Japan gay bar experience

Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities. Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city.

Gay Tokyo: travel guide to Tokyo’s best gay bars, clubs and hotels

By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and japan to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. Anything goes at this venerable Shinjuku Ni-chome club, open since But his spirit will live on in the lively bar, which bar continue to be an institution for gay culture in Tokyo.

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 being the foremost red-light district in Tokyo. The area was still catering to a strictly hetero crowd at that point, however. Gay bars only started to appear in the capital after the war, first arriving in the downtown districts of Ginza, Shimbashi, Ueno and Asakusa.

And one of the first, inwas a place called Sazae. The current incarnation of Sazae changed its name when it moved to its present location, 12 years after the original club opened. It gained its new master with the new premises, and Shion has been fully involved ever since, running the club, dealing with customers and managing the place for over 35 years now.

Shion, who is a quarter French, was born in Nagasaki Prefecture. He returned to Japan to attend junior high school, and once back on home soil, his chiseled features and exotic looks enabled him to work as a fashion model. This in turn led to a stint as a local radio bar, and he was soon something of a star in Nagasaki.

Once arrived in the capital, he quickly fell in with the music and theatre scenes, which in turn led him and his friends to Sazae. Left: a faux banana tree enlivens the box seating area. Right: the weekend soundtrack ranges from disco to Madonna to K-pop. These small nightclubs drew youngsters who were looking for something more than the discos in Kabukicho had to offer, as well as media and fashion industry types, and bar girls and boys wanting to let off steam after finishing their shifts in Ginza and Roppongi.

But while the disco era would prove short-lived, New Sazae endured. According to Shion, the japan of gay to straight clientele has also shifted in recent experiences. And sure enough, come the weekend, all types of partygoers arrive looking to socialise, express themselves and have fun — often dressed in truly outlandish outfits.

It experience gay, in fact. Extra staff help out on weekends, but on weekdays Shion runs the place alone, pouring drinks, changing CDs and chatting to the regulars. Left: Just in case you'd forgotten how old the place was, this table video game should remind you. Right: New Sazae, since Gay gay straight, young or old, kinky or straitlaced: whatever your preferences, New Sazae welcomes all comers.