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Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka
If you're planning an intergalactic rendezvous, this cocktail lounge is the place. White tables on a purple carpet floating in the middle of the city create a very spacey atmosphere.
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Green Plaza Ladies Sauna
Women also have a place to wash and crash in Kabukichō. This central, 24-hour sentō (public bath) and spa for women is a calming refuge, where you can get a massage after you bathe, have a bite to eat, and then blissfully snooze away until the morning trains begin running. Best of all, there's a rooftop rotemburo (outdoor bath).
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Hanashibe
For Kyoto specialities and house-brewed sake, check out Hanashibe in the Mediage entertainment complex in Aqua City. You can try three types of sake in a tasting set (around ¥700 ), which you can match with izakaya -style small dishes.
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Harlem
Wanna see where some of those Japanese boys with Afros and corn rows are heading? On the 2nd and 3rd floor of the Dr Jeekahn's Building, this club is where Tokyo B-boys and B-girls come for soul and hip-hop spun by international DJs. The cover includes one drink.
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Hash House Harriers
Formed in 1938, this worldwide club's activities are a mix of mad dashing and serious drinking done by cheeky joggers with sobriquets such as 'Sakura Sucker'. Several planned runs meander through a variety of routes each week. Bring your best drinking shoes.
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Heartland
Named for the house beer from Kirin, Heartland is a chic, easygoing watering hole at the base of Roppongi Hills' West Tower that caters to professional expats and Japanese. It doesn't have the zoolike atmosphere of bars on Roppongi's main drag and drinks are reasonably priced.
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Hobgoblin
Far better than your average Britpub replica, Akasaka's Hobgoblin is run by an Oxfordshire brewery. It serves good pub fare, like toad in the hole, with excellent microbrews. You'll find this Hobgoblin in the basement of the building next to the clearly marked Marugen 23 building.
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Hot House
This must be the smallest jazz dive in the world. Musicians play in twos and threes (there's no room for more). Audiences are usually a few dozen; get here early if you're set on sitting in for the evening.
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Hub Pub
A generally English ambience, pub food and a decent selection of beers attract a mixed crowd of 20-somethings, especially on weekends. The Hub has branches all over the city, though this is probably the most comfortable of the lot.
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Insomnia Lounge
Insomnia Lounge is that rare Shibuya find: a bar for grown-ups. Good food, low music and a cosy, mirrored red interior make it the kind of place to come when you're in the mood for conversation. The kitchen's open late, and the oddly eyeball-esque mirrored wall behind the bar will induce insomnia if you're not already feeling it.
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Jazz Spot Intro
It's a good sign when a little club allows a quarter of its floor space to be monopolised by a sexy grand piano. It also bodes well when the place is staffed by musicians who love to talk shop all night. At Jazz Spot Intro, all the omens are favourable.
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Jz Brat
This lovely, airy venue in the Cerulean Tower Tōkyū Hotel books consistently solid acts from Tokyo and abroad. The space seats just over 100, who are always treated to an intimate ambience. Though there's no formal dress code, you'll feel better dressing up rather than down.
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Kabuki-Za (Kabuki Theatre)
Performances and times vary from month to month at Kabuki-za so check with the TIC (Tourist Information Center; ) or the theatre for programme information. Be sure to rent a headset for blow-by-blow explanations in English, and pick up a bentō downstairs. A full kabuki performance comprises three or four acts (usually from different plays) over an afternoon or an evening (typically to or to ), with long intervals between the acts.
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Kamiya Bar
Once popular with the Tokyo literati, this smoky old place hasn't changed much since it was founded in 1880. The 1st floor is a beer hall where you pay for drinks as you enter. Its best-known offering is the brandy-based cocktail denki-bran . The restaurants upstairs serve Japanese and Western food, but that's not the reason to come here.
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Kanze Nō-Gakudō
Kanze Nō-gakudō is one of Tokyo's most highly regarded nō troupes. By far the most exciting are the rare outdoor night performances of Takigi Nō, where the masked actors are illuminated by huge burning torches. They are usually held on the grounds of a temple or shrine in Tokyo.
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Kinswomyn
This established girls-only spot is welcoming and comfortable, and is run by a lesbian activist. English is spoken here, making it a perfect stop for visitors, but it's more a spot for drinking and chatting instead of dancing.
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Kokuritsu Nō-Gakudō
This theatre stages the traditional chants and dances nō is famous for, as well as the kyōgen (short, lively comic farces) interludes that serve as cathartic comic relief. The stark legends and historical dramas unfold on an elegant cypress stage.
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La Jetée
Kawai-san, the proprietor of this Golden Gai bar, knows more about film (especially that of Chris Marker) than most of us ever will. No English is spoken here, though you're more than welcome to practise your rusty Français. Unlike many Golden Gai establishments, this one is amenable to foreign visitors.
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La.Mama
Just about every Japanese band from Buck-Tick to Melt-Banana has passed through here. The room is fairly spacious, but even when the place gets crowded you'll never be far from the stage. Shows usually begin around .
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Las Chicas
Slated to reopen in spring 2008, Las Chicas is also a restaurant and one of Harajuku's core art spaces. But that doesn't mean you can't come here just to hang out in the bar area, which is the kind of place where you want to sit and sip for hours.
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Lexington Queen
The Lex was one of Roppongi's first discos and is still one of those places where visiting celebrities turn up. The cover here starts around ¥2000 unless you've had your visage on the cover of Vogue or Rolling Stone . But, even noncelebrities get a free drink with admission.
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Lion Beer Hall
This is an almost-Bavarian beer hall smack in the middle of the otherwise ritzy, retail-crazed Ginza. Good pub food and a lovely 1930s mural on the wall only add to the atmosphere on weekend nights, which have been known to erupt into song.
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Liquid Room
Some of the world's greatest performers have graced the stage of the Liquid Room, from The Flaming Lips to Linton Kwesi Johnson. This is an excellent place to see an old favourite or find a new one, but you'll have to buy tickets as soon as they go on sale.
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Loft
This well-respected, quarter-century-old Tokyo live house, whose chequerboard stage has hosted the feedback and reverb of many a Tokyo punk, is often grungy and smokey - with just the right level of sweaty intimacy. The music is always loud and usually good.
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Mado Lounge
On the 52nd floor of Mori Tower, the views are indeed stunning from this very cool window lounge. To get in, you'll have to first pay admission to the Mori Museum and/or Tokyo City View, so it's only worth the additional cover if you're here anyway.
