Travelling this week to Tokyo for a conference. Unlike many Roon members it’s unusual for me to venture abroad, so it’s all very exciting.
I’d be very interested in any audio related bars etc. that members might reccomend. The JBS Bar looked like a very interesting contender. We’ll be staying at the Conrad in Minato.
Tokyo is a crazy amazing place. Try to learn a few Japanese phrases if you can, just simple please, thank you, excuse me…etc food is amazing. Going to be fun in the tech shops if you like that sort of thing. Just watch out for voltage differences on power supplies as it’s 100vac there.
How long do you have there?
Just eat. A lot.
Arrive Wednesday night, leave Sunday evening. Saturday and Sunday are free days from conference. Parks, gardens, bars and eating are the intended activities. Robot fighting bar on Thursday night. Sumo wrestling demonstration Friday lunch.
Have a great time! and post when you can…
If you are out socially then be prepared to drink…a lot too. Sake and beer most popular. Akihabara is where a lot of audio and computer shops are…great to wander but huge area to cover…google is your friend.
Japanese girls can really put it away too…don’t under estimate them. Fun and easy going too 
Saturday and Sunday in akihabara is a walking street so no cars, easy to move about and no smoking streets are many…so if you are a smoker need to find a smoking room usually on a corner.
Be prepared to queue for the best food stores
Andrea likes whisky and I’m into sherry, so the bar scene is looking good. Neither of us smoke. I’ll check out Akihabara but I can feel another assault with an empty plastic water bottle might be on the cards if I attempted electronic shops in her company. She might well go nuclear with shoes or handbags.
Well Andrew you missed the bit about SWMBO coming along…
I remember a small…and I really mean small piano bar in Tokyo (think maybe 3x3M area and 2 stories (well it had an upstairs that had a trap door so people didn’t fall down the ladder (stairs) back down where I think there was actually a piano! …i’ll try and find a pic if I can but trying to find places with an address can be a real challenge…google maps will be a bonus if you can stand the roaming data costs (not sure where you are coming from) but there will be plenty of options and recommendations from the locals assuming you will know some others with local knowledge.
The Japanese party hard. you will have a hoot.
Assuming you have no small people with you (who will find clothes shopping tiresome), it should be said that the clothing and fashion in Japan is major, and with some research someone clothes shopping could have a whale of a time.
As for you, you should be warned not to enter any record shops. Especially not Tower in Shinjuku, nor Disk Union (multiple shops in one location, they keep moving). Not under any circumstances. I drop the cost of a small surround processor on CDs in each store I enter. Damn their good taste, wide ranging knowledge and world beating remastering.
I have a route to Tower Records from the Hotel mapped out on the phone. Just in case there is a recorded music emergency.
http://martha-records.com/martha/
Bar Martha, Ebisu.
A couple of good places mentioned here:
And another personal favourite:
(Sailin’ Shoes)
http://shinkies.typepad.jp/blog/2009/03/ebisu-bar-saili.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bar-Piano/167826296607299
Worth a look in if you’re in the area… very quirky
If you are in the mood for the wildest heavy metal in the world, I can hook you up 
But yah, eat… a lot. Be adventurous.
I was up for it, but it hasn’t met with official approval. I’m starting to suspect that it may take more than two days to properly checkout Tokyo !
2 days! jeez… just go be shocked and amazed, and plan your next trip
You head will be spinning from culture shock… Music will be the last thing on your mind… I think I spent 2 hours lost in a Don Quijote store one evening on my first trip there.
Enjoy!
Not an audio bar, but a wonderful selection of good Sherry.
If you get a chance, listen to one of Kenrick Sound’s JBL setups.
“Seki” - Quiche & Tarte Restaurant in Tokyo
“Sweet Rain” Jazz Dining Bar in Tokyo
Whew.
Got back a couple of weeks ago. What a city.
In the end we didn’t visit an audio bar, but we did see a cat cafe !
Visited Tower Records in Shinjuku and got dragged into a mesmerising Don Quijote store where we spent far too long and for some reason I emerged with a lovely rubber chicken pen that squeaks when you squeeze it.
Highlight of the bars was the abovementioned Cadiz bar. Mr. Yokata was the epitome of the professional cocktail barman in white coat and pompadour, down to the flourish as he clicked off the pen with which he handwrote the bills. Andrea had a gimlit (excellent) and we had a great chat with him about Sherry, drank some of his recommendations (including an amazing light Amontillado from Manzanilla) and looked at his photos from his visit to Cadiz last year. He has every spirit under the sun as well as sherry, including a wide range of whiskies. If you go there, call ahead and make an appointment as it is very small and he gives preference to his regulars.
We visited the Hamarikyu Gardens (our hotel overlooked them) and the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, both recommended. We rushed through the Nezu Museum on our last day, absolutely fascinating.
Sounds like you had a blast!
This is a great way to visit Tokyo for the first time … go another 2-3 times and you will have time to see and hear music
From the Don Quijote page Danny linked:
In the store you get to listen to the store’s own theme tune, playing on a loop, called “Miracle Shopping” (ミラクルショッピング?) sung by Maimi Tanaka, who was a store employee.
In case you’re thinking “Surely no 24/7 retail store could possibly play their own slight candypop theme tune over and over and over and over again to paying customers in the store”; they do and don’t call me Shirley. There is a career for Ms.Tanaka in psychological warfare and I shudder to think of the workers compensation mental health claims. I think my psyche has edited out this tune as I cannot recall anything about it in detail; it did, however, remind me of the Barney the Dinosaur theme song.
Other impressions of Japan were:
the people are exquisitely polite and helpful. I only saw litter once and suspect it was left by a tourist. There is no graffiti;
It was stinking hot and humid in late summer; one day was 38° and 80% humidity. Don’t go in late summer;
All the food is yummy, even the inexpensive dashi café we stopped at for lunch one day;
Never get into a bowing contest with a shop assistant at the duty free perfume counter at Narita Airport. They are all under strict instructions to assume a 90° angle as you leave the shop and no counter-bowing on your part will permit you to exit without turning your back on them. Just give up before you attract a crowd of raucous Australian onlookers all keen to bet against you. Andrea’s greatest regret of the trip was missing this episode. Also Chanel No.19 Poudre is not Chanel No.19, but that’s a whole different story.