Diary

Spectator, The, Jun 22, 2002 by Jones, Dylan

The best bar I went to in Tokyo was in the labyrinthine back streets of Shinjuku, a very old, very small whisky bar that can hold eight people at most. It reminded me of a nightclub in New York back in the Eighties, a tragically fashionable place that had not one private VIP room but three, each inside the other like Russian dolls. The smallest room was only big enough for two people, so you had to wait your turn outside. It was in a nightclub that I heard the oddest thing on my trip. A barmaid leant across the bar and said, in an extremely un-Japanese display of emotion, `You look difficult, but funny.' Much like Tokyo, I think.

Dylan Jones is the editor of GQ magazine.