Non-gaijin bars in Tokyo

[Jack]

Aside from the bars in Shibuya and Roppongi, where are the bars that I can take my wife to? There must be some bars with a mid-thirties or higher crowd of professionals. We are coming over in the next few weeks and would like to go out if we can. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Greji]

Aside from the bars in Shibuya and Roppongi, where are the bars that I can take my wife to? There must be some bars with a mid-thirties or higher crowd of professionals. We are coming over in the next few weeks and would like to go out if we can. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Any of the major hotel bars are the piece of cake for what you want. If you want to do the alley joints, I'm sure you know that's pot luck.

Also any of the English, or Irish Pubs. I guess it's had to say without knowing exactly what you are looking for in the bar.

[Jack]

The major hotels have bars and lounges which are fine but there must be some stand-up bars with music or live music where we can go for a few drinks and watch people. We just don't want the gaijin scene of Roppongi and very young scene of Shibuya. I'm thinking that professionals hang around Aoyama and Azabu, but there may not be any bars in those areas. So I'm asking the pros on this forum.

[GuyJean]

So I'm asking the pros on this forum.

I thought we were boring losers.. You are the pro, remember. You tell us..

GJ

[Doctor Stop]

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

It depends. Are you looking for a bar that makes people cry after they leave?

[Jack]

It depends. Are you looking for a bar that makes people cry after they leave?

If you don't have anything constructive to say just skip it will you? I'm not interested in juvenile conversation.

[TFG]

What's with the anti Gaijin thing? Especially coming from a gaijin.
Are you afraid they are going to hit on your wife or something?

And how can it be a non Gaijin bar if YOU are in it?
Sounds like you have lost your keys man.

[Tsuru]

It depends. Are you looking for a bar that makes people cry after they leave?

[Mulboyne]

There are plenty of bars where you can guarantee that the ratio of Japanese to foreigners is 100:0 until you walk in. However, they they tend to be small places with room for about a dozen people . Rather than worry about the foreigner content, describe what kind of bar you like. If you want live music then it's important to say what kind of music you like.

You'll see foreigners in Amrta in Nishi Azabu but you'll also see some leading lights in the art world there. Up the road in Red Shoes, you'll find a lot of bands playing live but you'll almost certainly see some white faces as well. I just wouldn't get hung up on that.

[Jack]

What's with the anti Gaijin thing? Especially coming from a gaijin.
Are you afraid they are going to hit on your wife or something?

And how can it be a non Gaijin bar if YOU are in it?
Sounds like you have lost your keys man.

Well, I don't know how old you are but on a 1 to 10 juvenile scale you score pretty high I think.

With non-gaijin I mean bars not like Motown (upstairs) in Roppongi or Gas Panic (downstairs) in Shibuya where Japanese are almost totally absent. I think Mulboyne's ideas were good ones.

[Jack]

There are plenty of bars where you can guarantee that the ratio of Japanese to foreigners is 100:0 until you walk in. However, they they tend to be small places with room for about a dozen people . Rather than worry about the foreigner content, describe what kind of bar you like. If you want live music then it's important to say what kind of music you like.

You'll see foreigners in Amrta in Nishi Azabu but you'll also see some leading lights in the art world there. Up the road in Red Shoes, you'll find a lot of bands playing live but you'll almost certainly see some white faces as well. I just wouldn't get hung up on that.

I can tollerate 99% non-gaijin in a bar
My wife is born and raised in Tokyo and she knows most areas very well so do you think if I tell her "Red Shoes" she will know what I'm talking about? She is not big on the bar scene (at least that's what she tells me ).
Most Japanese couples seem to spend lots of time fine dining, in izakayas, and hotel lounges, which is what we also do. But we also like to go out where there is some music, and the type of music is not really important. The atmosphere of the bar is more important.

[Doctor Stop]

Most Japanese couples seem to spend lots of time fine dining, in izakayas, and hotel lounges, which is what we also do.

"Seem"? Well, it might seem that way to you but the reality is that the typical Japanese couple spends more time at family restaurants such as Jonathan or Skylark than any of the places you mention. Ask your wife.

[Captain Japan]

Aside from the bars in Shibuya and Roppongi, where are the bars that I can take my wife to?

