Twentythree

This rooftop in Kabukicho is a hidden oasis where all diners will feel welcome. 

Japan is well set up for solo travellers, with counter seating at restaurants and private karaoke booths being some of the ways that parties of one can have a good night out while enjoying their own company. However, there are still some places in Japan that might seem like too high a hurdle for a solo traveller to clear, with one of them being rooftop beer gardens.

Our reporter Yuuichiro Wasai found himself in this position recently, when he was in the mood to visit a beer garden he’d heard about, but wasn’t able to line up free time in his schedule with any of his friends before the end of summer. Rather than miss out on this very quintessential Japanese summertime experience, he decided to bite the bullet and headed up to the beer garden himself.

As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, he started to feel a little anxious at the prospect ahead of him, because beer gardens tend to be a lively, convivial experience usually enjoyed by groups of friends. However, as he looked around, he began to feel more comfortable, as he realised that the place had just the right mix of casual flair and bustling activity that helped him blend into the crowd.

Though he’d feared that his solo beer garden trip might be a hellish experience, this place turned out to be heaven, quite literally, as it’s called “Tenku no Machi – Shinjuku Asia Yokocho”, which is translated into English as “City of Heaven Asian Yokocho“.

▼ “Yokocho” means “alley”

Reaching for a menu before taking a seat, Yuuichiro browsed through dishes like carbonara and churrasco, and an international selection of beers, including Heineken and Zima, all of which didn’t seem to match up with the place’s “Asian Yokocho” moniker, but the options looked delicious so he wasn’t complaining.

The table Yuuichiro was shown to initially had only menus for individual dishes and drinks but he later learned that all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink plans are also available. He wasn’t here for a long beer-guzzling feast, though, so he was happy to order individual dishes, and he felt that the venue offered good value considering its location.

▼ One of the biggest draws here is the view.

This building is in Kabukicho, adjacent to the building with the giant Godzilla head, so it’s an exciting place to sit and experience the area from a different angle.

With the streets of Kabukicho stretching out below, Yuuichiro felt like he’d discovered a hidden gem in Tokyo, unknown to the people below. The night view from the rooftop is so impressive that it’s easy to forget you’re dining alone, and although there’s a 330-yen (US$2.06) seating charge – seating charges are pretty much standard for drinking establishments like this one in Japan – Yuuichiro felt it was worth the money.

After ordering a draft beer (780 yen for a medium mug) and a churrasco platter (1,580 yen), his total came to less than 3,000 yen, which he felt was good value.

▼ The beer was cold and refreshing and the food was excellent.

Though he seemed to be the only solo customer in the beer garden, Yuuchiro says he didn’t feel uncomfortable. He didn’t feel like anyone was looking at him either, as the customers around him were either deep in conversation or focused on the night view, so being alone didn’t attract much attention.

▼ The tables are spacious and comfortably separated, so he wasn’t rubbing shoulders with anyone, making him feel like he was in his own VIP section.

▼ He felt so comfortable that he even made another order, this time for a plate of fresh spring rolls (880 yen), so he could enjoy the night view for longer.

With great views, cold beer and good food, this is a place where all diners will feel welcome, whether they’re in a big group of friends or dining alone. Combined with the energy of the city around you, and the sense of openness created by the beer garden itself, this rooftop oasis has just the right vibe to make solo dining an easy hurdle to clear.

Restaurant information

～Tenku no Machi～ Shinjuku Asia Yokocho (Shinjuku Tenku Beer Garden 2026) / ～天空の街～ 新宿アジア横丁（新宿天空ビアガーデン2026）
Address: Tokyo-to Shinjuku-ku Kabukicho 1-21-1 Daini Toa Kaikan rooftop
東京都新宿区歌舞伎町1-21-1第二東亜会館屋上
Open: 11 a.m.-5 a.m.
Website

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Kebabs taste better with a side of janken. 

When you think of food in Japan, kebabs probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind, but there are plenty of kebab shops to be found here. Over in Tokyo’s neighbouring Chiba Prefecture, you’ll even find a kebab shop that adds a dash of Japanese culture to every order, in the form of janken, Japan’s version of rock-paper-scissors.

Our reporter Takuya Inaba stumbled upon the unusual setup while visiting Shin-Matsudo Station, when his eye was drawn to a bright blue restaurant called Rose Janken Kebab.

▼ Intrigued by the name, he headed over to try it out.

▼ The sign cleverly uses an image of rock, paper, scissors hands between the words “Rose” and “Kebab”

▼ Stepping inside, Takuya found himself in a cosy little space with two tables and a clean and welcoming interior.

