Japan’s Best Bars: Nagasaki

1. Bar G Soul

Bar G Soul, Nagasaki 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

Bar Soda, Nagasaki 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

Bar Sweet Box, Nagasaki 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

Cocktail Bar Joy, Nagasaki 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

Cyberspace On, Nagasaki 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.