Japan’s Best Bars: Nagasaki

1. Bar G Soul

A strange name for a bar but a great G-spot for those with a passion for soul, R&B and hip-hop spun by hip local DJs and the occasional MC guest. Your fellow soul searchers are equally hip trendoids and model types in designer street-wear straight off the pages of the glossy mags and they tend to sip curacoa and cachaca-based cocktails or pricey classics like martinis and cosmopolitans. Tables are small and cosy but regulars are surprisingly approachable and open to seductive intentions. Keep the cosmos flowing at your table and ask the lady to dance when the lights dim down. Quick, the DJs just put on Barry White!

Address:
With Bldg. 6F 10-21 Hamanomachi
Nagasaki, 850-0853

 

2. Bar Soda

Liquor-loving landlubbers who get sick at the sight of the ocean will be fine on this floating bar - a ship permanently moored in Nagasaki Harbour. There are dozens of different rooms to explore on board, one of them being the Soda Bar. It’s surrounded by windows on either side, with views of both the shore and the water, perfect to gaze out on while drinking those top-shelf mixes you’ve had added to your soda. Music runs from western pop to local ambient tracks and ladies might want to sidle up to the odd sailor in uniform who makes it down here. Who said seamen prefer a dry boat?

Address:
Hotel Victoria Ship 4F 5-16 Kosone-machi
Nagasaki, 850-0937

 

3.  Bar Sweet Box

Keep you hats on ladies, according to one regular here, they serve sweet cocktails because ‘women tend to like sweet drinks’. Gross generalisations aside, judging by the number of beautiful babes with long glass drinks crammed onto the sofas in here, they could be right. Your bar staff are the Cocktail Masters of Nagasaki (which should be the title of a new video game) and they mix over 230 mostly sweet drinks, with everything from ice cream, to parfait and liqueur as a base. And what flavours: strong, thick, creamy concoctions that make tell-tale moustaches on those smooth, brown, pouting upper lips. Stylish and full of fun.

Address:
Dohbiya Bldg. 3F 8-12 Dohza-machi
Nagasaki, 850-0841

 

4. Cocktail Bar Joy

Not that we would need extra incentive, but with a name like this who could refuse a drink? Their big claim is that they have over 500 bottles of vodka and gin available but it’s quality not quantity that counts and the slick bar staff in here at least know what makes an audience tick. Every concoction from the Singapore Sling to the Japanese version of a Pina Colada is in their silky repertoire, skilled mixology that would hold its own in any bar in the Western Hemisphere. Jazz tinkles from the speakers, your fellow drinkers are chic, designer-clad beauties, not all of them with boyfriends. Sure, the refined, sophisticated air is of a bygone age but a couple of those Sino Coladas and you’ll be dancing on the tables anyway. Which is true - Cocktail Bar Joy.

Address:
With Bldg. 7F 10-21 Hamanomachi
Nagasaki, 850-0853

 

5. Cyberspace On

Strange interior décor that combines futuristic sci-fi lighting and psychedelic wall effects with a location straight out of the 1800s Meiji era. And yet the unique hybrid seems to work, especially when DJs spin that ambient stuff and you find yourself drinking a powerful vodka martini from a bygone age. Cool and quirky, your fellow Cyberspacers are equally quixotic and open to suggestions - but discard the tired chat-up lines that you might use at some other style bars: these regulars are cooler than that. Hi-tech wit and conversation is matched by a top class drinks menu and some quality mixology from skilled bar staff.

Address:
37316 Nishi-kojima
Nagasaki, 850-0837

Japan’s Best Bars: Kyoto

1. Ace Cafe

Kyoto is at the forefront of a new eastern cool that takes the retro 50s and 60s as its cue. One of several aces in the design bar pack is Ace Cafe, located on the high floors of a towering building with spectacular views of the city below. Walls are floor-to-ceiling glass on three sides and hip young Kyoto couples sip strong cocktails in colourful lounge seats, gazing out on the city lights below.

