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May 01, 2024
 

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BEST BAR NONE

LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 19, 2001
Grant-oh puts the grrr in martinis
Mizu shobai is a fickle business at best. And these troubled economic times tend to heighten the sense of risk. So when I first heard of a plot to hatch a fun and funky martini lounge on a quiet back street in Roppongi, it struck me as downright dangerous. As I sipped a classic 007 at the opening of G Martini's, as it was christened, I found myself plea-bargaining with God to please, please let this one survive (I offered Gas Panic in its stead). Eight months later, it is not only still alive but thriving. Amen.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 12, 2001
Some like it hot
There once was a Tokyo night empire called Ink Stick, which spawned a handful of cool jazz slash ambient slash progressive clubs around town. But this review has nothing to do with Ink Stick. It is about Shinichi Watanabe, who took over the space that the Nogizaka Ink Stick occupied. Even more than 10 years after the fact, I cannot go down those stairs and walk through that door without thinking about Ink Stick.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 5, 2001
Passion burning on the dance floor
Lamont Raymond is better known simply as Monty to thousands of Japanese clubbers. After arriving in Tokyo on an English-teaching gig more than a decade ago, he ended up working as the sales manager for Tokyo Classified (the free paper now known as Metropolis). For many years, if you had picked up a copy, you would have seen his mini-mug shot smiling out each week in the staff photographs on the last page. Two years ago, he left to start his own freebie -- a mini-mag called CIA (Club Information Agency).
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 29, 2001
A hot tip for you cool cats
Like many of the proprietors of Tokyo's mini-live houses, Mashimo Mitsuo's first passion was music. Though these days he will deny any skill with a soprano sax, his regular customers wink and tell me otherwise. Of course, Mashi (as everyone calls him) doesn't deny having been the sound engineer at the Blue Note Tokyo for a decade before leaving five years ago to open Rakuya, a cozy little jazz izakaya in Naka-Meguro.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 22, 2001
This one goes out to all the grrls
For 121/2 years, I lived within a 10-minute walk of Shinjuku Ni-chome. "Ni-chome," as most habitues refer to it, is synonymous with gay, even though every neighborhood in Tokyo has an area called Ni-chome, which, roughly translated, means "Sector 2." One should even be careful not to refer to an escapade in Shinjuku without knowing that everyone present will probably start placing mental bets on whether you were in Kabukicho (the red-light district), or Ni-chome -- at a gay bar. Eyebrows will rise . . .
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 15, 2001
A new watering hole for the downtown set
When John Coyle, Ivy Neo and Gary Hier first teamed up to create What the Dickens!, the massively popular English pub in Ebisu, neither they -- the publicans -- nor us -- their patrons -- could have guessed what would come from such humble beginnings.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 8, 2001
Midnight at the oasis
The first time Takahiro Maeda saw his senpai Magsam dancing hip-hop style in a club, he knew that's what he wanted to do. He also realized not long after trying the moves himself that he could never be a professional dancer. So, instead, he busied himself organizing events where Magsam and his friends could dance and others, like himself, could enjoy the mood and the music.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 24, 2001
In loving memory of Miguel
When Esteban Mauricio Paredes arrived in Tokyo from Ecuador 12 years ago, he felt lucky to score an apartment through a friend. He didn't feel so lucky, however, when he received a gas and electricity bill for the previous tenant. It wasn't so much money, but anyone who has arrived in Tokyo looking for work will know that even a few thousand yen can hurt. Esteban found out that Miguel Angel Dillunde, his remiss predecessor, was working at a club in Roppongi. So off he went to meet Miguel and discover a friendly chap, who with a slap on the back and a little cash, sealed the deal on a new friendship.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 17, 2001
A master at going with the flow
Kiyoshi Maejima was 14 when he first picked up a guitar. Soon he was playing hooky from his judo class to sneak off and practice the jazz riffs that his big brother had shown him. A few years later, he was heading up to Tokyo from Shizuoka to attend music school.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 10, 2001
