Hello Tokyo… Sure, Tokyo is pretty damn great as it is, but how can our city become even more amazing for all residents and visitors alike? Most of you would probably agree if we were to claim that accessibility and openness is one area with Inside room for improvement. Determined to unlock Tokyo for absolutely everyone, we’ve taken up the task of creating a truly inclusive guide to the capital. Flip to page 18 to see the city from a different perspective, including where to view April-June 2017 art in a wheelchair, where to find a great halal restaurant or an LGBT-friendly bar, and where to entertain your kids on a rainy day, plus ideas on how we can all help make Tokyo a more open – and ultimately, better – place. PAGE 18 â Park life Head outdoors with our pick of the best picnic spots PAGE 42 â A woman’s work Meet ‘living national treasure’ Komanosuke Takemoto PAGE 50 â A drink with The sake a view route Get a taste of the high life Tour western Japan’s at these rooftop bars best sake breweries PAGE 58 PAGE 68 â â â FEATURES AND REGULARS 06 Tokyo Update 10 To Do 14 Courtesy calls 18 Open Tokyo 40 Eating & Drinking 44 Shopping & Style 50 Art & Culture 54 Music 56 Nightlife 61 Film 62 Sport 64 LGBT 66 Travel & Hotels 70 Getting Around 74 You know you’re in Tokyo when… International Cover Consulting Editor [email protected] Satomi Saruwatari Sales/Marketing President/Publisher Art direction: Steve Nakamura Managing Director Marcus Webb Designers Kirsty Bouwers Mao Kawakami Hiroyuki Fushitani David Woodley Editors Yuki Masuko Hiroyuki Sumi Takahiro Takeuchi Chairman CEO Yukako Izumi Chikako Fukui Staff Photographers Distribution Hiroshi Hasegawa Noel Penzer [email protected] Staff Writers Keisuke Tanigawa Takaki Matsuda Time Out Digital Time Out Group CEO Julio Bruno Ili Saarinen Kunihiro Miki Kisa Toyoshima Content Director 4th Floor, 125 Shaftesbury Avenue, Time Out Tokyo Inc. 5-9-9-101 Hiroo, Shibuya, Tokyo, 150-0012 London, WC2H 8AD Founder +81 (0)3 5792 5721 www.timeout.com/tokyo [email protected] Mari Hiratsuka Administration Commercial & Marketing www.timeout.com Tony Elliott Advertising and general enquiries: [email protected] Mayumi Koyama Shiori Kotaki Momo Ando Akiko Toya +44 (0)207 813 3000 5 April-June, 2017 Time Out Tokyo BEAN WHAT WHERE IN TOKYO VS Tokyo City FAQ YOU SAID IS THIS? THAT FRIDAY FEELING LEAF Can Premium Friday save the economy? Update When Premium Friday was announced by the government back in late 2016, most Here’s what you tweeted in response... Every issue we show people thought it was an elaborate prank. you a picture of a Conjured up by movers and shakers in the Tokyo location and Japanese business world to get people out challenge you to and spending again, Premium Friday lets ‘It’s just name it. In this issue: people leave their offices at 3pm on the last you’ll definitely be Friday of every month, thus stimulating cosmetics panting after climbing the economy and ensuring capitalism up these steep steps keeps on trundling along. covering an to a little oasis in Friday February 24 saw the inaugural overbearing the heart of Tokyo, ‘PF’, but early signs are far from originally built in part encouraging. work culture’ as a fire lookout and According to a marketing survey taken still boasting some after the first Premium Friday, only a smoking views of measly 3.7 percent of company employees the city. in Tokyo actually observed the first ‘Who’s going à To find the answer visit tinyurl. edition. Possibly because the end of the com/TOTwhereintokyo14 KOFFEE MAMEYA month is traditionally the busiest time for to keep the For coffee lovers still grieving the loss of most companies. the internationally renowned Omotesando Yes, the point is essentially to promote business Koffee, which closed back in late 2015, consumerism instead of, you know, this place is sure to bring respite. Opened combatting excessively long hours, but running in the by the same man, Eiichi Kunitomo, and some say that the idea might actually lead meantime?’ located in the exact same place (albeit in to a diversification in working habits. a new building), Koffee Mameya is a bean Unfortunately enough, we here at Time PHOTO: SHIORI KOTAKI specialist with enough shebang to turn Out Towers are too busy crafting the city’s you into a proper barista at home. Order at finest magazine to take our Premium ‘Is this a the counter and take a bag of beans home Fridays, but will more than make up for it to create your own steaming cup of black come good ol’ Friday night. pointless goodness in peace. As the focus is on selling SUBCULTURAL READS beans, there’s no place to sit down and drink, bureaucratic but regular coffees and espressos can be exercise or a ordered at the counter. IAN MARTIN: ‘QUIT YOUR BAND: MUSICAL NOTES à tinyurl.com/TOTmameya cruel joke?’ FROM THE JAPANESE UNDERGROUND’ TOKYO LOVES... Every once in a while, a Japanese musical act starts trending on YouTube and attracts the attention of the Western world. These performers often find fame because they embody the clichéd view ‘Premium of ‘weird Japan’, of something being so strange and foreign that KOE HOUSE they have to be seen – a label that can be confining for the artists Lifestyle concept stores are a longstanding Tokyo craze that have seen a recent renaissance, Friday, Karoshi themselves. Ian Martin has set out to change this image. ‘Quit Your and Koe is one of the best of the new breed. It stuffs wearables, home gear and a love Monday’ Band’ is a work of passion, documenting groups lost to time and for organic, fair-trade goodies into a one-stop shop for those looking to live a seemingly showing that Japanese music is more than a string of novelty acts, effortless, yet very well-curated and guilt-free, life. full of variety and originality. The book is a great intro to the nation’s à tinyurl.com/TOTkoe under- and overground, but what ties it all together is the same sense ‘I’d rather just go of devotion and fandom music lovers anywhere can relate to. Absolutely nothing weird about that. AGGRESSIVE RETSUKO home and sleep à tinyurl.com/TOTquityourband TOKYO SARYO Most anime characters embrace the more fantastic elements of life, but Hello Kitty supremos Green tea has been thoroughly Sanrio appear to have decided it was high time for a more relatable one. Enter Aggressive than shop’ CHARLES SPRECKLEY: ‘PEOPLE MAKE PLACES’ underrepresented in Tokyo’s café culture Retsuko (aka ‘Aggretsuko’), a red panda employed as a mediocre ‘office lady’ in Marunouchi First-time visitors often wax lyrical about Tokyo’s glittering exterior: for the past few years. Thankfully change who lets off steam after work by singing heavy metal at karaoke while drinking beer. We’re fans. its neon streets and multi-storied walkways and futuristic train lines is in the air, with the latest leafy addition © ’15, ’17 SANRIO ’17 © ’15, S/T•F à tinyurl.com/TOTretsuko ‘Every Friday is zipping through buildings above your head. But as any long-term being Sangenjaya’s austerely decorated resident knows, the real magic is to be found indoors. This book Tokyo Saryo, which offers single-origin green premium’ introduces these spaces and, as its title suggests, is not only about tea in hand drip form. The folks behind the VEGAN JUNK FOOD places, but the people who create them. In Japan, and particularly minimalist shop have even developed their 2016 appeared to be Tokyo’s year of the vegan, with the ethical diet sweeping the city. One Tokyo, owners of restaurants, cafés, galleries, gift stores and fashion own tea dripper, which is supposed to help thing that was conspicuously missing, until now, was any type of guilty pleasure – something boutiques put extraordinary effort into transforming their spaces, bring out the full flavours of the leaves. Order to have when you just need some fat, sugar or carbs to counter all the goodness. Enter an ‘Can we have often decorating them in an obsessively authentic way. ‘People Make the tasting set, composed of two green teas entire menu dedicated to ‘vegan junk food’, created by the team at Organic Table by Lapaz. a Premium Places’ is also an app and a personal concierge service – which means of your choice in two steepings, one cup of à tinyurl.com/TOTlapaz that places are continually added to the list. ‘genmaicha’ and a small sweet at the end. KOE HOUSE: MARI HIRATSUKA. ORGANIC TABLE BY LAPAZ: SATOMI SARUWATARI Week, too?’ à tinyurl.com/TOTpeopleplaces KOFFEE MAMEYA: YUKAKO IZUMI. TOKYO SARYO: SHIORI KOTAKI à tinyurl.com/TOTsaryo Time Out Tokyo April-June, 2017 6 7 April-June, 2017 Time Out Tokyo TOKYO UPDATE THE NEW LOCAL SWEETEST CITY OPENINGS LEGENDS THINGS DISPATCHES Island influences DOMINIQUE ANSEL BAKERY GINZA The name should ring a bell to anyone who has ever tasted a Cronut: Dominique Ansel is the current king of innovative desserts, sweets and pastries. His latest outpost, opened in Ginza in late March 2017, is home to limited-edition, often Japan- GOTOJIN TAMACHI inspired offerings like daruma-shaped Located four hours by ferry from Nagasaki, cakes, mousse square watermelons and, the Goto Islands are rather remote, but this to top things off, flying cakes. izakaya presents the best of their produce à tinyurl.com/TOTdominiqueginza and cuisine right here in Tokyo. Feast on dishes made with rich, chewy horse mackerel, #14: or what is known as ‘arakabu’ in Kyushu: fried or stewed ‘kasago’ (scorpionfish).