Albatross, Golden Gai.

The Golden Gai bar that taught the rest how to welcome you.

Golden Gai is six narrow alleys tucked behind Shinjuku station, totalling roughly two hundred bars across one hectare of post-war wooden buildings. Most of these bars seat four or six. Most of them are operated by a single proprietor who has run the room for decades and has clear rules about who enters. Many enforce a foreigners' table charge. Several refuse foreign customers altogether. Albatross is the Golden Gai bar that solved the welcome problem.

Albatross opened in 1995, late by Golden Gai standards. The owner Yoshio Sasagawa decided to make a deliberately tourist-friendly bar that would still be a Tokyo bar. He installed an English-language menu, set a flat 600 yen seating charge clearly displayed at the door, and trained his bartenders to speak basic English. The result is a bar that has become the entry point for thousands of foreign visitors to Golden Gai.

Why this matters. Albatross is the single most important Tokyo bar on this list because it is the bar that proved Golden Gai could survive tourism without selling out. The honest tourist tax is the model. The welcome is real. The drinks are not marked up.

The sideways staircase to the second floor.

Albatross is built into a two metre wide post-war wooden building. The first floor seats four. The second floor seats four. The third floor seats four. The staircase between them is fifty centimetres wide and rises at sixty degrees. You climb sideways, one step at a time, with your drink in your right hand.

The second floor is the destination. It has a single round table, two chairs, and four seats at a small bar that wraps the corner. The walls are red velvet floor to ceiling. A small crystal chandelier hangs over the table. The window looks down into Golden Gai's alley five, a view that has not changed materially since the bar opened. The second floor at Albatross is the most photographed two square metres in any Tokyo bar.

The third floor is reserved for groups by request. It has the same layout but holds five and is lit only by candles after 11pm. The upstairs bartender will lead you up if the floor is open.

Highball, then Highball, then a lemon sour.

• Suntory Whisky Highball: 800 yen. The Albatross signature pour, served tall and cold with a single cube. The way Tokyo office workers drink at 11pm.
• Lemon sour: 700 yen. Shochu, fresh lemon, soda. The early-summer drink the regulars order on a hot Tokyo evening.
• House sake: 600 yen for a one-go (180ml) carafe of cold Hakushika. The bartender will pour it without asking after a third visit.
• Asahi Super Dry: 700 yen for a 330ml bottle. The standard Japanese lager move when you have had enough whisky.
• The thing nobody knows: the bar has a small selection of Japanese craft gins from Kyoto and Hokkaido that are not on the English menu. Ask. The bartender will smile and pour.

10pm Tuesday. Before Golden Gai gets full.

Albatross opens at 8pm and closes at 5am. The 8pm to 9pm hour is the sleepy local hour: two or three regulars at the first floor bar, the upstairs floors empty, the bartender wiping the counter with a towel that has seen forty years of Suntory pours. The peak hour is 11pm to 2am when the international Golden Gai crowd hits the alley.

The honest hour for the upstairs experience is 10pm Tuesday or Wednesday. Walk to the second floor as soon as you arrive. Sit at the round table. Order a highball. Watch the alley. By 11:30pm both upstairs floors will be full and you will not get a seat for at least an hour.

The bar is closed Sundays. Tokyo's Golden Gai is half closed Sunday in any case, so plan around it.

Why the cover is the whole point.

Albatross posts a clear 600 yen per person seating charge at the door. This is unambiguous, paid on arrival, and is the reason the bar has survived twenty years without resentment from either tourists or locals. The tax is the welcome. Foreign customers know the rules. Local customers know the foreign customers know the rules. There is no surprise mark-up at the end. There is no awkward conversation about who pays what.

The seating charge entitles you to one small bowl of nuts and the right to stay as long as you keep ordering. There is no minimum number of drinks. There is no time limit. If you arrive with friends and order two highballs across two hours, the staff will not pressure you to leave. They will make sure your glass is filled and the alleyway view is uninterrupted.

Three thousand yen per person, two hours.

Plan for 2,500 to 3,500 yen per person for a two-hour visit. The seating charge at 600 plus three highballs at 800 each plus a small share of nuts. A pair of friends drink for around 6,000 yen total. A four-top for 12,000 to 14,000 yen including the upstairs reservation premium.

Cards are accepted upstairs and downstairs. Tipping is not customary in Japan and the staff will return cash you leave on the bar. The seating charge is the tip. Do not insist.

The international Golden Gai pilgrim, the Tokyo regular.

Albatross draws an evenly mixed crowd of foreign visitors and Tokyo regulars. The local crowd skews to creative-industry workers in their thirties and forties: graphic designers, anime studio editors, magazine staff. The foreign crowd is the Golden Gai pilgrim: Western tourists, Korean and Taiwanese visitors, occasional Anthony Bourdain fans tracing his route from the 2013 Parts Unknown episode that featured the bar.

The mix works because the bar policy is clear: everyone pays the same, everyone gets the same welcome, no one is asked to leave for being foreign. This sounds basic, and is, but in Golden Gai it is not. Three other bars in the alley still post "Members Only" signs that are enforced when the bar is busy.

How not to be the worst person at Albatross.

• Do not skip the bow. The doorman or the first-floor bartender will not bow to you, but they will note you. A small bow on entry is enough.
• Do not photograph the bartender or the regulars. Photographs of the chandeliers, the velvet, and the alley view are fine.
• Do not bring a group of more than three to the upstairs floors without calling ahead. The floors hold four to five. Your group of six will not fit.
• Do not refuse to pay the seating charge. The bar will ask you to leave and the alley will note it.
• Do not order tequila or any cocktail with more than three ingredients. The bartenders will pour it but it is not what they do.
• Do not arrive after 11pm on a Saturday and expect the upstairs. Both floors will be full until 1:30am.
• Do not, ever, leave a tip in cash on the table. The staff will run after you with the money.

Yakitori at Toritake first, Albatross next, La Jetée to close.

The classic Golden Gai night: dinner at Toritake on Yasukuni-dori at 7pm, twenty pieces of yakitori for two for around 4,000 yen. Walk into Golden Gai at 9pm via the temple end. Albatross at 9:30pm for the upstairs second-floor seat. La Jetée, four bars further into the alley, at 11:30pm for a final whisky in Tomoyo Kawai's eight-seat film bar.

For more bars in the area, see our Tokyo city guide, the hidden gems list, and the companion La Jetée entry on this list.

Yes. The most welcoming dive bar in Asia.