So for anyone who hasn’t been following, I’ve just come back from two weeks in Japan. It was the most amazing trip that I went on with my best friend (actually, the one who is the inspiration behind the name ‘The Cheeky Vino’). We saw so much and spent the whole time walking, exploring, eating and drinking! As a wine lover though, I did find it a bit tricky to find wine affordably over there, but we worked out a few tricks! So I thought I should share my tips for wine lovers travelling to Japan so you can use them on your trip!
Japan has the most incredible culture and food, and this is something you will want to immerse yourself in. However, they aren’t that big into wine, not like we are in Australia! You can be hard-pressed to find wine at restaurants, and if you do it is often far more expensive than other options that are available. But the Japanese do enjoy wine too, and you just need to know where to look to unlock the Japan wine scene!
I have a nose for the nearest wine bar, and we had a lot of luck throughout our trip! But I wanted to share some of the tips I figured out while we were on the hunt for wine that I hope you find useful!
Head to the wine bars, not the restaurants
My biggest tip for wine lovers travelling to Japan is: if you are on the hunt for wine, don’t bother having it with dinner. Unless you have an endless budget or want to splash out on a meal, you will be hard-pressed to find wine in restaurants. Many of the traditional Japanese restaurants won’t have any wine on the menu, or if they do, it will be labelled ‘red wine’ or ‘white wine’. Translation: probably not worth drinking unless you are desperate!
If you want to enjoy a glass of wine, head to a wine bar before dinner. We found there was plenty in the major cities that specialised in wine only. If you go to a wine bar, you’ll be able to get wine from around the world at an affordable price, and there should be something to suit your taste! Although we found some more expensive wine bars that we didn’t end up going into, most had a glass of wine for 500 yen (around AUD$6.80). This is cheaper than what we pay at home, and the wine was so good!
We didn’t go to too many wine bars, and I had a lot more on my list that we didn’t make it to. But Some of my favourite spots were:
Tokyo
- Vinos Yamazaki in Shibuya (their menu is not in English but they have great tasting options and a bottle shop for taking a bottle or two home with you)
- Wine No Sakuba Di Punto in Shinjuku (cute little Italian bar with good wine and snacks)
- Double Tall Cafe Harajuku (get everything from wine to cakes to cheese)
Kyoto
-
－炭VINO－ 河原町店 (this place has interesting food but the wine is cheap)
Osaka
- Nagahori dynner (offer food and great wine in this cosy bar)
Utilise Google maps
My next tip for wine lovers travelling to Japan is to use Google maps. If you have a data sim card great, otherwise you can easily find wifi around Japan to pull up Google Maps. I found when I was hankering for a glass or two of wine, the easiest way to find the wine was to plug it into Google Maps. Just search ‘wine bar’ and it should bring up a few options around your area. This is the best way to discover those hidden gems that only the locals know about!
This is definitely the easiest way I found of finding wine bars, or bars in general, in Japan. You can easily see when it opens and what it looks like. You can also see the rating for it which gives you a bit of an idea of how popular it is. I was asked while I was over there how I was finding all these wine bars and this was honestly the best trick for hunting them down!
If you don’t have access to data, I recommend heading to the department stores. Each department store has a guide out the front of all the restaurants in it, which will usually be a lot. Some of the big department stores will have a wine bar in them! Just search for the picture of a glass of wine and usually some cheese, and head to the level written on the guide. It’s an easy way to find a wine bar without needing to speak any Japanese!
Don’t expect to be sipping before 6pm
The biggest shock to us, two Aussie girls travelling in Japan, was how late the bars opened. It was almost impossible to find a bar that opened before 6pm. This is something unheard of in Australia! When we had been walking around all day, all we wanted was a nice glass of wine to unwind before we did more exploring. However, most of the wine bars weren’t open! So we would normally end up at a cheap bar, or better yet at 7-11 grabbing some supplies to take back to our hotel room.
If you are wanting a wine, make sure you plan accordingly. Check the opening hours on Google, or just assume it won’t be open until 6pm. So go for a pre-dinner drink right before dinner instead of as an afternoon activity! This will help you avoid the disappointment we felt when we finally found a wine bar only to find it closed.
Don’t discount the 7-11 wine!
Ok maybe discount this one – unless you want a handy cup serve!
In my point above, I mention an alternative to wine bars in Japan. If you are hankering for a glass of wine before they open, or just want a more affordable option, you can get plenty of wine in the convenience stores. I know what you’re thinking, those wines can’t possibly be any good. I’ll admit, they aren’t the best wine I’ve ever had. But they are very decently priced, and actually surprisingly drinkable!
The great thing about the convenience stores is they source a range of European and American wines, so there is something for everyone’s taste. It’s also really affordable – you can get a bottle for under 1000 yen (about AUD$13)!
7-11 is the mecca of Japanese food when you are in Japan. Going there is a tourist experience in itself, and you’ll find yourself trying all the weird and wonderful snacks on offer! 7-11 also sells plenty of alcohol, and when you’re not in the mood for beer or flavoured drinks, there is a great wine section. There are heaps of wines that have even been branded 7-11, and although I was sceptical, they really weren’t that bad! These wines were easy-drinking and affordable, and sometimes that’s all you need! Pair them with some Japanese snacks and you’ve got your own wine bar in your hotel room!
Wine snobs need not apply, but don’t knock the 7-11 wine until you’ve tried it!
Make sure you have Google Translate or can read Japanese
My last tip for wine lovers travelling to Japan is to make sure you can read Kanji (Japanese characters). Before you start thinking I am some linguistic genius, I am not. But I do have a little trick up my sleeve called Google Translate. With Google Translate, you can translate the writing in a picture in real-time. All you have to do is point your camera at the text and it will translate before your eyes. Is it 100% accurate? Definitely not. You will get some funny moments! But it is a great thing to have when you are travelling to Japan in general so you can read what things are with ease.
So why do I recommend this for wine bars? Well, a lot of the wine bars actually cater purely for locals, not tourists. These are where Japanese go to enjoy wine, and so they often won’t have an English menu or speak any English. Don’t let that put you off though! If you have Google Translate, you can usually work out enough of what each thing is to be able to order with confidence. And if you can’t, you can always go back to the good old point at something and hope for the best! We did this a few times and were pleasantly surprised!
The final word on these tips for wine lovers travelling to Japan
I hope these 5 tips help you seek out wine when you are travelling to Japan. Although Japan isn’t a wine obsessed culture, you can definitely find it if you know where to look! With these tips for wine lovers travelling to Japan, I hope you can find the wine of your dreams to enjoy, and order with confidence!
