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.

The Tokyo Shitamachi Bus service runs between Tokyo Station and Ryogoku, stopping at the popular sightseeing spots of Nihonbashi, Akihabara, Ueno, Kappabashi, and Asakusa on route. And, although the buses don’t have guides, they do feature voice and monitor systems that give announcements in four languages: Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese.

The buses depart from the North Marunouchi exit of Tokyo Station and in front of Ryogoku JR Station every 30 minutes from 9am until after 6pm. Single fares for adults are 200 yen, a day pass - 500 yen.

How to use the bus

For the uninitiated, using a bus in Japan can be confusing at best. Here are some tips that should help make it easier.

For the uninitiated, using a bus in Japan can be confusing at best. Here are some tips that should help make it easier.

At stops other than the terminals, be warned that buses typically only stop if someone wants to get off, or if the driver can see someone waiting. Flag them down to be sure.

When boarding the Shitamachi Bus, use the front door and then drop your 200 yen in the large slot on top of the machine next to the driver. There are separate slots for 500 yen coins or 1,000 notes on the side of the machine if you don’t have the exact fare.

To let the driver know you want to get off at the next stop, press the “stop” button near your seat (usually on the pole next to the seat, or next to the window). Use the large doors in the centre of the bus when leaving.

Akihabara’s association with electronics began with the black market trading of radios and radio components that rose out of the ashes of World War Two. The small stalls that then gathered around Akihabara station and initially catered to students at the nearby electrical college (present-day Tokyo Denki University) formed the heart of what is now known as “Electric Town” － Japan’s preeminent area for things electrical.

By the 1960s and the advent of electrical consumer goods, Akihabara’s wireless stalls competed for space with stores selling TVs, washing machines and other household luxuries of the time. By the 1980s, Electric Town was riding the wave of home computing as a place to buy both hardware and the latest games, while in the past decade or so Akihabara has also added PCs and manga and anime-related products to its repertoire. If you want something electrical and can’t find it in Akihabara, chances are it hasn’t been invented yet.

Duty free electronics and backstreet bargains
A stroll around Akihabara on a Sunday afternoon will probably bring you together with more nationalities than any other part of Tokyo, and the reason is simple － the duty free shops.

After fighting your way passed the crowds of cosplayers and maid café staff handing out flyers by the Electric Town exit (not to mention the amateur photographers taking “glamour” shots of the maids), the duty free shopping begins with the block of buildings directly opposite the station that house the multi-floored Ishimaru, LAOX, Daiso Takarada Akihabara, and Akky III duty free stores.

Head right from these and onto Chuo Dori and more duty free stores loom into sight, with another couple of branches of Akky, another LAOX, and the giant Onoden.

Inside the stores the feeling is definitely international. All have staff on hand to serve customers in English, Korean and Chinese, and some stores, such as Akky, also provide Bengali, Russian and Spanish speaking staff. When it comes to stock, they are equally diverse with line-ups taking in automatic bidet toilets, high-end audio systems, hundreds of air-conditioning options, refrigerators that can record audio messages, and a whole lot more.

Price-wise the large duty free stores are certainly cheaper than airport duty free, but for real bargains you need to head away from their imposing neon facades and explore the side streets shooting off of Chuo Dori. This is where you will find smaller stores that are happy to undercut the big boys, and who are among the rare minority of places in Japan where you can actually try to barter down the price. If you can’t speak Japanese, don’t worry. Despite Japan’s reputation as the dunce of Asia when it comes to learning foreign languages, even the smaller shops tend to have some staff who can speak enough English to help you shop.

Where the locals and geeks shop
The cramped alleys by Akihabara Station in Soto-Kanda 1-chome teem with small shops and stalls specializing in items ranging from light bulbs and diodes to walkie-talkies and security cameras. Admittedly there is not much in 1-chome that will have most tourists reaching for their credit cards (good thing, too, as many of the stalls run on cash only), but the two floors of stalls are certainly worth a wander around as a bit of a throwback to how Akihabara was when electronics first came to the area.

