Photographs from a small group of islands
Japanese standing bars like the one below tend to differ from their far more common, chair-based cousins, in that they force complete strangers to drink together.
But just like weddings, work parties and other formal affairs, the conversations still don’t really flow until the booze does.
Tokyo changes incredibly quickly — so quickly in fact it arguably doesn’t have time to appreciate what it has in the first place. Buildings go up and down at a ferocious pace. Plus trends come and go in what seems like the blink of an eye. And yet for all its attempts at modernity, along with what’s often rather dubiously dubbed ‘progress’, some spots remain mercifully unchanged.
At a youthful 24, the man below opened a little izakaya (Japanese bar) in a suburb of western Tokyo. A simple affair selling equally simple fare. And remarkably, 50 years down the line, they are both still there. Still with the same setup too. Only the faces have changed.
The relative cold and heavy showers may not have been ideal, but, when it comes to last beers under the cherry blossoms, it takes way more than that to deter most people.
So beers were drunk. Good times were had.
And cheeky looks were happily exchanged.
Photographs of this little bar have featured several times on Tokyo Times, both from a similar angle, and from the front. But, just like the establishment’s beer and yakitori, it never loses its rough and ready attraction.
An old school setting for some cigarettes and salty soul food.