▼ The menu contained all the usual kebab favourites, with chicken, beef or a mix of the two available.

Takuya ordered a kebab sandwich and was waiting for it to be prepared when the staff member suddenly made him an offer.

▼ “Brother, janken?”

As someone who’s grown up playing janken, Takuya was confident in his rock-paper-scissors capabilities, and when the store clerk told him that he would get extra fillings for free if he won, he was determined to win the game.

▼ Janken…

▼ …PON!

With his fingers outstretched in the paper position, Takuya defeated the rock fist thrown by staff, and was able to enjoy extra fillings as his reward.

▼ Sure enough, Takuya’s Mixed Kebab Sandwich (850 yen [$5.35]) was loaded up with extra fillings when he received it.

It was heavy to pick up, and when he took a giant bite, his taste buds were hit with an intense, satisfying meatiness. It was the kind of kebab that makes you feel like you’re properly getting stuck into a meal, and he loved every bite of it.

The sauce was particularly good, with a rich sweetness followed by a spicy kick that made him want to keep eating, and the chicken was nice and tender, too.

From his experience, kebab shops in Japan tend to use minced meat in its beef offerings, but here, the beef was sliced up in generous portions with a steak-like texture. It made for a hearty sandwich, and Takuya found hinself enjoying it far more than he thought he would.

Of course, winning the game of janken had boosted his mood as well, but as he got to the end of the meal he couldn’t help but wonder: What would’ve happened if he’d lost the janken battle? He decided to ask the staff member, who replied:

▼ “If you lose, you get a little extra.”

So as it turns out, there are no losers here – if you win the game of janken with staff, you get a load of extra fillings, and if you don’t win, you get a lesser extra amount. The staff member went on to explain that the janken challenge is one of the shop’s signature features, and it helps to add a bit of fun and excitement to every order.

The janken game is less a high stakes affair and more a fun interaction, because while Takuya was eating, a young child came in to order a kebab and the staff member kept playing janken with the child until they finally won, which was a nice insight into the shop’s spirit of generosity.

With tasty kebabs and a fun game on the side, this little store adds a dash of fun and excitement to every order, making it a memorable stop for a bite to eat… and a round of rock-paper-scissors.

Store information

ROSE Janken Kebab / ROSEジャンケン ケバブ 新松戸本店
Address: Chiba-ken, Matsudo-shi, Shin-Matsudo 1-482, Moriya Building 1F
千葉県松戸市新松戸 1-482 森谷ビル 1F
Open: 11 a.m.-1 a.m.
Closed: New Year’s holidays

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We check to see whether or not the rumors of Odaiba’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Odaiba is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay, but is it also a ghost town? Over the past few years, a number of entertainment complexes and sightseeing attractions in the neighborhood have closed down.

● Oedo Onsen Monogatari hot spring bathhouse (closed September 2021)
● Giant Sky Wheel Ferris wheel (closed August 2022)

● Venus Fort shopping center (closed March 2022)

● Megaweb Toyota History Garage (closed December 2021)
● Immersive Fort Tokyo indoor theme park (closed February 2026)

In addition, broadcaster Fuji TV, whose headquarters is located in Odaiba, is still reeling from a 2024 sexual harassment scandal, and has been keeping a lower profile and scaling down fan events hosted at the facility. And while Odaiba shopping center Diver City isn’t closing down, it is just about to lose its full-size Unicorn Gundam statue, which is going to be dismantled at the end of this month.

So yes, the Odaiba district, as well as the Aomi neighborhood it blends into, have lost some points of appeal, and recently many people online have been voicing their opinion that the area’s days as a fun place to spend the day are over. Curious to see if it’s already deserted, we hopped on the train and rode to Tokyo Teleport Station on the Yurikamome Line, Odaiba’s most centrally located rail stop…

…and right away saw a whole lot of people.

Heading up out of the subterranean station, we observed a steady stream of pedestrian traffic heading towards Diver City, plus the shoreline blocks where the Aqua City entertainment complex and Joypolis video game arcade are located.

Looking in the opposite direction, though, things were much less lively.

That there is the empty husk of the building that used to contain Venus Fort, the Megaweb Toyota History Garage, and the Giant Sky Wheel. Actually, it’s also the building that used to contain Immersive Fort Tokyo, as it moved into Venus Fort’s old location. Unfortunately, the concept of an amusement park dedicated to large-scale walk-through immersive mystery and horror experiences turned out to be either too narrow in appeal, too high in operating costs, or some combination of the two, and after opening in March of 2024, Immersive Fort Tokyo failed to make it to its second birthday before permanently shutting down. In the six months since then, there hasn’t been any announcement as to what the building’s fate will be, and even from the outside, you can feel a sense of emptiness while looking at it.

