With its almost unreal looking lamp and interesting array of regulars, this place really is a bar that, in photography terms at least, just keeps on giving.
Photographs from a small group of islands
With its almost unreal looking lamp and interesting array of regulars, this place really is a bar that, in photography terms at least, just keeps on giving.
john says
Is the hat safe I wonder?
Lee says
I do hope so. He reminded me somewhat of the Tom Baker era Dr Who, so I’d hate to see his outfit damaged in any way.
Linda says
Since I can’t figure out how to grow up to be an old Japanese lady, maybe my goal instead should be to someday be part of “an interesting array of regulars” somewhere. Should I start by buying some hats?
Lee says
Haha, there are certainly worse things to aim for. And yes, I’d strongly recommend a hat!
Martin says
Ha-ha! I remember that place from your previous photos. Still looks crazy.
Lee says
Yeah, it barely changes at all. Just the people in there. Hopefully that’ll be the case for a long time to come too. Always a treat to get another keeper from there.
Dale W. Griffith says
A field day to be had by a food and premises inspector should there be one.
Of course the picture would then be worthless.
Having had the opportunity to live in three Far East locations for a total of 7
years plus spend several holidays therein I can relate to the scene although
I believe this picture is becoming more rare as modernization sweeps away
yesterdays visual wonders.
Our children and theirs will only experience such beauty through the inquisitive
eye of the past.
Lee says
Yes, a place like this sadly couldn’t exist in my native Britain. It’d have been shutdown a long, long time ago.
Yeah, they are disappearing fast. A friend and I actively seek out similar places in local areas, and quite a few we’ve found have already closed or been demolished. The old people who invariably run them can’t go on forever, and understandably their offspring don’t want to take over, so once they finally call it a day the bar does too…
Denton says
So cool. Great framing as ever too. This is definitely a bar I’d love to drink in! 🙂
Lee says
Cheers! Pretty sure it’ll be around for a while yet, so the chance is there.
Ken Caldicott says
I love going into these places when I visit but there is never any room to move in there, particularly if you are a fat git like me! No space between barstools and wall.
Lee says
Haha, they are sometimes a tight squeeze, aren’t they? The worst are those with a toilet at one end, which means everyone having to squeeze in when someone pays a visit. And being a bar, that’s fairly often!
cdilla says
Another fantastic photograph of this amazing bar. Thanks too for giving it its own category in your portfolio. There was one in there I’d missed previously.
What struck me with this scene is that the nearest lamp looks rather Lovecraftian and would look at home in my Cthullhu office calendar 🙂
Nothing is permanent but change. But is is sad how these days the new is so dull and bland. In London, take Carnaby Street or Camden Market, or Covent Garden. What used to be places filled with the exotic, unique and sometimes slightly dangerous in the way of merchandise and food, are now filled with dozens of clones selling the same sanitized bland stuff. It’s not all gone yet, but one feels that culture is well on it’s way to extinction.
Lee says
Thank you! Ah, one I haven’t posted before, so that would explain why you’ve never seen it.
That particulate lamp really is something else, isn’t it? Need to investigate more closely, but I think that may be the original which doesn’t seem to work anymore. Understandable really. So the further one is the baby…
Yeah, I know what you mean. So much is disappearing here. The upcoming Olympics seems to be speeding things up as well. Modern and shiny may well be seen as progress, but all too often it completely lacks character…
John says
Miracle it hasn’t gone up in flames yet.
As someone else noted, what an indictment of the health department.
Lee says
Yeah, for all Japan’s rules and regulations, they can be really quite relaxed when it comes to health and safety.
MrSatyre says
Maybe for the regulars it’s become a game of Russian Roulette over the years, daring each other to order one meal after the other in the perverse hopes that drippings from the lamp will eventually fall into a friend’s dish.
Lee says
Haha, quite possibly! You never know though, that build up over all those years could make it taste sensational. Or there again…