The narrow backstreets on the other side of Chuo Dori from 1-chome (Soto-Kanda 3-chome) are where PC enthusiasts go to pick up parts and accessories, so perhaps it is no surprise this is also where most of the computer game shops are to be found. The particular specialty that has proved popular here in recent years, besides the animation tie-ins, are the dating simulation games designed for the stereotypically lank-haired and socially-inept anime and manga fanatics who in the past decade have added a new dimension to Akihabara in making it the Mecca for all things geeky.

To experience a little of that otaku culture for yourself, take a wander through the comic stores and costume shops on and around Chuo Dori. While some of the shops are oriented at adult entertainment and probably not the best place to take your mother, most, like the large Donkihote, are open to all.

Although quite a few of the adult items do come with batteries at Donkihote (as in Don Quixote spelled badly), the place isn’t just about electronics and electrical items.

Adult floor aside, this is the place to pick up something seriously silly to take home. Something like a samurai wig or sumo outfit, or even an adult-sized school uniform or lamp stand disguised as a French maid’s stocking-clad legs. Classy it is not, entertaining it certainly is, and like the rest of the stores in Akihabara Donkihote does have some good deals.

photo: Mark A Buckton

In the shadow of Senso-ji
Sanity begins in the streets to the left of the main avenue leading between Kaminari-mon (the large gate with the giant lantern hanging under it) and Senso-ji, and it is tucked away here that you can find the small and peaceful Chingo-do Shrine.

Chingo-do was built in 1872, with some accounts claiming its construction was to ward off the tanuki (raccoon dogs) that had been bewitching the people of Asakusa. That would explain the presence of several tanuki statues in the shrine, but fails to explain why all the tanuki have massive testicles dangling between their legs. Perhaps it has something to do with fertility, perhaps wishful thinking on the part of the sculptor. Either way, try not to let the tanuki’s tackle distract you from the peace and quiet.

photo: Rob Goss

The pond that stretches out behind Chingo-do belongs to Denpo-in Temple, another spot often overlooked in favour of Senso-ji, even though Denpo-in is actually Senso-ji’s parent temple. Denpo-in is largely off-limits to the public, but the monks are sometimes happy to show people around the temple’s exquisite garden and the Shinji-ike (a pond in the shape of the Chinese character for heart). What really makes Denpo-in worthy of mention, though, is that it is still a place where monks pursue ascetic lifestyles, in a sense leaving it unchanged since it was built in 1777.

Asakusa’s theatre district
Following the signs from Chingo-do toward the Tsukuba Express station will take you past a few stalls selling discount clothing and then bring you to Rokku Broadway (6th Street Broadway), the area that was once one of Tokyo’s most lively entertainment zones. Today, Asakusa is still home to several theatres specializing mainly in classic comedy performances like manzai, a form of stand-up comedy where comic duos split along the lines of a straight man (tsukommi) and a funny guy (boke) rattle through a series of one-liners and rambling tales.

photo: Rob Goss

Although the performances are in Japanese and the theatres tend not to provide any English assistance as tourists rarely visit, Japanese comedy has many visual aspects to it and catching a manzai performance is highly recommended.

Rakugo, a traditional form of storytelling, would be harder to enjoy without some understanding of Japanese, but going to one of the many one-man (or one-woman) shows around Rokku Broadway still offers up the chance to see the locals in the audience shed their famous and somewhat unfair reputation for stoicism for an hour or two.

Situated across the street from the police box on Broadway, Asakusa Entertainment Hall (Engei Hall) is a good option for anyone who wants to take in a show. The theatre opens from 1140 a.m. to 9 p.m. and includes manzai, rakugo and magic shows among its performances. 2,500 yen will get you a ticket that covers a full day of shows.

photo: Rob Goss

Where the restaurant industry shops
Just in case you feel like buying a plastic or wax model of your favourite Japanese food, move further away from Senso-ji and on to the other side of the Asakusa Tsukuba Express Station, and have a wander up and down Kappabashi-dori. You’ll know you’re in the right neighbourhood when you come to a building with a giant chef’s head sitting on top of it!

