Ginzaline

September 28, 2014

Street Baker

I always used to dream of hanging out in Shibuya, Roppongi, says Jun Yoshino. Those sorts of places. When I was in high school, that was where it was all happening. They were the meccas. I was into club culture, surfing. I thought Asakusa had nothing. It was dirty, Hoppy Dori with all the drinking…

September 27, 2014

Quick-Quick-Slow

Social dance? Hahaha, isn’t that for like, old people? You know, or those tarted-up celebrities on TV? Okay then, if you say so. But at Nunokawa Dance Company, here on the Kappabashi kitchenware strip, television culture doesn’t exist. Neither Chie or her husband Izumi Nunokawa, pictured, watch those shows. And yes, among the students you…

September 23, 2014

Room Without a View

A warm evening and the door is ajar. It’s the end of trading here on Kokusai Dori, as the sisters get ready to close. Sao Paolo 1961. It used to be a stucco-walled, split-level, somewhat shabby, Showa-era remnant. Not now. Is this a lament? No view? It’s not as if the old place had windows.…

September 14, 2014

Self Contained

Crossing Kokusai Dori she is straight-backed and graceful. Later you think of a word: self-contained. OK, we are all self-contained. But in her movement she seems to take not an inch more space than she needs. It may come from training. What does she do? Professional musician, judging by her luggage. Ask her. As you’re…

September 14, 2014

Any Colour You Like

The neighbourhood gets ever smoother and more chic. At least it’s staying friendly. Kakimori stationery shop has opened a new venture next door. Measure out your colours and note down your ratios. Sho (at the counter) and Tomomi will mix and bottle it for you. For your fountain pen. Of course you’ve got one. It’s…

September 7, 2014

The Hosts

You can’t judge a bar by its door-handle. But you can’t help but speculate on this one, at 2am in Asakusa 3-chome, amid the deserted black sidestreets after the rain. It seems a little incongruous for this patch. A little too minimalist, too elegant. What’s on the other side of this sliver of steel, this…

September 6, 2014

Wrestler’s Rest

Come to me, by any means necessary, he said. Kim Yong Ah is telling you how she made her journey here, deep into Asakusa 4-chome, district 4, where she runs a Korean izakaya with her husband and two of their four sons. What her husband said, 30 years ago: Come to me and be together,…

September 5, 2014

First Saturday September – Event

A new way of posting this monthly information. Map and other links are here. Previous First Saturday events and info August July June May April March Feb Jan Dec Nov Oct

August 23, 2014

High Fidelity

Summer lingers. Punishing heat. On Kokusai Dori near Tawaramachi, the woman at the fruit shop splashes the footpath with her watering can. Past the police box, next door to the Tyrolean-styled Cafe Flamingo, Takashi Yoshida at Music House Yoshida turns up the sound. It’s aural air-conditioning, from outside hi-fi speakers hidden above your head in…