This tiny alleyway is crammed with tiny yakitori shops where anything that *can* be stuck on a sick and grilled, *will* be stuck on a sick and grilled. Yakitori is an old food tradition in Japan, but Omoide Yokocho came to popularity after WW2 when food was scarce, winter was cold and people had to make do with what they could get. For the Japanese, it's symbolic of an attitude ... To overcome adversity while dreaming of a brighter future.
Of course, nothing is ever so simple. The alleyway has another name "Piss alley" which is testament to the fact that people would frequently drown their sorrows at the yakitori bars and then relieve themselves on the street outside.
We took our children there and were meet with alternating excitement, shock and disapproval. Even now, Omoide Yokocho is not somewhere people take their kids, apparently. Either way, out boys liked it and got "cute face service" (read: free stuff) all night.
Last night, we took a figurative trip down memory lane; catching up with Aya, an old friend of mine, who some of you will remember as an ALT from a few years ago.
We went out to an izakaya (a type of restaurant where you order many small dishes and share them). Aya typically works from 10am until 10pm 6 days a week (actually pretty normal in Japan), so she got of work early to meet us ... 7:30pm! By the time we ate, it was about 9:30pm and when we left at 11pm, there were still business men coming in for a meal and a drink after work.
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