The street that makes up Kappabashi stretches four or five blocks and is littered with somewhere in the region of 150 shops dedicated to providing Tokyo’s restaurant industry with everything it might need - everything that is bar food. Besides the wax food for window displays, there are shops specializing in everything from the red lanterns that hang outside many bars and restaurant to simple utensils and pots and pans.

For souvenir shopping, Kappabashi is simply unbeatable, and if you want lacquer ware or pottery without paying tourist prices, it’s one of the best places to go in Tokyo. For quirkier reminders of your trip to Japan, the area also does a roaring trade in sushi chef outfits, neon signs, menu boards, and a host of other items you will probably never really need.

Saying goodbye to Asakusa
Once you are done in Kappabashi, the options are to go back from where you came to the Senso-ji area or head to the southern end of Kappabashi-dori to Tawaramachi Station, from where you can catch the Ginza Line into central Tokyo or one stop back to Asakusa Station. Going back to Senso-ji and then a few hundred metres further on to the river bank gives you the option of heading out of Asakusa in style on one of the sightseeing boats that ply between Asakusa and Odaiba. Not a bad way to finish a day out, sailing off into the sunset with Asakusa fading into the distance.

Originally opened in 1853 as a flower park, Hanayashiki wasn’t transformed into its current incarnation as an amusement park until 1949. Today, the park still contains early post-war relics among its 20 or so attractions and has made its name by steadfastly refusing not to move with the times, even in the face of Yakuza harassment.

photo: Mark A Buckton

Hanayashiki is a great afternoon out for little kids, and grandparents will revel in the nostalgia, but if you are used to amusement parks being like Disney, Hanayashiki can truly under-whelm. And while floating 45 meters above the ground on Bee Tower affords good views of Senso-ji and its surrounding structures, the sedate roller coaster and a haunted house with fewer surprises than a North Korean election are typical of the entertainment on offer.

Thrills, however, aren’t really the point at Hanayashiki. It is all about getting a taste of how Japan used to be.

Hanayashiki Info
To get to the park from any of the train lines that serve Asakusa, follow the signs for Senso-ji Temple. From Senso-ji, hang left and follow Hanayashiki Street for a couple of minutes until the Bee Tower and Space Shot loom before you.

Admission to the park is 900 yen for adults, 400 yen for children (5-12) and senior citizens, and free for the under 5s. Each ride requires two or three 100 yen tickets, or you can buy a free pass for 2,200 yen (2-12 1,900 yen, with separate admission fee). Open Wednesday to Monday, 10am to 6pm (10am to 5pm in winter).

The drink was first concocted just a stone’s throw from Senso-ji at Kamiya Bar as a poor man’s alternative to whisky back in the Meiji-era (1868-1912). The colour, though, is about the only similarity Denki Bran and whisky share.

photo: Mark A Buckton

The drink itself starts off with a syrupy, warming taste and then soon unleashes a sticky sweetness that can leave your lips feeling like they’ve been glued together. The solution is to do as the leathery faced old men who make up the percentage of Kamiya Bar’s custom do, and wash it down with a pint of lager.

While many of the inebriated locals are old enough to remember when Denki Bran was a fiery 45% brew that at one point even gave its name to a hit single, today’s version is not quite as potent. Modern-day Denki comes in two forms, the standard 30% Denki Bran and the 40% Denki Bran Old.

Where to get it

photo: Mark A Buckton

The three-floored Kamiya Bar is right next to Exit 3 of Asakusa Station on the Ginza Line. Open Wednesday-Monday, 11.30 am-10 pm (last orders 9.30pm). Single shot 260 yen, beer to chase it down 490 yen. You can also buy Denki Bran by the bottle at many of the liquor stores in the area and at Kamiya. Expect to pay 630 yen for a hip bottle and around 1,000 yen for 750ml.

The western fashions on sale are more Baroness Thatcher than Kate Moss, but the kimono area on the fourth floor is well worth a look, as are some of the arts and crafts on the seventh and eighth floors. Be warned, however, that tradition comes with a hefty price tag.

To get to Nihonbashi from Ginza hop on the Ginza Line for one stop to Mitsukoshimae Station. Alternatively, walk about 20 minutes down Chuo-dori from the Chuo-dori-Harumi-dori intersection in the direction of Matsuya.

