Tokyo's top happy hours

Havana Cafe
This would be cheap by any standards; for Roppongi, it’s ridiculous. Happy hour drinks start at 100 yen, with Cuba Libres and Heartland beer going for 200 yen, and Corona, frozen margaritas and mojitos for 300 yen. Why it isn't crawling with alcoholics every day is a mystery: at 5.30pm on a damp Tuesday afternoon, the staff outnumbered us 4 to 1. Daily, 5-7pm. 4-12-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo (03-3423-3500). Transport: Roppongi Station (Hibiya, Oedo lines)

The Champagne Bar
You’ll need to be a member of the fairer sex to take advantage of The Champagne Bar’s ‘happy hour for ladies’: three hours of dinky hors d’oeuvres and as much G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge, Piper-Heidsieck Brut and Louis Roederer Brut as you can drink. 4,900 yen seems like a lot until you see how much the drinks here usually cost. Mon, from 5pm; Tue-Wed, 6-9pm; Thu-Sat, 5-8pm. ANA Intercontinental Hotel 3F, 1-12-33 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo (03 3505 1111). Transport: Tameike-Sanno Station (Ginza, Nanboku lines)

Hub
It’s not the classiest of options by any measure. But the price is right. Turn up before 7pm at most branches of Japan’s most ubiquitous faux-British pub chain and you can enjoy cocktails from a 50-strong menu for half price – as in, for as little at 190 yen. Then you can smile, put on your coat, and get as far way from the place as possible. Daily, until 7pm. Available at branches in Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ueno and others

Bar de l’Échanson
The bars at mid-range hotels can be uncomfortably odd places to hang out if you’re not actually a guest. The Mercure’s marble-clad watering hole quashes such existential doubts with a happy hour of 500 yen drinks, including house wine and bottled beer: Yona Yona Ale, Guinness, Premium Malt’s and, bien sur, Kronenbourg 1664. Nicely done. Daily, 5-7pm. Mercure Hotel Ginza Tokyo 2F, 2-9-4 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo (03-4335-1111). Transport: Ginza-Itchome Station (Yurakucho line)

Kukon
Kukon is faced with a similar quandary to Bar de l’Échanson (see above). The solution? Cheap wine, and lots of it. Glasses and bottles of plonk – rather nice plonk, we might add – are knocked down to as little as half price during happy hour. Daily, 5-7.30pm. Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku 2F, 2-3-1 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (03-5352-6319). Transport: Shinjuku Station (Yamanote, Shonan-Shinjuku, Marunouchi, Keio, Oedo, Odakyu lines), south exit