gaijinmark wrote:When they say "noodle stand" they REALLY mean "STAND" :hehe:
yup, they even have popular bars like that as well called "tachinomiya"
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May 7, 2006
Surfacing
Tokyo Bars With Standing Room Only
By JAMES BROOKE
IN Tokyo, where cafe floor space is at a premium, some bars are abolishing tables and chairs altogether and stacking customers vertically along a bar.
They are known as tachinomiya, or standing bars, and they are sweeping Tokyo. Their popularity is fueled by low prices and the opportunities they offer many young, shy Japanese to mix and mingle with whoever is standing next to them.
"It's easy to go in, easy to go out," said Sachiko Tabata, who was sipping and snacking with another young woman at a new bar in Shinbashi called Gohiikini, or Nice to Meet You (2-8-9 Shinbashi Minato-ku; 81-3-3502-3132; www.3cs.co.jp). Standing at one end of a polished wood bar, they were discussing their reactions to the movie "Sayuri," known in the United States as "Memoirs of a Geisha."
Generally found close to Tokyo's major commuter rail stations and open from 4 . to 11 p.m., tachinomiya are ideal for an end-of-the-day stop. A visitor can sip a glass of imported wine, nibble on tapas and rub shoulders at the bar. Many of the tachinomiya are literally holes in the wall. But some, like Gohiikini, have Web sites with maps that can be printed out for an evening of hashigo or bar hopping.
Whoopee is across from Ebisu station (81-3-3444-5351), but without a map I circled the block until I figured out that the entrance was across a freshly hosed hall of shuttered fish shops. Inside, candles glowed in glasses, mellow jazz streamed though the air, a glass of Côtes du Rhône was going for 500 yen ($4.45, at 118 yen to the dollar), and a large plate of smoked cheese cost 1,500 yen. A chalk board announced: "Cash on Delivery."
The friendly young women behind the counter doubled as bartenders and as the bar equivalent of Tokyo's fabled subway stuffers, who herd rush-hour commuters into packed trains. One would call out: "Welcome! Three more customers!" Then she would politely but firmly push one group 18 inches down the bar to wedge in the new arrivals. To save space, the wall had hooks for coats and bags.
For Takao Rikiishi, it took four moves of his cheese plate to break the ice. "In this kind of place, you can just start talking to people," he said, happy to have an opening to try out his English. Easier to find is 3 Coins Bar, which opened a year ago under the Japan Rail tracks directly behind the Imperial Hotel, on the edge of the Ginza district). Typically, each restaurant below these tracks occupies an area within a red brick arch. This standing bar is so narrow, though, that it shares its vault with a ramen noodle shop.
But inside, there is plenty of life, jazz, nihonshu (Japanese wine) and delicious snacks — marinated mushrooms, tomatoes with onions, slices of deep fried chicken. Every drink and every snack goes for three 100 yen coins, about $2.65.
While fish, Japan's soul food, is the main staple of standing bars, tapas prevail at a growing number of standing bars with names like like Bar Tapachos, Catalan Bar Vinuls and Casa del Guapo.
Bar Tapachos (1-13-5 Ebisunishi, Shibuya-ku; 81-3-6415-7227; www.tapachos.com) is a light, airy place on a side street two blocks from Ebisu Station. The menu, in English and Spanish, offers a wide variety of hot and cold tapas, including squid in its ink (500 yen) and Galician-style octopus (also 500 yen). Drinks include sangria, a wide selection of Spanish whites and reds, and four different kinds of sherry.
"Traditionally, Japanese are not very spontaneous, not very gregarious," Akiko Maeda, an American-trained advertising executive, said between sips of a chilled sherry at Tapachos. Watching the comings and goings at the blonde wood bar, she added, "These bars seem to attract a different kind of species."
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