How are you going to troll for J-honeys while dragging an anchor?

I think your best bet is to pick up a magazine like Tokyo Calendar or Tokyo Walker and go through the listings. There are tons of non-FG restauratns in each of those rags.

[Doctor Stop]

How are you going to troll for J-honeys while dragging an anchor?

It could be that he needs her there to translate his nampa.

[Jack]

How are you going to troll for J-honeys while dragging an anchor?

I think your best bet is to pick up a magazine like Tokyo Calendar or Tokyo Walker and go through the listings. There are tons of non-FG restauratns in each of those rags.

Thanks, you can call Tokyo Calendar a rag but I subscribe to it. It talks mostly about restaurants and is a good reference magazine. Plus it's well-made. Tokyo Walker I buy when I'm in Japan and to be honest I have problems reading it. I do read and write Japanese pretty well and require not much translation. We are off to Tokyo next week.

[Mulboyne]

One of the problems with wanting live music in a bar is that most live scheduled acts don't play in such venues. They play live houses instead where performances usually kick-off at 7:00pm. There aren't many seats there so you'll be standing all night or sitting on the floor if your legs get tired. Ironically, foreigner bars often have live music so you'll probably find more happening in those places. Sometimes you are lucky to get an event at a "Japanese" place like Amrta or, more often, at Red Shoes but whether you enjoy it or not depends on what kind of music you like. They will usually start later and end in the early hours. You'll probably find foreigners there too, though. Move further out to Shinjuku, Nakano, or Meguro and the foreigner quotient goes down but the perfomances won't be as regular as Bauhaus in Roppongi.

If you don't care about live music then there are any number of bars playing great selections depending on your taste. If you are only over for a short time then those are the kind of places I would go.

[Captain Japan]

Thanks, you can call Tokyo Calendar a rag but I subscribe to it. It talks mostly about restaurants and is a good reference magazine. Plus it's well-made. Tokyo Walker I buy when I'm in Japan and to be honest I have problems reading it. I do read and write Japanese pretty well and require not much translation. We are off to Tokyo next week.

Tokyo Calendar is substantially better but I don't think either puts much thought into their output. But at the same time since each is 98% advertising they don't have to.

[GomiGirl]

Red shoes is lovely. Mulboyne has the skinny on the best places around town.

BTW there is always this bar... Araku

it is not a gaijin bar but it is certainly foreigner friendly - bilingual menus etc. But the staff may or may not speak English. It has just been renovated so looks great!!

[Captain Japan]

You'll see foreigners in Amrta in Nishi Azabu but you'll also see some leading lights in the art world there. Up the road in Red Shoes, you'll find a lot of bands playing live but you'll almost certainly see some white faces as well. I just wouldn't get hung up on that.

Put on your red shoes and dance
Japan Times

In December 1981, a small bar named Red Shoes opened in the basement of a building next to the bus stop near Nishi-Azabu crossing. Though only a stone's throw from what is now a busy intersection, in those days as soon as the sun went down the area was deserted. In terms of partying, Roppongi was the front line and Shibuya had not yet come into play, which meant that Nishi-Azabu was the middle of nowhere at night.

There was no Hobson's or Ganpacho (the barn-size Japanese restaurant where the climactic fight scene in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" was filmed). La Boheme, which now occupies the second floor of the same building that housed Red Shoes, had not yet opened. There were a handful of bars tucked here and there around the neighborhood, but they all operated well below the party radar -- meaning that they were either dressed up to look like restaurants or tagged as being for "members only."

Red Shoes posed as both. Its vivid red interior decorated with two large paintings -- one of Raijin, the god of lightning, and the other of Fujin, the god of wind -- created the perfect backdrop for the haute Chinese cuisine on offer from the kitchen. And the fact that most of the heavyweights of rock who toured Japan during the '80s would hold their official after-concert parties at Red Shoes meant that you would often find it closed to the public. You could, however, occasionally wangle your way in, which is how I once met David Bowie....more...

Ganpacho? I thought that scene in the wretched Kill Bill was supposed to have been shot in a replica of Gonpachi. Here is a debate about the issue that doesn't resolve anything.