No airs and graces. No faffing about. Just no nonsense, back to basics, beer and food.
Tokyo Times is owned and run by me, Lee Chapman, a long-term resident of Tokyo who arrived in 1998 for ‘a year or two’, and, for a myriad of reasons, stayed put.
Japan means many things to many people, but Tokyo Times is how I see it. The places. The people. The day-to-day situations. All of it shot using a Leica, a Nikon and a selection of lenses.
My photographs have appeared in the Guardian and Japan Times, plus numerous magazines and books. Should you wish to use any, or simply ask a question, you can get in touch with me here.
Copyright © 2013 · Tokyo Times
Oh yes that great.. and sake crates from Fukushima to make a table. I wonder if that’s a sign that they still haven’t completely resurrected their sake business after the accident.
Personally I don’t think the use of the crates has any real significance, as they were using all different ones. Whether they have completely resurrected their businesses, on the other hand, could be a very different story. With suspicion still strong, and a lack of concrete information, I suspect they haven’t…
Wow. This reminds me of stuff I saw growing up in Tokyo in the early 1960s; down back alleys near train stations. I can practically hear tinny Enka music coming out of a National transistor radio… Great shot. Guess I’m not too surprised places like this are still around; you always remind us that just off the beaten path, there are lots of time slip dimensions running off on their own, perfectly happy to be ignored by the 21st century…
Cheers!
Walking through Tokyo during that time must have been something special. Or at least in my mind it must have been. And these places are the only way I can experience it — of sorts. Thankfully there are still a few such areas too. Long may the continue.
That is some dark beer being poured by the patron.
Yeah, there are a good selection of such brews to be had. Not bad at all either.
Wow, like a time slip, we’re back in the 50s (or so the old films I watch tell me
)
Yeah, from them and old photos, it certainly seemed to look something like the photo. How much of it was like that though I don’t know.
Great that these little pockets of the past still exist. Gives the likes of us a chance to experience it and get an idea of what it must have been like.
I love these kind of places, when i come to Tokyo i always search for bar like this one that i still don’t know and they are always the best ones.
I have a bautiful memory of a little restaurant i went to in 2007, hidden in a small secondary street near the Ryogoku Kokugikan, run by an old man and his wife.
Best Ramen i’ve ever eaten.
By the way, great picture.
Cheers!
Yeah, such character (and characters) in such places. And like you say, often really good food too. The yakitori in the place above was, as you may suspect, excellent.