Tokyo - A night at the Golden Gai
Japanese culture is known for being efficient with their use of space. Small doorways to small rooms in small houses are a staple to this country, and we discovered one small suburb of Tokyo that takes this to the next level.
Golden Gai is a block of buildings just around the corner from Shinjuku station. Inside this single block are many, many bars and restaurants, all tightly packed together. When I say tightly packed together, I mean narrow stairwells that you climb like a ladder, rooms that only fit you when you're sitting down and bars with maximum patronage of three to four people.
Still, the buzz of the bars and eateries couldn't be bigger. Once the sun sets all sorts of lights start to blink to life to let you know there's something special behind a doorway or up a semi vertical stairway waiting for you. A lot of bars in Golden Gai are themed or have some special niche to them, such as serving only one type of drink or being literary themed and packed with books from floor to ceiling. All of them filled with personality.
