Shinjuku Pit Inn — Attraction in Tokyo

If you really like jazz, and you really want to learn the different side of Tokyo, here is where you should visit. I visited this jazz club during my travel in Tokyo, as “have an authentic jazz experience in Japan” has always been one of the ticking boxes for my solo travelling. At the beginning of my trip, I was a bit overwhelmed by the feeling of being always surrounded by tourists, and can’t experience the real Japanese culture - and this bar changed my feeling totally. I went on a Wednesday night, and it was jazz piano and guitar performance only for that night. 99% of the audiences are Japanese, and quite of a few of them came alone. Seeing so many jazz lovers just enjoy music casually on a weekday night in Shinjuku really impressed me - that’s the really charm of Tokyo I would say. The jazz performance was nice but not what I expected, as I personally preferred jazz with instruments like saxophone,trumpet, and drums more. But, it was a perfect night - as the story with jazz involved would never be just jazz. I randomly started conversations with the French guy behind me (we were the 1% of the audience - tourists…) talking about jazz and how we liked the performance - then found out we have same taste and opinion on jazz, music, movies, books, and life. Started with Jazz, we talked about everything in the end - it’s really rare to find connections like this in the busy world where most of us are living fast paced lives and worrying about not being successful enough, or not achieving something earlier, or just being anxious in general about what’s going to happen next - but that night in pit Inn, jazz slowed down everything. It was the most magical and beautiful night I’ve ever had, but maybe just one of the other ordinary nights in Shinjuku. In summary, if you love jazz, here is where you should go - you will get what you expect, and maybe also surprises. And also, I hope next time when I visit Tokyo, I can come back with...

Found in the basement of a building in shinjuku, there inn provided a wonderful venue to get up and personal with performers. Limited seating and that night it appeared to be sold out. Jazz band that evening.

The entrance fee included one drink. We purchased additional drinks and were gifted with cheese and crackers

Not sure how they admitted reservations, but it’s would be better if they seated larger parties first. We had a group of five and needed to split up our seating as we couldn’t get five seats in a row.

The length of the performances varies, but with intermission, our concert lasted over 2 hours.

Waiting area outside of the inn is not air conditioned. Difficult to bear as went during the dog...

3 stars for the music as it was a really good.

-2 starts for the following:

We had a reservation and the way they work is the following: everyone queues outside about 30min before the gig. Then a host starts reading out all the names of those who reserved tickets. If you're then one of the unlucky ones to be called out pretty much last, you walk in and are greeted with a full house already and no seating available anymore at all. I'm sorry but I don't reserve a ticket to then having to stand for 2hrs straight.

Whereas the music was great, the organisers should really ensure that all reserved tickets should be able...