Food and Drink

The sight of people way past retirement age still working isn’t an uncommon one in Japan. In fact it isn’t even unusual on the pages of Tokyo Times. There’s a shoemaker still plying his trade in a wonderfully archaic workshop. A long since ex-French chef still cooking up a storm. Plus another septuagenarian bar owner in no way ready to put her feet up just yet. But as old as those people are, they act nothing like their years, energetically going about their business in the manner of someone much, much younger.

This woman, however, is a different story altogether. Admittedly she may not be the oldest. Your guess is as good as mine on that one. But it would be difficult to find a shop owner looking any more world-weary.

This bar has featured on Tokyo Times before, albeit from a slightly different angle. But whichever way you choose to frame it, the sense of past and present is always a feature.

In Tokyo, just like everywhere else in the world, there’s little that beats the simple pleasure of some good food with friends or family. A feeling that is clearly reflected here.

Shinjuku’s Kabukicho red light district operates around the clock, meaning those who want a drink, or a dalliance of any conceivable description, will never be disappointed. The only real restriction — apart from money of course — being the stamina of one’s chosen partner.

Tokyo’s varied selection of old, basic bars and eateries are well documented on Tokyo Times. But, when the weather gets warmer, those wonderfully no-nonsense characteristics are carried out on to the street. Meaning the same cheap and cheerful food. The same clutter and grime. And perhaps most importantly of all, the same fantastically relaxed atmosphere.

Her native Okinawa that she left over 40 years ago must have changed enormously, but the bar this strong-willed Mama-san runs in Tokyo most certainly hasn’t. Or at least not since the 1970s.

A space that in many ways is more like an extended living room than a bar, allowing customers, with the accompaniment of a couple of beers, to feel completely at home.