Golden Gai

Do the arithmetic from the owner’s side. A bar with six seats, open five hours a night, might serve twenty people in an evening on a good night. The rent on a two-storey building in central Shinjuku does not care that the building is small. There is no volume to make margin on, so the charge for occupying a seat is the business model – it is called otoshi or seki-ryo and in many bars it comes with a small snack.

This is a long-standing Japanese custom and it applies across the country, from izakaya to hotel bars. It is not applied to foreigners and not to Japanese. What is true is that Japanese customers know to expect it and visitors do not, which is why it reads as a sting when the bill arrives.

So ask. Stand at the door and ask what the charge is before you sit down. Every honest bar will tell you straight away and a great many post it in English on the door. A bar that will not give you a number is the one to walk past – and there are a hundred and ninety-nine others.

Budget accordingly: with the cover and a drink, assume ¥1,500 to ¥2,500 per bar. Two bars in an evening is the normal pattern and roughly ¥4,000 a head is a realistic figure. That is not expensive for what it is, but it is not the cheap night out people sometimes expect.

Every bar here has a theme and a regular clientele. There are punk bars, jazz bars, film bars, a bar for people who like a specific manga, bars run by the same person for forty years. Many have a handwritten sign in English saying whether newcomers are welcome; some say members only, and that is a genuine statement rather than a pose.

Look for: a door that is open or has a welcome sign, a posted charge, and space. Walk on from: a full bar, a members-only sign, or a tout on the street trying to steer you somewhere. Touting is not the Golden Gai way and anyone doing it is not representing a bar you want.

Once inside, you are in someone’s front room. Greet the master or mama, order a drink rather than studying a list, and talk to whoever is next to you, because at a six-seat counter there is no other option and that is the entire attraction. One drink and moving on is completely normal and nobody is offended.

Do not photograph inside. The alleys themselves are private roads and the association requires permission for street filming; a camera inside a six-seat bar, pointed at strangers drinking, is simply unacceptable. Ask first if you want a picture of the bottles.

Cash. Many of these bars have no card terminal and no interest in getting one. Draw money before you arrive; the convenience-store ATMs around Shinjuku station take foreign cards.

Time. Most bars open in the evening and stay open very late. Between about 19:00 and 21:00 you have the best chance of finding seats; after midnight the district is at its most atmospheric and its most full.

Space. Groups of more than three are difficult and will usually be split. Go alone or in a pair for the best of it.

Eat first. Omoide Yokocho, on the other side of Shinjuku station, is the yakitori equivalent of this street and has no cover-charge tradition, so a plate of skewers there and drinks here is the standard Shinjuku evening. For the wider district, see Shinjuku; for the opposite end of Tokyo drinking, Bar Benfiddich is a few minutes west and Virtù is across town.