Open year round 10am-8pm (until 7:30pm on Sundays and holidays).

photo: Rob Goss

Home to the most expensive square metre of real estate in the country, infamously overpriced cups of coffee and hostess clubs where splashing half a million yen on a bottle of bubbly is par for the course, Ginza is the place Tokyo’s seriously wealthy go to drop serious cash. The good news though is that you don’t need to be rich to hang out there.

Department stores
The best time to discover Ginza is on the weekend, when the crowds come out and much of Chuo-dori - the main street running through Ginza - is closed off to traffic for the afternoon. With the weekday cars replaced by a smattering of street performers and the occasional outdoor café, the atmosphere is ideal for strolling between the area’s department stores. And Ginza has plenty of them to stroll between.

On one four-block stretch of Chuo-dori alone, Ginza can boast Matsuya, Matsuzakaya, Ginza Wako, Ginza Core, and a branch of Mitsukoshi, the flagship store of which is only another 20 minutes down the road in Nihonbashi. A couple of streets over to where Ginza begins to blur into the Hibiya and Yurakucho areas on Sotobori-dori, there is also a Printemps, a Seibu and two Hankyu department stores. They all add up to a whole lot of shopping, yet shopping is only part of what Ginza’s department stores are about.

Besides being great for checking out the latest and often obscenely priced fashions, Japan’s department stores – and Ginza’s in particular - are the best places to sample all manner of Japanese food. Head to the basement floors of any department store and you’ll find an impressive range of groceries, takeout lunches, regional specialities and deli goods, as well as a fine selection of both Japanese and Western sweets. Although the prices tend to be on the high side, the quality is always good and many of the stalls keep samples on the counter for passers-by to try.

photo: Rob Goss

If the samples leave you hungry for more, the upper floors of most department stores (Mitsukoshi Ginza is a restaurant-less exception) tend to be exclusively for restaurants and typically house a mixture suitable for most budgets – from staples like tonkatsu or ramen that will set you back around 1,000 yen, to high-end Chinese or Japanese restaurants where 1,000 yen won’t even get you a glass of water. As a word of caution, it is worth noting that between around noon and 2pm the restaurant floors get very busy on both weekdays and weekends and you may have to indulge in the Japanese pastime of queuing for a table if you want to eat around that time. If possible, plan for an early or late lunch or pick up something from the basement and walk over to Hibiya Park for a picnic.

Boutiques and Japanese brands
Beyond the department stores, Ginza’s streets read like a “who’s-who” of haute couture, with Cartier, Chanel and Hermes being just three of the major brands with prominent stores on or around Chuo-dori and Harumi-dori to add to the outlets they also have in many of the department stores. Thanks to an elitist air enhanced by the obligatory disapproving glances of the doormen if you enter in anything less than several million yens worth of clothing, these shops tend not to be as welcoming as the department stores. But don’t let that stop you from having a look inside as rich housewives and well-kept mistresses spoil themselves with million-yen handbags.

Competing for attention with the imported brands, Ginza’s home-grown “A-list” of prestigious stores includes Mikimoto for pearls, the giant, nine-storey Ito-ya for expensive stationary, Tanizawa for leather bags and accessories, and Tenshodo on Harumi-dori for jewellery and luxury watches. Should that not be enough for you, Sony Building on Harumi-dori and the Apple Store on Chuo-dori provide a couple of modern options for anyone interested in cool gadgetry.

Ginza on the cheap
Despite its well-earned reputation for being pricey, Ginza does have its fair share of cheaper options, and keeping a day out in Ginza affordable is no longer much of a challenge.

For a cheap bite to eat, most of the usual American fast food places and coffee shops have at least one branch in the area and budget Japanese coffee shops like Doutor (if you don’t mind the smoke) and Excelsior are easy to find, as are cheap and cheerful chain restaurants like Yoshinoya and Matsuya where most set meals are comfortably under 600 yen. When it comes to night life, Ginza is still an expensive night out, but there are some cheaper izakaya around (look for picture menus in the street with the prices listed) and one 300-yen bar a couple of back streets behind Ginza Core where – no prizes for guessing – everything on the menu is 300 yen.

