Tokyo Explorer

with a few nibbles and shochu thrown in for good measure

Make no mistake about it, for a people who allegedly can’t hold a drink, the Japanese don’t half knock the booze back.

No late-evening Tokyo train ride would be complete without red-faced businessmen slumped semi-conscious drooling down their fronts. No spring would be the same without drunken hordes wallowing under the cherry blossom. And summer just wouldn’t be summer without rooftop beer gardens.

Tokyo’s beer gardens are summer-only affairs that tend to open in early July and be gone again by mid September, giving respite from just the hottest months. And that fleeting visit makes them all the more special.

Want to know where to find a beer garden and what to drink when you get there? If so, read on.

What to drink?

Sake may be the most internationally-known Japanese tipple, but in the stifling humidity of a Tokyo summer most locals tend to reach for a beer when they want to kick back. At beer gardens the option is usually limited to one variety of beer on draught and one in the bottle, with the latter often being a little more cost-effective but the former a tad more refreshing. Price wise, beer gardens are often a little more expensive than run-of-the-mill izakaya (bars), but being able to sup under the stars in the heart of Tokyo can soften the blow on the wallet.

So which beer should you order? Well, whether your beer garden stocks Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin or another major nationwide brand, it matters not. Japanese beer pretty much all tastes the same anyway, and could compete with certain famous US brands when it comes to insipidity. Served ice cold on a hot day, however, and Japanese beer hits the spot.
If beer isn’t your thing, an alternative that has grown in popularity in recent years is shochu, a spirit ranging from 25 to 40% in alcohol content that can be made of rice, black sugar, potato or barley. Shochu can be drunk on the rocks or mixed with water, but is often drunk in summer with a mixer, plenty of ice and maybe some fresh grapefruit or lemon thrown in the mix. Chu-hai ―as that combi is known― is a bit like spiked lemonade, but you could always opt for oolong-hai where the mixer and fruit is substituted with iced oolong tea.

What to nibble?

It’s probably a good thing, but the British tradition of eight pints followed by a greasy kebab is alien to the Japanese. They prefer to eat while drinking, not after, and as a result beer gardens tend to lay on dining options that range from beer snacks to set courses.

For meat lovers, beer with a few sticks of charcoal grilled chicken (yakitori) is a pairing as well suited to each other as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Negima (leek and chicken breast chunks on a skewer) and tebasaki (chicken wings) are two safe yakitori options, while  grilled liver (rebaa) and gizzard (tsunagimo) are best tried only when you have a full pint handy to wash away the taste.

On the vegetarian front, edamame (soy bean(s) in the pod) are the king of summer beer snacks. Boiled in their pods and retaining a slight firmness when you pop them out into your mouth, edamame are given just enough of a sprinkling with salt to keep you swigging. If munching on beans isn’t enough, then try an order of hiyayakko, a chilled tofu block garnished with bonito flakes, grazed ginger and the soy-based ponzu sauce – it’s very refreshing in summer.

Three of the Best

1. Above the heaving streets of Shinjuku on the roof of Keio department store, the Keio Asahi Sky Beer Garden is a summer institution. It opens 5pm-10pm during summer, but like many beer gardens it is closed on rainy days. Keio does a good 90-minute all-you-can-eat-and-drink deal for \3,500 that can help keep costs down.

2. Yamaya in Shinjuku isn’t a rooftop beer garden, but no list of drinking establishment would be complete without it. Tucked away in the streets behind Odakyu Halc department store, Yamaya advertises in ways even the most mathematically challenged can understand: “1 beer \180 or 10 for \1,800.” By any standards that’s cheap, but in Tokyo it is almost unheard of. Why so cheap? It could be the in-your-face service provided by the body-pierced staff or the same CD playing all night every night. It might even be the almost unpalatable snacks (each guest must order one per night, but they are dirt cheap). Who cares! Yamaya is four floors of fun that attracts a good mix of office workers, labourers, English teachers and vagrants.

3. Barbecued lamb and night views over the Ginza district are two of the appeals of Lion Beer Garden Ginza Matsuzakaya atop Matsuzakaya department store in Ginza. The cold Sapporo beer on tap, of course, is the main attraction. The clientele is a bit less rough around the edges than Yamaya, but the place still gets rowdy. A medium sized beer (just under a pint) runs to a hefty \840, while meat to throw on the barbecue starts from \1,780. There are plenty of small dishes like edamame on the menu if you don’t want a full meal.