in Tokyo and so it worth checking out the times of the Happy Hours in the local bars. If you’re lucky you should be able to do a crawl to take advantage of the discounts available.

Gaspanic was one of the bars we frequented. It was a bar that had rather strange signs all over the place, one of which said "Everybody must be drinking to stay inside Gaspanic". Now I don't know whether or not the locals just come in any hang about not drinking, but we certainly needed no excuse for constant drinking!

Dress Code: Casual

Weird. We came across this club in our guidebook and chose it cos I thought it sounded rather cool. We had great difficulty finding it - most of the locals we asked were unable to guide us and the buildings didn't seem to be annexed in consecutive numbers. Eventually we came across it rather accidentally. The club was rather inconspicuous, and was located in a basement. It looked kind of shady and the guy at the door looked pretty stoned out, but we were brave and paid our cover charge anyway... Turned out to be completely deserted! This was a Friday nite at about 11pm, 2002. Given the club's reputation according to online sources, this was truly weird. We were the only ones sitting there... til about half an hr later when 3 girls came in and took another table. Eventually, we gave up waiting for the place to fill up and left at about half past midnite. Donated a pack of marlboros (dutyfree and we were leaving Tokyo soon) to the stoned out door guy, who nodded his thanks. Shucks, I knew I should have asked one of the guys in HMV Shibuya for party info... I guess the tip here is:
Ask the locals for party advice.

Dress Code: prolly didn't matter, there wasn't anyone to care!

An Ex-pat Bar for the Brit's and those who enjoy them. The name of the Bar is actually "What the Dickens!" And it is a blast!

Ok, there was a moment or two when the Guiness was flowing and I thought I was going to be in hte middle of a very large Bar fight while two guys were yelling their Premier Leauge Football club teams names at each other. (I still get a little bit on edge when I hear the word Arsenal).

There are live bands every night around 8 or 9, and the music varries. My first time there, I caught a dixieland band playing, the next time was Reggae. They also have the usual Pub-food staples such as lamb pie and steak and kidney pie. I went with the Lamb. Yummy. Plus you can wash it down with one of the many UK and Irish beers that are on tap here.

It is a great place to take in music, but a little loud, and a little too dark at times.

Dress Code: It's a pub. Dress like you are going drinking.