Awesome suggestions. I am a bit of a synth freak, so that's great.

Also a massive drinker, so any booze suggestions welcome

If anybody lives in or knows anybody in Japan, let me know. Would love to hang out with some locals... go to some gigs or something!

Go to Ebisu, there is a 'British' pub called Footnik, the owner's wife is Scottish as well mate. In Shibuya, I enjoyed the Irish pub Dubliners as you can sit elevated and drink in the open air as opposed to a basement, it's on the Dogenzaka road. Also, in Dogenzaka there is a small bar up stairs called Tangle - a lot of music geeks there and playing Pioneer/Technics. In Ebisu, look out for Bar Martha, it's in the style of a traditional jazz bar, really awesome.

pselodux wrote:

There's also a nice little bar tucked into a dead end street there (my Google Maps history tells me the coordinates are 35.662265,139.668768) with just the word "beer" on a little sign at the front.. they serve lesser known Japanese craft beers and have some interesting food (I had a weird "pizza" which was just a bunch of sliced lotus root with cheese melted on top, it was awesome). The bartender was very helpful, really knows his stuff when it comes to beer. Also the toilets are those ones with a sensor that opens the lid as you approach. It gave me a bit of a surprise when I walked in there after a few beers!

99.9999% sure this is Ushi-Tora! Awesome bar. http://ushitora.jp

Thanks man! Added it to our list.

There's also a nice little bar tucked into a dead end street there (my Google Maps history tells me the coordinates are 35.662265,139.668768) with just the word "beer" on a little sign at the front.. they serve lesser known Japanese craft beers and have some interesting food (I had a weird "pizza" which was just a bunch of sliced lotus root with cheese melted on top, it was awesome). The bartender was very helpful, really knows his stuff when it comes to beer. Also the toilets are those ones with a sensor that opens the lid as you approach. It gave me a bit of a surprise when I walked in there after a few beers!

99.9999% sure this is Ushi-Tora! Awesome bar. http://ushitora.jp

I'm really interested in meeting other chippers whilst there. I've never played any of the chipmusic live, but maybe this is the time to get over my fear... just need to re-write a bunch of tracks in LSDJ to fit Live Mode. Hmm.

Srsly.

Also, if you like cats, don't miss going to one of the many cat cafes in Tokyo. I didn't go to the fancy ones (those who always appear on travel guides), but instead I went to a small one where they only get street, alley cats who have been beaten and mistreated. Some of the poor creatures were even mutilated. And japanese people can even adopt them, it's pretty great. Sadly I can't remember the name of the cafe.

I got kicked out of aikido for coming back with a tattoo. a dragon no less.

You might be yakuza!