A Night in Asakusa
Asakusa does not work like the other areas in this guide. Shibuya has a ramen counter serving at 7:00 in the morning; Shinjuku has whole alleys that fill up after midnight. Asakusa closes early. Of the venues on this site's Asakusa list, most stop serving between 20:00 and 21:00, and only four are still open after midnight. The temple grounds empty out, the shutters come down along Nakamise, and by 21:00 the streets around Kaminarimon are quiet.
That is not a problem to work around. It is the shape of the evening: eat early, drink while the old places are still open, and then decide whether to stay out or go back. This plan is written in that order.
One rule applies across the whole area before you pick anywhere. Asakusa is in Taito ward, where smoking outdoors while walking or cycling is banned, heated tobacco included. No fine is stated. Ward rules for Ueno, Shinjuku and Shibuya are set out on manners and transport at night.
17:00 — Eat before the kitchens close
This is the part of the evening Asakusa is good at, and the part with the tightest deadline. Last orders at several of these are 20:00.
- Oden Otafuku — opens at 17:00 and serves until 23:00, which makes it the one old Asakusa restaurant that is still going late. Oden is a pot of ingredients simmered in broth, and about forty kinds are served. It has been here since 1915. A seat charge of ¥500 per person is added, there are private rooms, and the seating is non-smoking. Individual oden prices are not published online. Its own site gives two different accounts of its closing days, so check before you go.
- Komagata Dozeu — open since 1801, serving loach in a shallow iron pan over a charcoal burner. The hotpot is ¥3,480, or ¥4,980 as a set meal. Guests sit together at long low tables laid over tatami, which is how Edo restaurants worked. It closes at 20:30 with last orders at 20:00, and there is no fixed weekly closing day — dates are announced month by month on its own site.
- Asakusa Imahan — sukiyaki since 1895, open every day of the year. It serves until 20:30, but a reservation cannot start later than 19:00. A 10 percent service charge is added once one person's order reaches ¥5,500, and a small dish of beef simmered in soy sauce comes with the standard menu at ¥440 per person.
- Daikokuya Tempura — tendon, a bowl of rice under tempura and sauce, from ¥2,300 with tax included. Its Japanese and English pages give different closing times, 20:00 on one and 20:30 or 21:00 on the other, so do not plan a late meal here.
- Asakusa Mizuguchi — a set-meal shop open since 1950, with more than a hundred dishes and tuna sashimi that has been on the menu since the first day. Cheaper than the others on this list. Closes at 20:30 with last orders at 20:00, and is closed on Wednesdays.
19:00 — One drink at the oldest bar in Japan
Kamiya Bar opened in 1880 and has stood at the Kaminarimon crossing ever since. The building has been a registered tangible cultural property since 2011. It is where Denki Bran was invented in 1882 — a brandy-based cocktail blended with gin, wine, curaçao and herbs, 30 degrees, ¥400 a glass with tax included.
Two things will catch you out. On the ground floor you buy a ticket at the entrance before you sit down, and that floor does not take cards. And it closes at 20:00, with last orders at 19:30, so this is not a nightcap — it is a stop on the way. It is closed on Tuesdays and on two Mondays each month.
If you want the view
Two places look out over Asakusa after dark, and both need a decision made in advance.
- THE TOP BAR Hanabi — on the 28th floor of the Asakusa View Hotel. Bar time runs 17:00 to 23:00, with last orders at 22:00 for food and 22:30 for drinks. Where you sit changes the bill: ¥3,000 per person as a table charge in the front window row, ¥2,000 in the second row, and nothing at the counter. After 20:00 nobody under eighteen is admitted. Reservations are taken by phone.
- Lounge Vista at Asakusa Mugitoro — the roof of a restaurant that has served grated yam since 1929 becomes a bar at night, open 18:00 to 22:30 with last entry at 20:30. It is reservation-only and bookings close the day before, so it cannot be a change of plan.
22:00 — One building, three floors, three hours
By now most of Asakusa has shut. The simplest answer is the building directly outside exit 8 of the Ginza Line, about ten seconds from the station, which has three places stacked inside it.
- Ichiran in the basement — tonkotsu ramen until 22:00, with ten solo booths and thirty-eight table seats. A bowl is ¥1,180.
- Warawara on the third floor — a chain izakaya, 65 seats, open until 3:00 every day, with all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink plans and a smoking room.
- Mekiki no Ginji on the fourth — seafood izakaya, 90 seats, until 23:30. Its address says the 4th floor while its own directions say the 2nd; follow the address.
For a larger group, Uotami in the Okuyama Omairimachi shopping street has 200 seats over two floors and stays open until 3:00, with private rooms, karaoke and no smoking anywhere inside. At weekends it opens from noon.
After midnight — what is actually still open
Four places, and that is the list.
- Torikizoku Asakusa Rokku — yakitori until 4:00, every day of the week, a minute from the Tsukuba Express exit. Every item on the menu, food and drink alike, is ¥410 with tax included.
- Torikizoku Asakusa — the branch by the Ginza Line exit. Until 4:30 on Friday and Saturday nights, 23:00 on the other days.
- Saray Kebab Nishi-Asakusa — Turkish kebab until 2:00, fourteen seats, everything also available to take away. A chicken kebab sandwich is ¥550.
- Saray Kebab Kaminarimon — the same menu, a short walk from the Kaminarimon gate, until midnight.
Neither Saray branch publishes its closing days, so a Monday night is worth a check.
Getting back
Four lines run to Asakusa — the Ginza Line, the Toei Asakusa Line, the Tobu Skytree Line and the Tsukuba Express — and exits from all four sit within a few minutes of each other. Everything in the section above outlasts the trains, so if you stay past 1:00 you are walking, taking a taxi, or waiting for the first train. Check the last departure for your own line on the day; the times differ between the four and change on holidays.
If you would rather end the evening while the trains are still running, Asakusa makes that easy. Dinner at 17:00, a glass of Denki Bran at 19:00, the view at 21:00, and you are home before midnight — which is how most people here spend the evening.
Ueno is two stops away on the Ginza Line and runs later; see Day 1 in Ueno. For a night that does not stop at all, see Shibuya or Shinjuku.
Every area in this guide
Ueno · Asakusa · Shibuya · Shinjuku · Roppongi · Ginza · Tsukiji · Tsukishima