Shimbashi Hidden Izakaya Tour with a Working Tokyo Manager

Most tours of Tokyo's drinking culture show you where to eat. This one explains why any of it matters.

I'm Ken — a licensed National Guide-Interpreter (held by roughly 0.02% of Japan) and a working corporate professional in Tokyo. This isn't a tour I perform; it's a life I live.

We meet at Shimbashi — the neighborhood Japanese media still call "the Mecca of salarymen." Over 2.5 hours, we decode it: the Showa-era Shimbashi Ekimae drinking towers, the yakitori alleys under the JR tracks, and the backstreet lanes between Shimbashi and Yurakucho where middle managers actually drink.

Three stops, four dishes, four drinks (non-alcoholic options throughout). And a real conversation about the six things Western professionals misread about Japanese corporate culture: seating order, reading the air, nomikai politics, the "no" never said, the second round, and the last-train ritual.

For business travelers, MBA cohorts, and expats who want to understand Japan — not just visit it.