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Jun 02 2017 24 Comments

Very drunk in a very small Tokyo bar

Three sheets to the wind in a bar that would barely hold more than three people.

very drunk Japanese in a very small tokyo bar

Categorized: Food and Drink, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dan Waldhoff says

    6/2/2017 at 8:53 am

    The Suntory Highball Zone รขโ‚ฌยฆ

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/2/2017 at 6:35 pm

      Indeed. Not exactly the best ad for Suntory’s popular beverage, is it?

      Reply
  2. Linda says

    6/2/2017 at 9:02 am

    Good of her to let him be seeing as he’s taking up 1/3 of the seats in the place.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/2/2017 at 6:36 pm

      The owner was similarly wasted, so not sure how conscious a decision that was!

      Reply
  3. YTSL says

    6/2/2017 at 11:01 am

    Was the barkeep knocked out as well as the customer? What time was it when you took the photo? :O

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/2/2017 at 6:41 pm

      Yeah, that’s him asleep with his head against the fridge. It was taken a bit before 3pm, so it was either a very early start, or an incredibly late finish. My guess is the latter.

      Reply
  4. Coli says

    6/2/2017 at 3:08 pm

    Excellent photo work here again Lee. As others have said I’m surprised to see the owner passed out too. By the way is that a Sex Pistols poster I see in the background?:) hard to imagine an old bar owner enjoying their music. But this is a neat little place. Any food served there?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/2/2017 at 6:46 pm

      Thank you!

      Yeah, that’s a Sex Pistols poster. I’ve seen him in better shape than this, and my guess is he’s about the right age to have enjoyed punk when he was a young fella.

      To be honest I’ve never been in, so don’t know. Only ever walked past. Apart from this particular time, when I have passed by, it has been either closed or busy, although clearly it doesn’t take many people to fill it!

      Reply
  5. Denton says

    6/2/2017 at 3:37 pm

    I’m a big fan of this one. The size of the bar. The drunkenness! So much to enjoy! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/2/2017 at 6:48 pm

      Cheers! I was very happy to find such a fascinating scene. Up to that point it had been a very fruitless walk, so this made my day.

      Reply
  6. Karl says

    6/2/2017 at 7:35 pm

    That’s the whole bar? What we see? Three seats — I can’t imagine.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/2/2017 at 9:03 pm

      Yes, that’s the whole bar. There is though that little bench seat on the left. So room for perhaps a couple more to squeeze in.

      Reply
  7. Ron says

    6/3/2017 at 1:55 am

    Right hairstyle for the 70’s punk era as well, but a bit more rockabilly than punk.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/3/2017 at 10:04 am

      Yeah, that’s a good call. Didn’t notice any other posters, although there could have been some. I was concentrating too much on getting what I could in the frame.

      Reply
  8. Squidpuppy says

    6/3/2017 at 2:18 am

    I wonder about the context of that tiny drinkery – what’s around it? I imagine a gaggle of incongruous surroundings and stuck in the middle, easily lost, is this cubbyhole. More of a drinks closet with than a bar?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/3/2017 at 10:13 am

      It really is very closet-like, isn’t it? It’s in a grubby little alleyway. There are a couple of equally small places next to it too. And in between, there is a shared, similarly compact toilet.

      Reply
  9. scruffy says

    6/4/2017 at 1:32 am

    Imagine their surprise when they come to and realized they never even locked up the place before passing out.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/4/2017 at 5:13 pm

      I know eh? Fortunately for them, it’s highly likely that nothing will have been stolen.

      Reply
  10. cdilla says

    6/4/2017 at 7:43 am

    Having eaten vastly and drunk recklessly in London over that past few days this scene gives me some recent flashbacks ๐Ÿ™‚
    How does such a place stay open. Three seats can’t possibly make enough profit to pay rent.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/4/2017 at 5:16 pm

      Must have been a big few days if this photo bring back memories. Or at least remnants of memories!

      That’s a very good question. One that could be asked of many places in Tokyo. What the answer is though I don’t know…

      Reply
  11. Z says

    6/27/2017 at 12:08 am

    In Japan it seems like their workforce is very overworked and has bad morale.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/27/2017 at 2:33 pm

      Hard to say about morale. At least generally, anyway. But yeah, an awful lot of people work an awful lot of hours…

      Reply
  12. Jon says

    1/20/2020 at 8:44 pm

    I actually like it a lot. It’s quite poetic almost. What district is it in? Which quarter? Golden Gai??
    Thank you for answering.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      1/22/2020 at 5:29 pm

      Thanks. Definitely a memorable scene. It was photographed in Kabukicho.

      Reply

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