Most popular at sunset, it gets busy later on too when the drinks, mellow sounds and friendly vibes take preference over the view.

Address:
Nakagyo-ku Kiyamachi dori Sanjo-agaru
Kyoto, Empire Biru 10 F

 

2. Bar Fakers

A cool and grungy loft bar that’s not as phoney as the name suggests. Conveniently located above the Anchovie Cafe near Mototanaka Station, the drinks are cheaper than most spots this side of town and the cheery regular barmen don’t skimp on the shots. Beers and vodka-based cocktails seem to be popular with the regulars, a mix of with-it youngsters and more sober professionals. Inside it’s dark and moody with bar stools lining the counter, although we prefer the sofas and soft chairs to lie back on and listen to the techno and ambient sounds. Why not ‘Fake’ it?

Address:
47-2 Okubo-cho Tanaka Sakyo-ku
Kyoto, 606-8236

 

3. Bar Zinho

Not much bigger than a penalty area and with just about enough space to seat a football team, this cosy Brazilian bar with football posters and flags on the walls, draws a funky crowd of ex-pats and locals every night. The hottest samba and bossa nova are spun by music-loving bar staff who know their Caipirinhas from their Caipiroskas, and they also offer Brazilian coffee and beer for the truly homesick. Three drinks on you can almost imagine you are back in Rio or Salvador during Carnival - except of course, this is Kyoto, those are temples outside, and the bar is about as big as a bonsai tree.

Address:
Sakyo-ku
Kyoto

 

4. Marble Room

White retro bucket seats line the bar and Kyoto’s cool cats takes seats or places on the mattress-like cushions that are positioned around the floor. It’s bright and airy inside, done up in red, yellow and spotless white tones, and in summer you can step outside onto a small balcony and gaze down on the Komo River below.

Cocktails, coffee, even cakes are on offer in the day, dyed-hair babes in designer glasses bringing new meaning to the term ladies who lunch. Take a seat in one of those bucket seats and get the drinks in.

Address:
135 Nakagyo-ku Pontocho
Sanjo-sagaru Pontocho, biru 4F
Kyoto

 

5. Shirakaba

A legendary, yet hard-to-find gem in a residential area to the side of Yoshida Hill, you’ll only know it by the little red door that marks the entrance. Once a hangout for student activists of nearby Kyoto University, it used to have twenty-four hour police surveillance. Things have calmed down now though and if you make it out here, you’ll find a general air of drunken joviality through the cigarette smoke. The locals are a mix of young intellectuals and bohemian types who like to party, while the current owner, former partner of a late student leader, holds an annual cherry blossom party in his memory. We’ll drink to that.

Address:
Nakaoji-cho Yoshida yama
Kyoto

Japan’s Best Bars: Hiroshima

1.  As Time

The Jekyll and Hyde of Hiroshima café bars - during the day it resembles an ordinary café where light snacks and lunches are enjoyed by 9-to-5 regulars. By night though the lights dim, classical jazz tinkles from the surround sound system and Mr Hyde comes strolling in. Regulars are moneyed movers and well-dress urban shakers who like fine wines and fine women, many of whom can be spotted sipping gins and Jamesons over cigarettes at the dark corner tables. We suggest coming here for a hot date though - it’s slick and stylish without being soulless or stuck-up. The interior is classy, the atmosphere moody, and the drinks mixed to perfection.

Address:
Hondori L bldg. 2F 2-3 Hondori, Naka-ku
Hiroshima

 

2. D Bar - Donbei Island

The coolest, classiest cocktail bar in town with drinks from all over the world, including the fashionable and once-forbidden absinthe. It’s all very dark, swish and sophisticated: waiters wear white aprons over elegant black dinner suits and hover obediently over smoke-filled tables where the credit card customers have gathered in conference. The most prominent light is a blue glow reflecting from bottles stacked high behind the bar. Every cocktail under the ‘Empire of the Sun’ is here for you to sample, at prices that seem to reflect costs required to courier the stuff. But then again, you’re paying for elegance. Regulars come early to get a seat.

