Tokyo/Roppongi

Roppongi (六本木) is a section of Tokyo's Minato ward infamous for its nightlife. Unlike most nightlife districts in Tokyo, there are thousands of foreigners visible from any vantage point, and almost all restaurants and clubs cater to the English-speaking crowd. But Roppongi has recently become respectable again even among the Japanese thanks to the opening of Roppongi Hills, a massive shopping and dining complex.

Get in

To get to the area, you can take the Hibiya/O-Edo subway to Roppongi (H04/E23). Alternatively you can walk there from Tameike-Sanno (G06) or Roppongi-Itchome (N05).

If you walk west under the highway long enough (half an hour plus), you'll eventually end up in Shibuya; following the highway east for about as long will take you to the Diet Building and Imperial Palace. In daytime, you can also take frequent buses along Roppongi-dori to speed your way.

See, Do and Buy

The big intersection of Roppongi-dōri (六本木通り), under the elevated highway, and Gaien-higashi-dōri (外苑東通り) is where everything starts. The Almond coffee shop, with its gaudy pink decor, is the time-honored landmark for meeting up with friends, though it doesn't get many customers.

Roppongi Hills (六本木ヒルズ). 6-10-1 Roppongi (Hibiya line, Roppongi station, exit 1C; Oedo line, Roppongi station, exit 3), 03-6406-6000. [1]. Roppongi Hills is an expansive shopping and entertainment complex, sleek and modern, it opened with much fanfare and remains popular. It has a number of attactions centered around the 53-story Mori Tower:

• Tokyo City View Mori Tower, 52F. 03-6406-6652. 9:00 AM to midnight. [2] This viewing deck gives you a 360º view of the city from 250 meters above sea level. Don't buy an admission ticket, it is included in the Mori Art Museum ticket, which is the same price.
• Mori Art Museum Mori Tower, 53F. 03-5777-8600. 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, until 5:00 PM on Tues. [3] This impressive art gallery hosts special exhibitions. Ticket prices vary, but students and tickets bought at 7-Eleven convenience stores and Pia ticket vendor receive a discount. The museum ticket includes admission to Tokyo City View.
• Mori Urban Institute for the Future Mori Tower, 50F. 03-6406-6636. Mon to Thu 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, until 10:00 PM Fri to Sun and holidays. [4].
• Shopping and dining. In the first several floors of Mori Tower and the adjoining buildings, there are heaps of shopping spots, nearly all are upscale. Similarly, most of the restaurants have a lot of style, and with prices to match.
• Virgin Toho Cinemas 03-5775-6090 [5]. If you are going to put down the going rate of nearly ¥1800 for a movie in Tokyo, this is the place to do it. The nine-screen cinema has futuristic decor, THX and reserved seating. This theather is open all night, so you can catch a movie if you are staying out late and are planning to catch the morning train.
• Mouri Garden This garden has a couple of wild duck families.

Eat

Not surprisingly, Roppongi has lots of international restaurants.

Budget

Some of the best cheap places to eat in high-rent Roppongi are the numerous fast-food joints', most of which keep late hours to cater to the party crowd.

• Turkish doner kebab vans on the street at night are really popular for people getting out of clubs.

Mid-range

• Roppongi Hills has an extensive selection of midrange-to-expensive restaurants. A few branches of famous chains here, all offering set meals in the ¥1500 range, include:
  • Ginza's Katsukobo Wakō (かつ工房和幸) for tonkatsu (pork cutlets)
  • Sugamo's Konaya (古奈屋) for curry udon
  • Akasaka's Kushinobō (串の坊) for kushiyaki (deep-fried skewers)

• Acarajé Tropicana, Edge Bldg. B1, 1-1-1 Nishi-Azabu, 03-3479-4690, [6]. This Brazilian restaurant also teaches Brazilian dance if you pay a little bit.

• Hard Rock Cafe. Look for the giant gorilla hanging on to the window.

• Tony Roma's 5-4-20 Roppongi, (next to Hard Rock Cafe), 03-3408-2748. Step out of Japan and into the United States; the bilingual staff and English-only menu might make you forget you are in Tokyo. The restaurant features their trademark ribs, worth the price which approaches ¥2000. The Texas Mud Pie is the cure for tiny Japanese desserts, this one looks the size of Texas.

• Tapeo: Bar de Espana Roppongi Hills Metrohat B2, 6-4-1, +81 03-5412-2125. 11AM-11PM everyday. Cute tapas bar serving a good range of small plates as well as five or six main dishes. Spanish wines, sherry and a well made sangria are the highlights of the drinks list. The half roast chicken is excellent but the paella can be a little dry. There's plenty of seating but customers needing to use the bathroom must leave the bar and wander through the corridors to find a public toilet. Tapas ¥500 average Mains ¥800-1400.

Splurge

• Mako 1-6-1 Roppongi, Izumi Garden Tower 5F. 03-5575-8055. Every day, 11:30 AM to 2 PM, 6 PM to 10:30 PM. There's more to Roppongi than nightclubs — this upscale California-style restaurant fuses cuisines from around the world, without regard to nationality. Deep-fried fish with a Chinese black-bean sauce is served next to foie gras-topped bruchetta. Chef Mako Tanaka, former student of Wolfgang Puck, changes the menu each month. You can order à la carte, but recommended is the omakase (set) course for ¥6000; a fuller course can be had for ¥10,000. The English-speaking waiters are informal and courteous.

• Roku Roku (六禄). Grand Hyatt 6F, Roppongi Hills, [7]. This complex of six restaurants on the sixth floor is a good choice if price is not an issue. You can choose between sushi, steak, Japanese and Chinese, and will be looking at upwards of ¥5000 per head on the bill.

• Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Roppongi Hills Hillside 2F, 6-10-1 Roppongi, tel. 03-5772-7500, [8]. The first overseas venture of the eponymous Paris-based Michelin-starred chef. Each dish is a work of art almost as breathtaking as the price tag, as courses range for ¥2900 to ¥12800 — still a steal by Tokyo gourmet standards. No reservations are accepted, so prepare to queue.

Drink

There are innumerable watering holes in Roppongi. Generally speaking, first floor and ground floor establishments cater to foreigners while higher stories feature more exclusive (and often sex-related) clubs aimed at the Japanese. ID is required by many clubs, so bring along your passport. Foreigners might be suprised that many of the clubs are very small.

• alife Nishiazabu. Myojo Nishiazabu 70 Building, near Roppongi Hills. 1-7-2 Nishiazabu, 03-5785-2531, [9]. Huge club complex.

• Gas Panic. 2-3F, 3-15-24 Roppongi, 03-3405-0633, [10]. The best known of Roppongi's many meat markets, where desperate foreigners hoping to score and desperate Japanese hoping to get scored congregate. Packed tighter than the lower circles of Hell on most weekends. No entry fee, but you must have a drink in your hand at all times. On Thursdays ("Happy Gaspanic Day") all drinks are ¥400 all night, while the rest of the time prices vary from ¥600-1200. The amount of alcohol in the drinks is low.

• Lexington Queen. B1F, 3-13-14 Roppongi, 03-3401-1661, [11]. Going on 25 years, "The Lex" has managed to ride out the bubble and still gets the obligatory photo-op visits from all the fresh and washed-up celebrities alike. Truly the grand old dame of 'Pongi (a title equally apt for owner and longtime society columnist Bill Hersey).

• Propaganda. Yua Roppongi Building 2F, 3-14-9 Roppongi. An appropriately grubby joint decorated with propaganda posters and booming bass, mostly of the hip-hop sort. The friendly staff parties as hard as the customers. Drinks ¥800-1000 (half price before 9 PM), no cover charge.

• Space Lab Yellow. 1-10-11 Nishi-Azabu, tel. 3479-0690, [12]. Opened in 1993 and still going strong, Yellow offers an inky black performance space for many of the city's (and the world's) more innovative electronic artists and residents include the United Future Organization. Cover charges depend on the night's program. Buried in an alley and a little difficult to find, look for pure yellow lit-up square that serves as the sign.

• Velfarre. 7-14-22 Roppongi, tel. 3402-8000, [13]. Tokyo's glitziest club in the bubble days, but fallen on harder times and the once stratospheric cover charge is now a mere ¥3000-4000 most nights for men (women get a small discount).

• Heartland in the bottom of Mori Tower is a place for many foreigners to start the night. The clientele consists mainly of male foreigners in the finance area and Japanese girls/women who want a foreginer yet not an English teacher or a US marine. There is no dresscode, but most men wear shirts and women dress nicely. Heartland is quite different from the typical Pongi drinking hole as the average age is much higher and the clientele is more up-scale. (Free entrance, bottled beer ¥500.)

• Muse. 4-1-1 Nishi-Azabu, tel. 5467-1188, [14]. Many expats argue that "you can't lose at Muse," a multi-level, multi-room below-ground establishment which, in addition to bars, dance floors, and VIP rooms, also has karaoke, ping-pong and pool tables. Cover charge is never more than ¥2,000 and includes drink tickets; students can get drink discounts (except on Friday and Saturday nights) with ID. To get there, follow the expressway from Roppongi Crossing past Roppongi Hills, and keep an eye out on your left.

Sleep

Sleeping is probably the last thing on your mind if you're in Roppongi. There are plenty of places to hang out between the last train and the first one in the morning, but not surprisingly very few of them are free or inexpensive.

Budget

• Super Sauna Roppongi VIVI (スーパーサウナ 六本木VIVI). Roa Bldg 4F, 5-5-1 Roppongi (Roppongi stn exit A3), tel. 03-3404-4126. Given the name you might well be excused for thinking this is in an entirely different business, but this is in fact quite a decent capsule hotel that caters to women also. A capsule for the night (checkout 10 AM) costs ¥4500, with pool, spa, gym, and more included.

Mid-range

• Tokyo Prince Hotel 3-3-1 Shibakoen, tel: 81-3-3432-1111. If you insist on staying in a "western" hotel near Roppongi, and have to stay within a budget (under ¥20000 per night), the Tokyo Prince Hotel is one of your few options. The hotel is almost at the base of the Tokyo Tower and is located in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood just a 15-minute walk from the action in Roppongi. The hotel staff speak English, and the hotel has the amenities of its modern competitors. But it is a bit of a throwback. The beds are short, the decor is tacky, and everything (except the DSL) feels a little dated.

Splurge

• Grand Hyatt Tokyo. 6-10-3 Roppongi, 03-4333-1234, [15]. A part of Roppongi Hills, and not to be confused with the more famous Hyatt in Tokyo, namely Shinjuku's Park Hyatt Tokyo. Sleek and minimalistic, all black, gray and brown, with expensive design that never hesitates to sacrifice function for form, but the superlative service makes up for it. Rack rates marginally cheaper than the Park Hyatt at ¥37000 and up.

Stay safe

Roppongi has, by Japanese standards, a slightly dangerous reputation and even makes it onto the US Department of State's Consular Information Sheet [16], probably mostly for lack of anything else to warn about. The main hazard is drunken fights, which should be steered clear of as standard operating procedure for the police is to grab everybody in the vicinity and lock them up until things are sorted out, which may take its time. Some petty theft also occurs in crowded bars and clubs.

Get out

• Complete a night of decadent debauchery with a sushi breakfast at Tsukiji, a few stops down the O-Edo Line.