tripping over tokyo

             a guide for non-tourists

                by j. baugher

If you like Roppongi, if you think Meiji Jingu is interesting, if you’re planning to go up to the top of Tokyo Tower to take pictures, this guide is not for you. Stop reading now, go to Gaspanic and drink beer with obnoxious Europeans.

However, if going all the way to Tokyo and drinking Heineken and watching soccer is not your idea of a good time, you might be in the right place. While I can’t claim to have been to every cool place in a city of ten million people, you might get some ideas here.

I’ll start with clubs, since everyone seems to want to find places to meet hot, slutty girls, then I’ll list some random places I really like.
 

Clubs
Nishi-azabu, Muse
On the far edge of the asshole of Japan, here’s a decent club with good drinks, giant trees assimilated into the architecture, and decent drinks. It’s also got some nice, secluded corners in case you meet someone interesting on the dance floor.

Shibuya, Nuts Club
Your first task is to find it, and this is not easy to accomplish. Your best bet might be to use the magic of the internets to get good directions. With no visible outside markings, an innocuous steel door leads down to a club that’s been brimming with hot women and not-too-many foreigners every time I’ve ever been there.

Shibuya, LaFabrique
Not too big, excellent ambience, and fairly well-known. Try to go on a night when they’re having an event.

Shin-kiba, Ageha
It’s huge, and looks like a movie theatre inside. It’s got swimming pools and tents and I’ve heard it referred to as the biggest club in Japan. It’s a little pricey and difficult to get to, depending on where you’re coming from, but sometimes they have dancers and their drinks are pretty decent.
 

Fun Stuff
Ochanomizu, Guitar Heaven
Nobody calls it that but me. Walking out of the station, they have a street with more than a dozen guitar stores. If you enjoy drooling over guitars you’ll never be able to afford, this is the place for you. They have a few shops with other instruments as well, but the guitars seem to be the primary focus.

Here's a picture of a super-sweet Doraemon guitar I saw in one of the shops there.  I also saw a different-colored model of my own Danelectro.

Not bad.

Akihabara, Super Potato
A shop with three floors. The first floor (of the shop, not the building) is devoted to game systems and games that have become ‘extinct’ in the sense that companies are no longer actively making new stuff for them. The second floor is old, rare merchandise featuring video game characters you’d probably recognize. The top floor features old games that have been lovingly placed into cabinets, creating an old-time arcade. And you can SMOKE there and buy Coca-cola in glass bottles. Sweeeeet.

Takadanobaba, BigBox
It looks like a big box. Inside of the box, they’ve got bowling, pool, shopping, lots of stuff. Not too expensive, kind of a nice place to go if you want to go on a date that doesn’t necessarily involve drinking. Not sure why you’d want to do that, but…

Urayasu, DisneySea
Yeah, I know. It’s pretty touristy. But you can DRINK there, and the grand-scale landscaping and level of detail put into this place is amazing. I recommend going there at least once. Take a girl?

You get ten bonus points if you go to the place that looks like an old seaside town and find one of the decorators' inside jokes.  I'll give you a clue: it's a barrel-making shop that references the only successful skyjacking to occur in modern history.

Good times, that.

Chains
These places are pretty much everywhere, but I’m a fan of them.

Karaoke Room
After the clubs and before the trains, you might want a place to bond with your buddies or fondle the girl on your arm. Cheap rates and a decent drink selection make Karaoke Room the next best thing to a love hotel.

Gusto
Sick of Yoshinoya? Itching for a small pizza without tuna on it? Want a steak for less than 1000 yen? You should pop into your local Gusto. If someone wants to steal me one of their glasses, I’d be much obliged.

Don Quixote
If Wal-mart and Spencer’s had a love child, it would be Don Quixote. That cute penguin, coupled with an out-of-left-field literary reference, they combine to form a store with snacks, kinky costumes, and tons and tons of random stuff you just won’t find anywhere else.

100 yen shops
Whether it’s Daiso, Can-do, or the ol’ Shop 99, they’ve got everything you need to fill your new apartment or your stomach. Looking for highlighters? Scissors? A set of cheap screwdrivers to break a second-rate bike lock? They’ve got it. If you happen to find yourself looking for cheap, last-minute souvenirs or toilet paper, they’ve got that stuff, too.  And toys!