Address:
39296 Fukuro-machi Naka-ku
Hiroshima, 730-0036

 

3. Flat Blue Spot

Ok, it’s mostly a day-time spot where ice cream, coffees and cakes are more popular than martinis and margaritas, but they do make a mysterious ‘calpis and vodka’ cocktail special that’s so sweet and smooth we forgot to even ask what calpis is. Your setting is typically sino-sleek - an airy open-plan space with much steel and high glass, perfect to people-watch or laze away afternoons reading on the window-side sofas. Even better though, there’s a second floor terrace outside where parasols provide shade from the Hiroshima heat and those calpis go down a treat in the sun.

Address:
44378 Fukuromachi Naka-ku
Hiroshima

 

4. Grog

A chic new minimalist cocktail bar with a ten-seater counter and intimate 4-seater tables where long-glass alcohol and short sharp shots are the name of the game. It’s trademark dark in that hip Japanese sushi box kind of way, with tall windows to look out onto the street life outside and smooth mirror lighting adding space age atmosphere from behind the bar. Good for some low-intensity romance or a late drink at the end of the night.

After all, what self-respecting cocktail barfly could refuse somewhere with a name like this.

Address:
Town Shintenchi Building 5F 5-21 Shintenchi, Naka-ku
Hiroshima

 

5. Qoo

If gazing at gorgeous girls in designer labels pouting over their colourful cocktails is your thing you’ll be queuing to get into qoo. It’s a cosy cocktail lounge and cafe furnished in interior decor magazine shades of black and white minimalism. The bar is the place to be based, but you’ll also like the second floor café known as ‘Space’, where additional schools of style-slave babes lean back on comfortable sofas ordering cocktails and cakes.

The prices may be sky high but one look at around at the gorgeous peoples Mecca and we reckon you’ll think it’s worth it.

Address:
Manzoku-ya Bldg. 2F 5-6 Horikawa-machi, Naka-ku
Hiroshima

Japan’s Best Bars: Fukuoka

1. The Happy Cock

Resist the temptation of having your photo taken in front of the sign - you’ll embarrass yourself. This place is so cool it hurts. Here the local funky youngsters come to eye up the talent over a drink that won’t leave you penniless. Make a space for yourself at the bar and flirt with whoever takes your fancy. If it’s a hit they play it. Simple but effective. And nobody leaves on their own…

Address:
9F Neo Palace ll Building 2-1-51 Daimyo
Fukuoka

 

2. Android

Another sci-fi chic neo-Japanese bar although this below-ground spot in Hakata-ku will not set you back the cost of a space station like others in the area. Cool urban dudes in Face magazine designer gear lounge out on cushioned chairs and soft low sofas listening to ambient, techno and trip-hop while nursing long glass cocktails and the occasional beer.

Shots are the house specialty though and you’ll thankfully find the pretentious posiness of the punters evaporates as the vodkas are vanquished.

Address:
11-1 Shin-kawabata Building B1F Hakata-ku
Fukuoka, 812-0026

 

3.  Blue Bar

A literal blue bar not a metaphorical one, the ceilings, walls and lights in here are all in various ocean shades that gradually wash over you like water in waves. It’s a bit Space Odyssey trippy and the rays of blue ceiling light add to the spacey effect. Or is that the powerful cocktails poured by the luminous blue bar staff.

Music is ambient to trip hop and blue curacoa is a popular mixer.

Address:
40362 Wakamatsu Building BFI Nakasu
Fukuoka, 810 0801

 

4. Misty

Play Misty for you at this sharp, chic, sophisticated little den in bustling Kego that’s a shelter from the human storm on the streets outside. It’s quiet and calming indoors, perfect for serious chat with close friends or illicit liaisons with potential lovers.