However, while no one, of course, was going into the building, there were a whole lot of people walking past it, and in the opposite direction from those headed to Diver City and Aqua City.

Curious to see where they were headed, we followed the flow and learned that they were on their way to Toyota Arena Tokyo, a new sports and music venue that opened in October of last year.

On this day, up-and-coming boy band Number_i was holding a concert at the arena, which has a maximum capacity of 11,000 visitors. Though it was still some two hours before the group was scheduled to take the stage, fans were already lining up to purchase merchandise being sold at stands set up in the paddock area of the City Circuit Tokyo Bay go-kart track next to the stadium.

Large numbers of fans were also arriving at the nearby Aomi Station and making their way to the arena, making this part of the island feel very lively.

But as we walked back towards the former Venus Fort/Immersive Fort Tokyo building, things started looking very lonely again.

Next to Diver City is a massive parking area, which was almost entirely empty. This isn’t really a reflection on Diver City’s popularity, though, as the shopping center has its own attached parking structure.

This lot is more of a neighborhood overflow parking area, and it’s also sometimes used as an event venue for open-air events like music festivals. On this day, though, it was quiet and still (though it did give us a nice line of sight to Gundam’s head, peeking out from above the tops of the trees between the lot and Diver City).

Continuing down the pedestrian path further away from Diver City, there were so few people around that it started to feel like we’d wandered into a rather nicely landscaped liminal space.

After walking past yet another large and empty parking lot, we were in the vicinity of another Yurikamome Line stop, Tokyo International Cruise Terminal Station, which used to be called Fune-no-kagakukan Station. Why the name change? Because the Museum of Maritime Science, as the Fune no Kagakukan facility was called in English, largely ceased operations in 2011, and its buildings were demolished in 2024 and 2025.

As the station’s new name implies, though, there’s also a terminal for international cruise ships here, which opened in 2020.

We decided to mosey on over and see if there was anything cool inside, like a restaurant row or some souvenir shops.

There was not.

It’s startling how utterly devoid the building’s interior is of anything not related to processing passengers for embarkation and disembarkation. Unless you’re getting on or off a ship, the only reason to spend any time here is to take in the views from the outdoor observation deck, which, admittedly are pretty nice.

The deck doesn’t draw many visitors, though, as it was basically just us and this person who’d brought their SLR camera with them to snap long-distance pictures of the boats in the bay.

Speaking of boats, though the Museum of Maritime Science is no more, its biggest attraction is still on display. Even after the museum’s closure, the Soya icebreaker vessel, famous for a series of Antarctic research and rescue missions in the 1950s and ‘60s, remains docked in Odaiba as a museum ship.

As you can see, though, it wasn’t exactly buzzing with activity, and that was sort of the theme for the rest of our walk around Odaiba.

At one point, we came across this group of perched pigeons lined up on top of a fence, and it was more company than we’d had for a long time. As if to hammer home the point that this wasn’t really a people place, not a single one of the birds felt the need to fly off or otherwise put any distance between us as we walked by.

Once we were back to Tokyo Teleport Station, though, we had many members of our own species around us, a lot of them walking towards Toyota Arena Tokyo as the start time for Number_i’s concert drew nearer.

So can Odaiba be called a ghost town? Eh, that’d be going too far. It’s definitely lost a lot of the energy it had during the early 2000s, when it enjoyed a reputation as a fashionably trendy part of town. In particular, the losses of Oedo Onsen Monogatari and Venus Fort took a lot of the buzzing excitement with them, since there were both adjacent to the plaza in front of Tokyo Teleport Station. Instead of having a lively central hub, visitors to the neighborhood are now funneled off in different directions to venues several blocks away from each other, so there isn’t the same cohesive fun atmosphere there used to be.

That said, once you get closer to those currently active venues, the mood brightens up considerably. However, the drawing power of Toyota Arena Tokyo is going to vary significantly depending on whether or not there’s an event going on that day, as well as by what the event is. Also, while the Tokyo Big Sight convention center is technically in the Ariake district that’s across a canal from Odaiba/Aomi, major events held there can also draw more people to Odaiba, since it offers more dining/shopping options than Ariake does, but again, it doesn’t have things going on seven days a week.

So it’s still too early to write Odaiba off, but it does seem like its visitor numbers are going to fluctuate more than they did in the past, especially with the upcoming loss of another every-day attraction when the Unicorn Gundam is removed.

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