If you want to pick up bargains, you would be barking up the wrong tree looking for them in Ginza, but there are some affordable shops that are worth a visit. The large branch of Muji on the other side of Sotobori-dori is good for simple fashions and interiors and the giant Bic Camera electronics store a couple of minutes away has some good deals on the latest gadgets and home electronics.

The opening of that first maid café in 2001 unleashed a trend that has since seen approximately 30 more maid cafes open in Akihabara alone, not to mention spin-offs running the gamut from maid hair salons to maid foot massage and more recently “butler cafes” designed with a female clientele in mind.

The success of maid cafes is a small but highly recognizable part of the continued growth of the country’s otaku consumer market, a market comprised of 1.72 million consumers and worth 411 billion yen annually according to the most recent research conducted by the Nomura Research Institute in October 2005. But why all the fuss about themed cafés with generally overpriced fare where the staff call you ‘master,’ flirt a bit and occasionally spoon feed the customers?

For social commentator Tomoko Inukai the answer is simple – the rise of maid cafés is down to “the fetish for young women among Japanese men,” and the cafes’ ability to “offer a chance for men often oppressed in their daily life to escape into a fantasy world.” So, have these cafes simply tapped in on the desires of a generation of socially inept males seeking to fill the female voids in their lives with the company of innocent-looking and servile young women? There might be more to it than that.

photo: Rob GossAt Cure Maid Café where it all began, manager Katsunori Hazama suggests it is less about male sexual fantasy and more about relaxation. “Our shop’s concept is Iyashi (healing), so we offer organic tea, gardening, relaxing music, and a cosy space where customers can relax,” he says. “We don’t have any over-the-top games,” although a lot of cafes do give customers the option of playing janken (Rock-Paper-Scissors) and other games with their maids at a cost.

Relaxation and comfort is a far cry from the somewhat sleazy image maid cafés have been given in the media, but Hazama’s reasoning that they serve as a place to unwind is echoed by Sakurai at another Akihabara café, CosCha, where janken is on the menu. “The main reason people like maid cafes is that the distance between staff and customers differs from normal cafés,” Sakurai says. “Familiar shop, familiar faces, chatting in a cosy atmosphere - we think this is one reason why customers keep coming back.”

If men are into maid cafes for reasons of escapism, relaxation or self-indulgence, what about female customers? Although the majority of customers are men in their 20s and 30s, the number of women visiting maid cafes is continuing to rise.

“Recently we have a lot of female customers,” says Cure Maid’s Hazama, “About 35 percent.” That figure is not uncommon, and in maid cafes across Akihabara calls of “welcome home, mistress” are increasingly heard alongside the familiar “welcome home, master” - the maid café answer to the traditional welcoming call of Japanese shops and restaurants, “irrashaimase.”

To understand why women have taken to a fad apparently targeted at young men is in part to understand why women are queuing up to work as maids. And queuing up they are. At Mia Café, Hiroyasu Terajima says somewhere between 300 and 500 women apply for each job vacancy on the back of seeking something more glamorous than a run of the mill job, and yet being realistic. “I think compared to hoping to be a stewardess or TV announcer, becoming a maid is more attainable,” he says.

Of course, just as not everyone who works at Disney is a Disney fanatic, not every maid is an otaku. Moe from Mia Café, every inch the epitome of the maid image with her black and white pinafore, big dark eyes and hair draped around her face, is adamant about that. “It’s just a normal part-time job,” she says explaining that she found it by chance while looking for part-time work. “Whether people work at Disneyland or at a maid café, it’s just work.”

That may be disappointing for a diehard otaku to hear, but it is a sign that maid cafes and the otaku they were designed to serve are becoming more and more mainstream. As the media begins painting otaku in a sympathetic light and as the image of otaku as kind-hearted introverts like the character Tsuyoshi Yamada in Densha Otoko begins to replace that of the sad loner, cafes that were once an otaku domain are now very much open to the public – just like any other theme restaurant.

Rob Goss