I photographed this lovely old take-out yakitori shop towards the end of 2022. A place I’d previously tried to capture on several occasions, but the light had always been unhelpful, and one time it had rather frustratingly been shut. So to finally record its real, retro beauty was genuinely pleasing. Even better was the ownership situation, prompting me to conclude my write-up with these uncharacteristically positive words:
“A little shop that has been serving freshly grilled chicken for 45 years. Another near half a century is hard to imagine, but with a younger family member now on board, many more years do remain a distinct possibility.”
Optimism that was sadly very much misplaced, as returning recently at a slightly different time of year, but at the same time of day, we found nothing except an empty plot of land.