Teaching Tokyo how to be cool
Bar Kitsune is a phenomenon. It is the brainchild of Production Company, an Osaka-based outfit that decided to sneak up the Tokaido and infiltrate Tokyo's nightlife. The company's success with home-turf projects like Under Lounge, one of Osaka's most happening clubs, gave it the confidence to tackle the Big Mikan.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 3, 2001
Girls 'n' guys a go-go!
Just a few years ago, when Yoichi Nakamuta was on a business trip to New York, he stumbled upon an unusual designer item: Go-Go Drink, a natural herb soda or energy drink. But it wasn't just the intriguing blend of tropical herbs and roots it contained that caught his attention.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 27, 2001
Late shift at the Factory
Tokyo's art-party scene is alive and well and sometimes converges in Shibuya. One focal point is Uplink Factory, and one of the more interesting banners under which it rallies is an event known as "Ubique." Uplink Factory is an offshoot of Uplink Co., which, since 1987, has produced and distributed the works of indie filmmakers. It has also published a number of Japanese books on pop culture and art, most notably Robert Mapplethorpe's controversial photos.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 20, 2001
In the living room of a rat-race refugee
Shin Takahashi is an incurable extrovert and freedom-loving spirit blessed with the knack to succeed. He walked straight out of college into an executive position at a prestigious ad agency, where he quickly earned a reputation for putting 100 percent into every undertaking. No one worried when he failed to show for work one day -- that was Shin. Three days later when he still hadn't shown, the agency received a call.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 13, 2001
Last night a radio DJ saved my life
The foreign contribution to Tokyo's nightlife is not all Roppongi sleaze. Take Guy Perryman, for example, who has created a unique lounge-cum-event space around a radio station. Guy had just started his career as an FM disc jockey in Sydney when he was recruited by Virgin to spin at the opening of their first Megastore in Tokyo.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 6, 2001
Shochu among bamboo
Tokyo's neighborhoods always offer one or two little bars (or sunakku) where down-home drinkers can shake off the workday blues. The greater Jiyugaoka area offers more options than most, and its most recent and welcome addition is Fukukaze.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 29, 2001
Truly, madly, deeply in Roppongi
If you thought the tag "High Touch Town" given to Roppongi meant it was glitzy and slick, you would have been way off base -- like most of the 18-year-old U.S. Marines who end up prowling its streets. Instead, the strip either side of the crossing is dotted with dives catering to foreign drinkers and lap-dance joints showcasing shapely foreign dancers.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 22, 2001
More sonic power to the people
I first met Shunnosuke when he was a gangly 19-year-old art student. We both subscribed to the "give art the flick, let's dance" school of thought. And we did.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 15, 2001
Check him out now, the funk, soul brother
If I told you I know of a great place to catch an excellent dinner show at an affordable price, you might think it a fairy tale. Well, pinch yourself, because this one is true.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 8, 2001
Mixing Iggy, Ziggy and Zepp
Meet Hiroshima-san -- a diminutive, pixie-faced bottle-blond who favors either skinny polyester shirts held half-open with a chain or grungy sweaters. He is the owner of Boys Town Cafe, a gem of a juke joint (sans box) about to celebrate its seventh year on Friday in the back streets of Naka-Meguro.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 1, 2001
Misunderstanding in the shadows, five flights up
Like many, I initially confused Gokai with Go, another fifth-floor hideout on Meiji-dori going toward Shibuya. Having ascertained that it is in the building next to the crepe shop on the corner of Takeshita and Meiji-dori, I then thought people meant Bar Poor, another cavelike perch with hobbit-sized seating on the fourth floor.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
Golden Week crowds greeted with high temperatures as holiday period kicks off
The departure lobby for domestic flights is crowded with travelers at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Saturday, the first day of this year's Golden Week holidays.
India seen overtaking Japan in nominal GDP in 2025
The skyline of central Mumbai's financial district
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

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