A recommendation for exploring bars on your own. "Whenever you feel like it, go alone, anytime, anywhere." Text by Yuhi Komiyama

Text by Yuhi Komiyama

Some people may have a stoic image of drinking alone, such as sitting at the counter of a long-established izakaya with a taciturn owner, where private conversations are strictly prohibited and first-time customers have to endure the stern stares of regulars while sipping sake with just one appetizer, but in reality it's not that difficult.

For example, if you're going out drinking with a friend but end up arriving a little early, you can go to another bar and have a drink by yourself. This is also drinking alone (in the drinking world, this is called a pre-party).

Or, on the way home from a drinking party, you might feel like you haven't had enough to drink, so you drop into a nearby bar for a drink before heading home; this is also drinking alone.

Furthermore, if you go out to lunch alone on a weekday, and even though you have work in the afternoon, you think, "Well, it's okay once in a while," and have a beer with your meal, that's also a great way to drink alone! (Well, I don't know if it's a great way to drink alone, but...)

Drinking alone simply means enjoying a drink on your own in a casual manner, and there are no complicated rules.

Fortunately, there is now a growing variety of restaurants suitable for solo diners, so if you haven't tried it yet, now is the time to make your debut!

For example, Elfle in Shindaita is a completely new style of establishment that combines a record store and a standing bar. When you think of a store attached to a record store, you might imagine a chic cafe, but the alcohol lineup is one that really hits the spot for drinkers, with brands like Sapporo Akaboshi and Kinmiya shochu.

Appetizers are priced from 150 yen each, just like a downtown bar. In the glass-walled gallery-style interior, you can enjoy a drink while listening to indie CDs selected with a unique sense of style, making it the perfect place for a maniacal solo drink.

We recommend Taiyo Sakaba in Nishikoyama to beginners and women alike. This is a popular pub, but you can also enjoy the currently popular craft beer. The exterior is a traditional pub marked by a red lantern. The menu is also popular, with yakitori (grilled pork skewers) starting at 120 yen per stick and macaroni salad for 280 yen.

However, the taps lined up in front of the counter serve carefully selected craft beer! This contrast makes this a fun hybrid bar. It's perfect for beginners and women who aren't yet ready to venture out alone to a downtown bar.

What I'm personally interested in is a new genre of Chinese standing bar, which seems like it has never existed before. At Roraitei, located on Suzuran Street in Oimachi, a paradise for drinkers, you can enjoy delicious combinations like mapo tofu and Hoppy, or chicken with salami and highball, all in a standing bar style.

For those who want to have a quick drink alone at a corner bar, we recommend Sake Misawa, which opened at the Shinsen intersection. This was originally a family-run convenience store beloved by locals, but while retaining half of its convenience store format, it has introduced a corner bar style where you can drink inside the store.

What's more, half of the store is a stand-up soba restaurant, making it a truly unique establishment, probably the only one of its kind in Japan: a stand-up soba convenience store corner bar.

It may be a little embarrassing to drink alone in the brightly lit interior of a convenience store in the middle of the day, but don't worry, after 5pm, friends will start coming in one by one to grab a quick beer (canned, of course) after work.

Because it's a standing bar, there are no appetizers, seating fees, or complicated courses. Just pick up what you want to drink or eat from the shelves, pay at the register, and enjoy yourself as you like, making it the perfect place for a casual drink alone.

So, once you know about it, drinking alone seems like it might be easier and more fun than you thought. You don't have to go to a deep downtown or a long-established izakaya to start drinking alone, you can start right now. Why not give it a try?