it is common to pour drinks for other people in a group and you can find your glass being filled fairly constantly. In some circumstances, fellow drinkers may ask you to drink up before they pour for you. It is difficult to offer general advice on what to do in this sort of situation, because it really depends on who you are drinking with and how intoxicated they are, but three points to remember are: (1) You do not have to empty the glass before someone pours for you. It is very common indeed to take a small sip and offer a half or even three-quarters full glass to be topped up. (2) If you have had enough, it is not rude to say so (Kekko desu—“I’m fine”). (3) The custom of pouring drinks is supposed to be about shared conviviality. If you are feeling pressurized to drink more than you want, then the pourers are making the faux pas, not you.
Drinking in public
Legal restrictions on drinking in public are looser in Japan than in many countries, but social codes in this area are actually less forgiving. The general view is that food or drink should be properly appreciated while sitting down and that it is vulgar to walk around stuffing your face. The omnipresence of convenience stores and vending machines is starting to break down these social expectations among certain groups, but it is still crass to walk down a road swigging beer.
A yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant in Shinjuku, Tōkyō. Grilled meats of various sorts, ranging from yakitori to grilled beef tongue, are popular drinking foods in modern Japan.
There are times when it is acceptable to drink in public places. Part of what is special about matsuri (festivals), hanabi (fireworks displays) and hanami (flower viewing picnics) is that the normal restrictions on the street can be transgressed.
Practicalities
Tsukidashi, otōshi and other entrance fees
Entrance charges are a source of much misunderstanding between foreign customers and the bars that levy them. Most bars in Japan have an entrance fee and many charge this fee by giving a small dish of food—called a tsukidashi or an otōshi—that has not been ordered by the customer but is put on the bill. This is not a sneaky way of separating you from your money. It is built into the pricing of most Japanese bars, and all Japanese customers expect it.
The original theory behind these snacks was that any order of food would take some time to be made, so the tsukidashi was a pre-prepared dish that would keep customers happy while they waited (this illustrates how important food is to drinking for many Japanese people). Nowadays, tsukidashi or otōshi are best regarded simply as a charge. In most places, it is going to cause more hassle than it is worth to attempt to refuse the dish.
From the point of view of foreigners who are unfamiliar with the practice, the fact that a dish is provided actually seems to cause more aggravation than if nothing were given at all. The misunderstanding most often occurs when customers find the otōshi on their bill, think it is a mistake because they did not order it and ask for the charge to be subtracted, only to be met with incomprehension and apparent defiance from their previously friendly hosts. Atsushi Horigami at Bar Zoetrope (page 190) says: “I had a Dutchman in here who got quite angry about it. He said I was a thief and threatened to call the police!”
One way to get one’s head around these charges, particularly relevant to drinkers from the United States, is to see them as substitutes for tips. It is not normal to tip in Japanese bars or restaurants. If you stay in a bar for any length of time, the 500–1,000 yen usually levied through the tsukidashi will often be equivalent to or less than what you might have paid the barman or waiter as a tip. You can always inquire on entering a bar how much the charge is: Tsukidashi wa oikura desu ka? (“How much is the tsukidashi?”).
Drinking in an unfamiliar environment can be hazardous. Sake is one of the world’s strongest brewed beverages and bars in Japan open later than in many other countries.
Credit cards
An increasing number of Japanese bars and restaurants now accept credit cards, but Japan is still very much a cash society. It is safest to assume that credit cards will not be taken. I have tried to indicate which bars do take cards in the guide, but I have not been able to give a detailed list of precisely which cards are accepted in each establishment. If you are planning to use a credit card, you really need to find out if you are going to be able to use it before ordering: Kono credit card wa daijōbu desu ka? (“Is this credit card OK?”)
Holidays
I have tried to provide accurate information on the opening hours of bars and on the days or periods when they will be closed. However, there are two times of year when almost all of Japan closes down: New Year (December 29–January 5; most businesses close between January 1–3) and Obon (middle of August, though some regions celebrate it in July). You can assume that most of the bars included in this guide will be shut for at least some days during these periods. I have not specified these holidays on every bar listing to avoid repetition, and also because the bars often change which particular days they take off from year to year.
To clarify the rather vague dates for Obon: the festival is held on the 13th to 15th day of the 7th month of the year. Unfortunately, the conversion from the old lunar calendar to the modern calendar is done differently in different areas and, since Obon is about returning to your family home, that means lots of people in the cities work on different timetables. There is no national holiday, but businesses do tend to give staff leave. Some people return home between August 13 and 15, some between July 13 and 15 and some according to the old lunar calendar, which hits a different date every year. The August dates are the big ones: any visit between August 8 and 16 is likely to be affected by Obon.
Costs
Japan has a reputation for being expensive. In truth, it really depends on when you come to the country and how your home country’s currency is doing against the yen at the time. When I first arrived in Japan, the yen was weak and the conversion I got used to at that time made Japanese prices seem pretty reasonable. When I began researching this guide, the yen was stronger and therefore costs seemed higher, though still fairly acceptable. The subsequent collapse of the dollar and the pound against the yen made almost all prices seem frightening for a while. The situation will almost certainly have changed again by the time you read this.
Shōchū Bar Gen, Shibuya, Tōkyō (page 107).
Bottle keep
Some bars in Japan provide a service called botoru kiipu (“bottle keep”). The customer buys a whole bottle of alcohol but does not have to drink it in one sitting. Instead, it is marked with a name and kept at the bar for the customer’s next visit. Nowadays, the bottle is bought from the bar itself, but botoru kiipu has its roots in the 1950s, when some drinkers would bring their own bottles to bars, pay a corkage and return to drink the contents over many sittings. In those days it was hard for some bars to get good whisky, but they offered their customers a pleasant atmosphere, proper glassware and ice. Suntory’s tremendously successful Torys Bar chain adopted the idea (but insisted that you had to buy their whisky), and helped spread the practice across the country. In most bars, the price of the bottle should work out slightly cheaper than buying by the glass. A good rule of thumb is to expect the bottle to cost about 10 times the price of a single shot.
There are bars in this guide that are expensive, but I have made an effort to include a good number of cheaper bars in every section. In general, if you are traveling on a budget, a willingness to try indigenous alcohols
