Food Tours · Tour

Fifteen Dishes, Ending With a Fish-Shaped Cake

Fifteen dishes at four eateries in three hours, with the tables booked in advance, which in Kabukicho is the difference between eating and queueing. The places the guide uses are the sort that fill by seven and turn people away. What comes out across the night: gyoza, tonkatsu, yakitori, tempura, sushi, kushikatsu, with craft beer and sake alongside. A drink at each of the first two bars and one at the last, chosen from the tour's selection. You meet at the police box outside the east exit of Shinjuku station and go into Kabukicho, which is chaotic in a way that repays having somebody explain it. Then Golden Gai, six lanes of tiny bars where the atmosphere is the attraction rather than any single door. Hanazono Shrine is the stop that surprises people. It has been on this site since before Tokyo was Tokyo, and it now sits with neon on three sides, silent, entered through a red gate off a street of hostess clubs. Across the road from it the tour ends with taiyaki, batter poured into a fish-shaped iron mould and filled with sweet red bean paste. It is a festival food and a childhood food, and it is the right note to finish on. Guided in English or Japanese. Suitable for all fitness levels.