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Feb 08 2019 4 Comments

A Japanese chef working in a Tokyo alleyway

When kitchen space is at a premium, then a bit of rough and ready outdoor preparation is clearly called for.

A Japanese chef working in a dirty Tokyo alleyway

Categorized: Food and Drink, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. DavidT says

    2/8/2019 at 10:03 am

    He sure wasn’t happy seeing you snapping him at work! 😉

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/8/2019 at 8:54 pm

      No, it certainly doesn’t appear that way, although I’d like to think he was just a bit surprised.

      Reply
  2. Hans ter Horst says

    2/10/2019 at 2:35 am

    I always wondered how they get away with using these places for preparing food, health and safety-wize but I don’t really care as usually it’s very tasty. Nobody in Japan ever seems to check on restaurants and any potential food poisioning possibilities. The dirtiest place I ever visited was the Tanuki yakitori restaurant in Sendai, but so tasty and I never got ill after all my visits (but I did worry). Now the restaurant has moved from the basement and cleaned up, and sucks.
    Will they step up the checks before the rugby world cup and Olympics and ruin everything?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/10/2019 at 10:21 am

      That’s a good question. The preparations for the Olympics in particular could well bring about big changes. Already so much of the city has changed, or is undergoing changes. Shibuya in particular is still like a huge building site. And those developments could well spread to more societal ones.

      I do hope not though. Like you said, when such places move or get refurbished they are never the same again. Like they’ve had their heart ripped out.

      The dirtiest bar I’ve been in for a good while was this one: http://bit.ly/2A99DW9

      To be honest it had quite a smell, but the yakitori was good and the beer cold. Plus how could you not enjoy the surroundings? And like all my experiences in such places, I was perfectly fine the next day.

      Interestingly, by the bar was the old lady’s hygiene certicate. Something that finally made the state of such places make sense. The certificate is for the owner, not exactly the establishment itself. Hence so many of them being less than clean to say the least. Now whether this is the case for bigger bars and restaurants I don’t know, but judging by the scene above, it mIght we’ll be…

      Reply

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