Rina Sawayama's perfect Tokyo weekend: pizza, karaoke and Family Mart fried chicken

Celebrity & Entertainment journalist
Rina Sawayama performing on stage
Rina Sawayama performing at First Avenue in 2022 Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

Rina Sawayama just spent two years living in Tokyo, and the Japanese-British pop star has turned her time there into a working map of where she actually eats, drinks and dances. For Condé Nast Traveler's "Perfect Weekend" series, she shared the stops she keeps returning to — farm-to-table pizza, a karaoke bar, and a late-night convenience store order she swears cancels the hangover.

From Pizza 4P's to a club called HVEN

Sawayama — the first brand ambassador for Haku, House of Suntory's rice vodka — starts the weekend at Pizza 4P's in Azabudai Hills. "It's really hard to get a reservation, and you need to call ahead," she warns, before pointing to the burrata pizza and a nori-topped version. "The best place to eat pizza outside of Italy is Japan."

Next comes Tremolo, a karaoke bar with "an open space where lots of people are singing together," then her friend's club HVEN (pronounced heaven). "It's a small club, but it's got the most amazing sound system," she says. "It doesn't feel too loud, but it's very punchy and very, very crisp."

The night wraps at Family Mart with Famichiki — fried chicken she calls "so crispy" — a Ukon ginseng drink and a Pocari Sweat. "I'll chug that and the next day I don't have a hangover," she says.

For a slow morning, Sawayama heads to Sorano, a tofu restaurant in Shibuya or Ebisu with "a very peaceful interior," tracks down a head spa, or wanders Ginza 6, Muji and Tokyu Hands. Her matcha spot is Wasachi in Roppongi — "the best matcha latte you'll ever have" — and she gifts the tins she buys there.

For souvenirs, it's Itoya in Ginza: eight floors of stationery. "I like thick ballpoint pens, like a 1.0 ballpoint pen," she says. "I love a pen, I love a journal. I just fucking love stationery." Asked what makes the city special, she lands on the paradox. "It's a lot of people, it's very, very populated, but Tokyo is peaceful."

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