Golden Gai

Squint.
 That's a picture of me standing in one of the dimly-lit, run-down streets of Shinjuku Golden Gai, one of the last remaining vestiges of Japan before the economic boom that made it one of the modern day world leaders. The streets of Tokyo have since been torn down and redone and modernized, and yet Golden Gai still stands.
 What remains of Golden Gai today is a fascinating cluster of 200 bars, packed shoulder to shoulder and facing each other, separated only by narrow streets where two people could sparsely stand side-by-side. Some of these bars have stood their ground for over fifty years, run by the same owners.
　So narrow and cramped are these buildings that some of them can only fit five customers at a time, while others resort to having absolutely everyone standing.
Ken and Millo and I decided to have a look. Let us squeeze into a bar the size of a bathroom!

Well, it's kind of hard to choose. Many of the bars in Golden Gai have interesting themes to get you started, such as anime or horse-racing. I was partial to a Troll doll themed one run by a cute girl, but we didn't go in, since the cover charge was 1000¥ before even the cost of a drink.

You heard right. Despite Golden Gai being cramped and old and crappy for the most part, it does have a huge amount of frequenters. Places can afford to demand ridiculous cover charges.
 The place we did find, however, had neither the coolest theme nor the smallest interior. We chose the bar named simply, "Lonely," a decision based on the name, lack of cover charge, and the smile of the owner as we approached. It wasn't long after we sat down that the owner of the bar got talking about the story of his shop.
It's rare you encounter a bar that sobers you.
The short version is that, Mr Lonely, as the patrons of the bar call him, opened shop some 46 years ago, at the age of 19. The girl he was in love with then, who he had known since elementary school, soon contracted cancer and died without Mr Lonely having ever professed his love to her.

Mr Lonely, myself, and Millo.

To this day, every day, Mr Lonely burns incense and prays that he may see her in his dreams so that he may only remember her face - something that has not happened once in the last 40 years.
 Yeah, that's kind of heavy.
At any rate, Lonely is now doing quite good for itself, having been featured in the novelization of a popular manga comic book. It draws in a few wandering readers who wonder if the place actually exists (and who must be quite delighted upon finding out that it does.)