Food and Drink

The bar may well have been a grubby one, and the bib more than a bit makeshift, but the affection between these two was there for all to see.

Open for over 30 years, this small, cluttered little bar is a wonderfully relaxed place run by the mama-san until late evening, then her son till much later. An establishment so relaxed in fact that a good-sized rat that ran along a shelf behind my pal and I, caused only the briefest of distractions — a nod of recognition basically. Then, just as before, the drinking and conviviality continued on.

No frills. Clearly no fun either. Just someone’s lunch delivered with considerable skill and quiet efficiency.

Seeing astonishingly drunk and asleep men, women, and even men dressed as women on the streets of Tokyo isn’t exactly what one would call rare. But seeing someone fast asleep in a position like this, probably is.

An unconscious prayer perhaps for a hangover that isn’t of biblical proportions.