"The best bartenders on the planet all work in Ginza," claims Masahiro Kon, ex-bartender and award-winning cocktail creator. "In the U.S., they're mixing drinks with herbs and other weird ingredients, but in Ginza the best guys just polish their cocktails like jewels."
So Kon takes me to the luxury Tokyo playground. On Sotobori-dori, Bar Tender (5F, 6-5-15 Ginza, Chuo-ku; [03] 3571-8349) is a sedate lounge bar in which staff sport cream cocktail jackets and hairstyles that wouldn't twitch in a wind tunnel. With their pinky fingers cocked, they meticulously pour ingredients into silver-plated cocktail shakers. Then, as though somebody suddenly pressed fast-forward, they burst into full-throttle, elbow-thrashing shakes.
By the time they slam the liquid into its glass, the ice has splintered, and the drink is almost a frappe.