Duration: 4 hours
Category: Culture & History
Discover the subculture of Tokyo’s Kabukicho district on a four-hour morning walking tour. You’ll explore Kabukicho with a local guide during the day, when it is a modest shopping and entertainment area with manga cafés and karaoke bars; come nightfall, it becomes a colorful, neon-lit, red-light district, home to hostess clubs and pachinko parlors.
Start your morning walking tour with a visit to the Keio Department Store, where you’ll experience the pomp and ceremony of the official morning greeting, when staff members line the aisles, bowing and calling out good morning. Browse the aisles for a bargain and see Japanese handicrafts on display.
Continue with your guide through the Tokyo district of Kabukicho, an entertainment area full of small bars and hostess clubs. Hear colorful stories about the exploits of the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) and pop into one of the many arcades to watch locals playing pachinko (a mechanical arcade game, similar to a slot machine) and to have your photo printed in a purikura (a photo sticker booth).
Next, walk to a local manga kissa, a cafe where people go to read manga, Japanese comics. A manga cafe is Japan’s version of a private library, where you pay by the hour (entrance included in tour price) to sit and read the comic books, surf the internet and have a quiet drink. Hugely popular among the youth of Tokyo, manga is a mainstream media that includes a wide range of genres, from romance to science fiction.
Next, visit one of Kabukicho’s many karaoke bars and take your turn at the microphone! You may have experienced karaoke at home, but there’s nothing like doing it in Japan, where it’s a popular pastime. Embrace your inner rock star as you enjoy a 30-minute session in a private room.
Then return to the Keio department store where your tour ends.
Please note: By law, foreigners are required to show their passports to enter manga cafés; you must bring it with you on this tour.
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