Chere, you will, in particular, be interested in this post.

So I ventured quite adventurously down to Shinjuku at 10pm in search of the legendary Shomben Yokocho (Piss Alley) - Home of all good, dinghy izakayas, and good food, etc, etc.

And, I had zero trouble finding it at all because guess what - they now have a lighted signboard hanging out from one of the buildings to direct you into the alley, a sign which read (I found this quite amusing) 「思い出横町」, or ‘Memory Lane’. Sanitisation/euphemising FTW.

Anws, that’s not the biggest bummer. So I walk down the place and was suitably intimidated by the hustle and bustle (there is this bar called Albatross that I am determined to visit, JoTay/PekYingSze - got art gallery on 2nd floor one, I’m sure you all will like) until I hear a v. accented voice call out ‘welcome’ in Japanese. Obviously the woman spoke Mandarin, so I v.happily trotted over, only to have the other disgruntled male owner tell me that they only serve groups of 2 or more. And…that was essentially the policy elsewhere (I gave up at the 3rd one).

The sad story of my adventure can be summarised in the following haiku I composed+

小便横町
「二名様からです。」
マックにしよう！

Translated loosely: Piss Alley / (We serve groups of) 2 or more / Let’s eat at Macs!

Observation #348234 - The feeling of an ice-cold coke hitting your mouth when you are thirsty is universal.

Observation #348235 - The taste of McDonalds’ burgers is universal - this is true even when you consider the various components - bun, lettuce, mayo, patty, and sub-components - way patty is cooked, texture, consistency, crunch of lettuce. Etc.

Wah, Kabukicho damn happening, but I didn’t dare walk in alone by myself at night.

OKAY siandiao I’m gonna turn in in a bit.