Jon Siegel / ジョン 米岡

For years I thought that alley by Sakuraya over at the South Entrance was Golden Gai. With all those cool little yakitori shops and tiny bars, I just kept going bac assuming that must be it. I was so wrong. Vitaly took me over to Shinjuku the other day and showed me the REAL Golden Gai. Was I ever wrong. It was much farther from the station than I thought, and it was amazing.

There are about 4-5 blocks of tiny bars, all crammed tightly together. They each have so much personality. One bar had this old lady with hair curlers hanging off her head, covered in makeup with a long cigarette stretched out on a bench with a giant white cat sitting by her side. Another bar was filled with wrestling posters and action figures, and another had walls lined with bottles of cognac, all the same brand and bottle. With so many bars, for Bostonians this is an open invitation for bar hopping.