1 / 8Izakaya night: Omoide YokochoPhoto: Stephen Kelly from San Francisco, CA, USA / CC BY 2.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 8 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Sixty lantern-lit stalls in two smoky alleys by Shinjuku station — yakitori, beer, elbows with strangers. For overnight port stays; the last train home is part of the story.
- 5 hr door to door needs a 7-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Izakaya night: Omoide Yokocho is famous
Omoide Yokocho, memory alley, is a surviving block of post-war black-market stalls beside Shinjuku Station: about sixty tiny bars and grills on lanes wide enough for one person. It has burned and been rebuilt, and it is now one of the last pieces of that Tokyo still standing.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
About sixty tiny grills and bars in surviving post-war black-market lanes beside Shinjuku Station.
Open in Google MapsWhere locals goGolden Gaiゴールデン街Ten minutes away, smaller bars, and many charge a seat fee. Check the door before you sit.
Open in Google MapsClosest to the berthEbisu Yokocho恵比寿横丁A covered lane of counters that is easier for a first visit and less shoulder-to-shoulder.
Open in Google MapsWhat to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~4h round tripSenso-ji at Asakusa
The thunder gate, the incense cauldron, the oldest temple in the city — arrive before nine and Nakamise’s snack street is yours.
See the detail
See · ~5hShibuya Crossing & Meiji Shrine
Three thousand people per green light, then a forest shrine one JR stop away, at Harajuku, where you cannot hear the city at all (gates close at sunset: 16:40 in October, 16:10 in November).
See the detail
Eat · ~4h with transitTsukiji Outer Market crawl
The inner auction moved; the good part stayed.
See the detail