Gay bars tokyo shinjuku
Shinjuku Nichome: Stretching Your Yen in the Gayborhood
Shinjuku Nichome is known as Tokyo’s gay district. The area is home to tall concentration of gay bars, clubs and restaurants—but how do you choose where to go? Here are a few spots we recommend for an evening out in Nichome.
Where to eat
It’s never a good idea to travel drinking on an unfilled stomach, not just for your health, but also because you might be tempted to purchase overpriced bar snacks later in the night. Here are a couple of options for reasonable places to eat in the area.
Agalico
Agalico is a restaurant that serves a variety of Asian cuisine just across the street from Shinjuku Nichome, next to Shinjuku Sanchome station exit C6. Some items on their menu are pricey, but they also have some great value for cash dishes, such as the chicken over rice, which for 1,078 yen will leave one person absolutely stuffed. They also assist glasses of house red or white wine for 429 yen, and they fill those up right to the brim. Even if you’re feeling like, a glass of sparkling wine filled to the brim will set you back just 550 yen.
アガリコ 新宿三丁目店
1F, 3 Chome−9−9, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0022
12 pm to 8 pm
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Shinjuku Ni-chome stands proudly as one of the world’s foremost LGBTQ+ towns—a dazzling enclave where sexual minorities can express themselves freely in a society that is ever more sympathetic and accepting. Renowned for pioneering work with famous entertainment spaces like “advocates cafe Tokyo” and “ArcH,” a producer now oversees a variety of venues such as AiSOTOPE LOUNGE, ALAMAS CAFE, AiiRO CAFE, and AVANTGARDE TOKYO. The mission is to present even beginners to the many ways one can enjoy this vibrant district—while also reminding visitors that in a place famous for its diversity, comprehension and respect for all are paramount.
Where Is Shinjuku Ni-chome?
Geographically, the address of Shinjuku Ni-chome is defined as the area to the east of Tokyo Metro Shinjuku Sanchome Station. It is nestled between Yasukuni-dori to the north and Shinjuku Gyoen to the south. Within this area, a central 200‑meter stretch known as Nakadori serves as the main artery. Lined with a diverse array of bars and restaurants, Nakadori also hosts shops selling lgbtq+ merchandise and hotels catering to same-sex couples. Include to that the presence of DJ bars and versatile e
A Guide to Gay Exclude Etiquette in Japan
Tokyo’s known gay district, Shinjuku Ni-Chome, has one of the world’s highest concentrations of LGBT-friendly businesses. For the most part, it’s a place where first-timers can hang out without needing to worry too much about special customs or cultural knowledge.
Ni-Chome is used to tourists but, those who want to sneak into smaller, more local LGBT bars might locate some cultural practices surprising. In Japan, manners are everything, so here are some insider tips on what to expect when visiting LGBT bars off the beaten path, and how to get the most out of the experience.
Venturing away from westernized gay bars
Photo by: Alex Rickert Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, but sometimes you gotta venture into the unknown.
Most gay bars in tourist spots love Ni-Chome or Doyamacho in Osaka mimic American-style bars that feature large shot bars, dance music and dark atmospheres where customers of various sexes, genders, sexualities and identities can drink and make merry. You can certainly locate these kinds of bars, especially in Tokyo, but the vast majority are similar to what is commonly referred to as a スナックバー
New Sazae: a classic Tokyo gay bar
By Kyoichi Tsuzuki, photos by Kaoru Yamada
[Update, Jun 18 2018] Shion, the owner of the famous New Sazae, one of the earliest gay bars in Shinjuku Ni-chome, has recently passed away. But his spirit will stay on in the lively bar, which will endure to be an institution for gay culture in Tokyo.
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When you’re gay in Tokyo, Shinjuku Ni-chome is the place to party. Spread across several blocks of narrow streets packed with hundreds of bars, the capital’s gay quarter has a reputation to rival New York’s Christopher Street and San Francisco’s Castro District – albeit in more coddled surrounds. By night, it’s the prime destination for the city’s LGBT crowd, who flock to dance clubs or more discrete watering holes; by day, the bars give way to quirky restaurants and coffee shops. And like nearby Kabukicho, Ni-chome never seems to pause for breath: year-round, it’s the neighbourhood that never sleeps.
Originally an inn town on the road out of Edo, Shinjuku took on a seedier guise as the years passed; by the end of World War II, it had the dubious honour of existence the foremost red-light
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