The Best Cocktail Bars in Japan

Kyoto

Three of the nine bars are in Kyoto. At L'Escamoteur, bartenders perform magic tricks and fire effects while they make drinks, and the crowded room is full of curiosities. Bee's Knees is a speakeasy behind a yellow bookstore door in the Kiyamachi district, where the smoking Ninja Smash is served, though waits are long. Scotch & Branch is reached through a red telephone booth set into a wall in central Kyoto and has a large Japanese whisky selection.

Osaka

Hedonist has a seasonal menu and mixes drinks to order, using house infusions. Its staff explain each ingredient. Bar Nayuta is a small speakeasy-style bar with a hidden entrance, where drinks are made to each guest's taste rather than from a printed list. Its back shelves are lined with spices.

Tokyo, Nara, Kanazawa and Takayama

Bar Benfiddich occupies the ninth floor of a Nishi-Shinjuku building in Tokyo, and its owner-bartender Hiroyasu Kayama builds drinks from herbs, fruit and spices grown on his farm. Lamp Bar in Nara is on the first floor of a building a few minutes from Kintetsu Nara Station, run by Michito Kaneko, winner of the 2015 World Class competition, and has no written menu. Furansu Cocktail Bar in Kanazawa is run by French-Japanese brothers. Yu, in Takayama, is a small bar in a historic building run by its owner and one colleague.