Review

How many pubs, Irish pubs, are you aware of, into the centres of which you can arrive by elevator from the street (disabled elevators notwithstanding)? I'm sure you're struggling to envisage any. In Japan an elevator is an indispensable part of a pub or bar, and Shinjuku's The Dubliners pub has two of them; there are of course also stairs to this 2nd floor pub, but an elevator is far more exciting and provides a grander entrance.

Nowhere is it stated that The Dubliners pub is eponymous with those 60s legends of beards and traditional Irish ballad music, The Dubliners, yet an autographed album of The Dubliners proudly displayed at the bar gives credence to the suggestion.

The pub is very popular and regularly overcrowded with Japanese drinkers and diners, yet behind one of the ubiquitous Guinness partitions and underneath a Kilkenny mirror sits the token westerner, enjoying a pint of the famous black stuff; despite its plentiful tables and chairs, finding a seat in The Dubliners can be impossible - it's best to find a ledge to lean upon and wait for one of the numerous, English-speaking floor-staff to attend.

The Dubliners is allegedly where Japanese women can meet western men, although the libido quashing twin china-dogs and the 'potato famine' suitcases, both of which sit on one of the many tat shelves, make a mockery of the claim. If one was popular with the women, however, The Dubliners has a conveniently large snug with six tables and a sliding door to isolate it from the Guinness-fiends and insidious live Irish music.

The Dubliners is located near the JR Shinjuku station on the Yamanote Line, one of the busiest stations in Tokyo, and its 2nd floor corner location overlooks two of the area's busiest thoroughfares. Each window in The Dubliners has its view of Shinjuku obscured, however, by a pile of tat sitting on the windowsill that is discernable from the street below.

The pub and the building in which it's situated are owned by Japanese mega-brewery Sapporo, and the ground floor unit is wholly occupied by one of Sapporo's Lion Halls - an izakaya (a Japanese bar). The Sapporo (and Lion) touch is evident in The Dubliners by the small brass lion heads that are supporting the brass rail around the bar, which itself sits on a ledge above the rest of the pub and is the ideal place to stand and watch the Irish...sorry, Japanese...women. A waitress in Shinjuku's The Dubliners is possibly one of the most attractive in Tokyo.

The toilets in The Dubliners are called the 'Rest Rooms' - a pleasant change from Fir and Mna, two words which would mean only marginally less to the Japanese than they do to the Brits. Near the 'Rest Rooms', in which I was unable to rest due to the lack of beds, are the banks of light-switches and air-conditioning operating panels - six of each - that surely allow for great practical jokes, as you watch your collages turn to ice in the 'Arctic-Blast' setting, to which you've switched the air-conditioning!

With friendly barstaff and customers, and a bottle of beer averaging about ¥650 (£3.65), The Dubliners is a popular Irish pub in a location that's convenient for seeing the archetypal Tokyo.

Review by mr_psm