A beautifully dated old Tokyo yakitori stall
For the longest time, this was my favourite old yakitori stall, but not anymore.
I’d seen the beauty below before, but only in the shade of bright sunshine, which didn’t do it justice at all. In the fading light of an early autumn day, on the other hand, it really did look its best. 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.
A suitably retro old Japanese shopping street entrance
The shopping street itself isn’t anything special. Just your regular, run-of-the-mill covered arcade filled with a mixture of chain stores and independent outlets.
This old school, character-filled side entrance, on the hand hand, is anything but ordinary. A lovely slice of the past with an added dash of modern looks.
The end of a truly unique little old Tokyo bar
Back in December 2018, I took the bar photos below. An evening that lives long in the memory, as despite having enjoyed beers in many little bars that have barely changed in decades, this one was truly unique.
It had been in business for 40 years, with the 82-year-old mama-san in charge the whole time. A place where she quietly grilled chicken and served cheap drinks to her regular customers. My friend and I, on the other hand, weren’t regulars in any sense of the word, as in those four decades, we were apparently the first western foreigners to set foot inside. Presumably we were the last too, as sometime between April 2021 and February of this year, the bulldozers moved in. The results of which can be seen in the fifth, and very final frame.
This disappearing aspect of old Tokyo, and some of the reasons I attempt to document it, are covered in a video I did a little while ago, so if you’d like to see it, the link is here. Being on that side of the camera is, rather hypocritically it has to be said, a place I’m not especially comfortable, but it is a good way of showing why I seek out and shoot what I do.
Abandoned and beautifully overgrown Tokyo bicycles
With Tokyo’s long summer now finally at an end, it seems like a good time to show this collection of photos taken over those hot and humid months. Weather that in relation to human habitation doesn’t offer much in the way of benefits, but it does at least provide the perfect conditions to make long-abandoned bicycles look really quite beautiful.
