If it’s total oblivion you’re after, Yellow and A-Life are marvellous clubs. The former is a cavernous, multi-floor maze with twenty-somethings going completely overboard to the unmistakeable sound of Japanese techno till after you’re back at work; not for the faint-hearted. Perhaps better for the average business traveller looking to let his or her hair down is A-Life. The staff speak English, there are expats to chat and party with, champagne is the predominant drink of choice, and the music is mercifully more tame.

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Go at night to pay homage to the statue of Hachiko the dog. Hachiko went to meet his master at the station every night,even for 9 years after his master died at work and didn't return. Great spot to people watch! Be amazed by the orderliness of the Japanese as they wait to cross the road into the Centre Gai. Nobody moves until the green man shows, then 300+ cross the road at the same time. Wander the pedestrianised streets and gawp at the weird, trendy fashions of the young Tokyoites. All this lit up by the 6-storey tall TV screens and neon lights.

Shibuya station

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The Golden Gai is one city block near Shinjuku station, made up of tiny alleyways. This block has around 250 teensy bars, all of which are unique. There are ground floor ones, 1st floor ones, film ones, literary ones, ones that look like a living room or kitchen, very welcoming ones and one or two that don't really like foreigners. They pretty much all have a seating charge of around 500 yen.

Go and walk around and choose your bar. You might get the one where film directors have their own bottles displayed around the bar.

1-1-8 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku. Closest station: Shinjuku, east exit. It's next to Hanaono Shrine.

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These alleys of shoddy two-storey buildings in Shinjuku house 200 bars, one "police box", a Shinto shrine and a motley population of mama-sans, transvestites, former prostitutes and 60s radicals.

It is vintage post-war Tokyo in all its cramped, chaotic glory. The bars - most of them big enough only for a counter and a dozen or so stools - are housed in buildings of wood and corrugated iron thrown up for hookers and pimps during the allied occupation.

Several decades have passed since Golden-gai was primarily a lure to the libido, but the narrow lanes have not entirely lost the feel of a red-light district. When business is slow and the air muggy, the silhouettes of mama-sans (some of whom are actually middle-aged men) can be seen in pink-lit doorways as they fan them selves and listen to scratchy records of Edith Piaf or experimental jazz.

In the 60s and 70s most of the brothel-keepers were replaced by counter-culture dropouts who turned the area into a hub of political conspiracy and intellectual foment. At its peak it attracted thinkers such as the author Yukio Mishima and the film-maker Nagisa Oshima.

Directors, painters and writers are still drawn to an area that refuses to make way for rampant materialism. Shadow, a bar run for more than 20 years by a communist, is decorated with items found in rubbish dumps. Jetee, owned by a former film distributor, includes Wim Wenders and Juliette Binoche among its occasional customers.

A few strides to the west are the blazing neon lights and noisy pachinko parlours of the ultra-sleazy Kabukicho sex district; behind are the futuristic 40-storey towers of the municipal government offices in Shinjuku.

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