There’s a large drinks menu with some classy cocktails and fine wines and whiskey but the gentle ambience and assured service from the outside chaos is the main draw here.

Address:
Oak Building 4F 2-18-15 Kego, Chuo-ku
Fukuoka, 810 0023

 

5. O/D

A tastefully deconstructed place with a minimalist look. Someone’s trying a bit too hard but in Japan it works and there’s a feel to this bar that’s really quite relaxing. DJs move and groove all night long with a happy crowd of Hip Hop and Soul lovers and the low lights mean anyone can find a cosy hideaway.

Address:
Tokyo Troy Building 4F, 1-1-10 Maizuru, Chuo-ku
Fukuoka

Japan’s Best Bars: Tokyo

1. New York Bar

On the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Tokyo, 235m up in the air, sip a cognac or glass of California wine up here and you’ll feel like James Bond at large in Japan. Rated by Wallpaper magazine as one of the best roof-top bars in the world, it’s done up in dark wood, with ebony chairs, walnut floors and floor-to-ceiling-windows offering a view of Koshu-Kaido, Takashimaya Times Square, and Shinjuku Gyoen below.

On clear days you can see Mount Fujiyama and as night falls the neon lights up Shinjuku like something out of Bladerunner. Food includes New York-style grilled sirloin and mash or wild mushroom, truffle brie and thyme pizza, while murals of Radio City Music Hall and the Rainbow Room will make Manhattan-ites feel at home.

And the cocktails are great: New York Bar offers Burbon and whiskey, classic and original cocktails, and the largest selection of American wines in Japan. The barmen are ready to serve almost any drink; if they don’t know the recipe for your favourite, they will mix it according to your directions. They have more than 40 liqueurs, 15 cognacs and a huge variety of whiskies, gins, rums and tequilas from which you may choose.

Address:
52 Floor, Park Hyatt Hotel
Nishi-Shinjuku 3-7-1
Tokyo

 

2. Castillo

Colourful multi-purpose cavern in Roppongi with tinsel walls and twinkling ceilings that light up like Christmas trees even in July.

Bar staff and management wear weird costumes and play the fool but they get serious over cocktails from margaritas to martinis. DJs play retro tunes, paintings of past patrons hang on the walls and the more refined order pricey Cuban cigars and sit back and watch.

Address:
1F Dai 2 Aoi Bldg 6-1-8 Roppongi Minato-ku
Tokyo

 

 

3. Bandol

Stylish, yet unpretentious, Bandol’s wine list makes for impressive reading. Vintages from France, Italy, Spain and the New World rub shoulders with an extensive cocktail menu on which you can find old favourites along with more unusual concoctions like ‘Ontology’ and ‘Fantasy’.

Address:
2-12-16 Minami-Aoyama
Tokyo

 

 

4. Bourbon Street

One has to admire a bar that aims to offer a ‘taste of New Orleans in Tokyo.’ But this quirky, cozy bar with its homely, accessible atmosphere really pulls it off. Ideal for those feeling a tad lost in translation, those who want to slow down and chill out after a spell in the frantic Japanese capital.

The bar has live music most nights, mostly blues and jazz in keeping with the theme of the place. Drinks are also redolent of the Big Easy with a huge selections of bourbons (with a name like that, this was kind of obligatory) but also a large selection of wines by the glass.

Address:
7-8-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku
Tokyo

 

 5. XEX

Pronounced Zecks, it’s an ultra-modern space, with a baby grand and majestic floor-to ceiling-windows in its main room; and an extraordinary terrace with reflecting pool, lanterns and mini-waterfall beyond. The dusty tones and sleek low-slung furnishings and cushions resemble a Schrager design hotel in a desert, although you’re two floors up in the heart of Tokyo and in one of the plushest places in town.

It would have "WOW" factor even if it wasn’t music, but with lounge singers and jazz stars playing classics, standards and soul tunes, you get much more than you bargained for.

Address:
1-11 Sarugaku-cho
Tokyo

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