Ai Ai
For a taste of summer, head to this underground Okinawan village in Jingumae

Kenichi Shimada

Wander down a concrete staircase, slide open a heavy wooden door, step across a dimly lit threshold—and prepare to be teleported to the land of endless summer nights.

Welcome to Ai Ai. The laidback ambiance of balmy tropical evenings beneath a sky of stars is captured perfectly at this Okinawan bar-restaurant hidden in a Jingumae basement.

Pristine minimalism this is not: having been open for
a decade, Ai Ai has the well-worn, hippie-chic feel of a welcoming hostel on an exotic Southeast Asian beach.
Its chilled ambiance and lack of pretension draw a crowd that’s as cool as it is relaxed. Both at lunch and in the evenings, hipsters from local design companies and fashion boutiques lounge on wooden benches and crowd cozy wooden alcoves beneath mismatching lanterns.

For the ultimate shipwrecked experience, reserve the tiny beach hut just inside the entrance. Slip off your shoes, slide into a shack that wouldn’t look out of place on a Thai beach, and let thoughts of Tokyo slide into oblivion. The only thing missing is the sound of waves lapping a sandy shore.
The young waiters exude a laidback calm, serving cans of Orion beer (¥600)—sometimes with a glass, sometimes without—while being patient, friendly and prompt.

Eventually, we graduated from sipping Okinawan beer to “researching” the restaurant’s eight-strong list of awamori, which includes Shimaomoi and Zanpa (both ¥600). If you’re up for a challenge, try the aged 43-proof Zuisen (¥700). All brands of the distilled spirit are served in large ceramic cups over rocks of ice. Mixers like turmeric tea (¥1,500/pitcher) are also available.

The food menu continues with the “I’m on holiday” theme. A tangy green papaya salad festooned with fresh coriander (¥800) happily evokes memories of Thailand, as does the perfectly named Gee Mama peanut tofu (¥400). Ume budo (¥600), a delicate seaweed translated on the bilingual menu as “Okinawan Sea Caviar,” is a moss-green, mouth-popping delight.

A word of warning about ordering the correct quantity of food: do not assume that the words “half-size vegetable noodle soup” (¥900) refer to a small, light cup of broth. Having enthusiastically ordered two half-sized portions, we were stunned into silence as two vast ceramic bowls bursting with noodles and a mountain of colorful Okinawan vegetables appeared on the table. Valiantly forcing ourselves to eat it, our efforts were rewarded: it was as healthy, warming and comforting as a grandmother’s broth on a chilly winter’s night.

At this stage, it is perhaps useful to interject that those prone to clumsiness—or excessive consumption of awamori—should be aware that the restaurant has numerous little wooden steps, heavy low wooden ceiling beams, and tiny rabbit hatch-like doors.

As we tripped and banged our heads out of the restaurant many hours after our first order, we felt strangely immune to the dark and windy Tokyo night thanks to a short, sun-kissed holiday at Ai Ai.

2-31-8 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-3403-5575. Open Mon-Sat noon-2pm, 6pm-midnight, closed Sun. Nearest stn: Meiji-Jingumae or Harajuku.

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