Shinjuku Golden Gai

live, like work in Tokyo, but live further away.

So they literally like come into Tokyo, work, go to Golden Guy or go to the other Izakas, drink all night, sleep on the street, then go into work the next day.

Like if you go to a 7-Eleven or a Lawson's, they're selling white shirts and black ties there because people just wake up from that and just go to work.

It's a very, it's not, I don't think it's as big as a culture as it used to be.

It used to be huge.

It used to be like the golden guy was only for like salary men and that.

But like, yeah, it's a thing that's very common for them.

Yeah.

And so they're getting that.

And then they go to the, which I believe, they don't say it, but it's the Golden Gai district.

And, um, it's all these tiny bars where it's like five or six people can fit into the bar, and it's like so many of these bars in this district.

It is so fun.

Oh my God, I loved it so much when I...

It's just really an amazing place.

You gotta go to the Golden Gai district if you go to Japan.

So they're going into these bars, and there's like a JJ on the drink board, and Tamra's like, "What does that stand for? John Jansen? I'm John Jansen.

It's usually full of, you know, people that are visiting the area or sometimes tourists or locals or whatever.

We had a great time exploring Golden Gai just as a couple, just talking to different people and sharing different bits and pieces of English and Japanese and having that sort of cultural crossover.

I'm a big sucker for stuff like that.

I love talking to people.

I'm going to go and get leathered.

I'm going to go to Golden Guy and I'm going to hit loads of different bars.

I'm going to listen to some heavy metal, go and watch some horror movies in one, go and sing some karaoke in another one.

go to an emo club, go to a like a sort of techno one.

But like, once you step into this, this area- Yeah ... it's like, it's packed with these, like- Mm.

It's like a Golden Gai, you know? Oh.

Kinda like a Golden Gai.

Oh, I see.

You know? Mm.

Outside of Golden Gai it's like- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... a bush and juku, right? But inside it's like- Mm ...

packed with all these, like, restaurants and- Yeah.

But it's much more spacious.

The last time we went to Barcelona, we just found pocket bar after pocket bar.

You could go to the Golden Guy in Tokyo and experience a bar that seats five people.

They have the same thing in Spain.

those one-person bars that seats, say, eight, and I just wanted to complete every menu because every cocktail was so dang good.

Do you know what you should do? Go over there.

Go to Golden Guy, like the big bar section.

Do a pod app or like 10 or 20 minute segment with like one of the Japanese bartenders.

No, with like a business, like a drunk businessman.