It's been a few years, but in Tokyo I very much liked the bar-restaurant Kamiya Bar, in Asakusa between the Kaminarimon Gate and Sumida River. This is (or was some years ago) an interesting, century-old plus joint with real old fashioned Shitamachi atmosphere. The food (mostly Japanese but with some Western dishes) was good and cheap, and you could buy big foaming mugs of draft beer. They also had a house specialty drink (forget the name) made with a special type of brandy which was supposed to be potent, but I didn't try it. I may have been the only non-Japanese in there, but everyone was friendly and I didn't have any problem getting into conversations in English. I remember it was smoky though -- maybe by now there are non-smoking policies. Does anyone know if this place is still there and still good?