I held out no great hope for a positive outcome to a recent visit to the Ginza. Dante, the chef who some of you may remember from Tokyo Salon in the Vision Network complex in Omotesando, wanted me to come and taste his new Italian set dinner, which he has added to the menu at NB Club, a restaurant featuring live music. The place is huge, the food and music top-drawer, but the owners agreed -- it's a restaurant, not a bar.

To get there, I got off at Hibiya Station and walked over to NB Club in Ginza 8-chome. It only took 10 minutes, during which time I realized that Hibiya, Ginza and Shinbashi stations form three points of a triangle, the center of which is upscale and chic, but the edges of which, especially under the JR lines which flank one side, are buzzing with hundreds of little izakaya and stand-and-drink counters. The area is obviously geared toward the hours of the average salaried employee; by midnight, it's a ghost town.

After leaving NB Club, I headed for the closer Ginza Line entrance at Shinbashi Station, less than a three-minute walk away. And that's when I spotted Chotte-Bar -- an oasis in the night. A short stretch of plate glass, dotted with beer-brand neon, with a few customers sitting at plastic chairs and tables on the sidewalk in front. When I crossed for a closer look, I was instantly invited to join. It is so friendly and casual that it seemed out of place here -- just a stone's throw from the Ginza.