A bar in a back alley where the famous old man exudes a strong personality. If you like such kind of bar, please try this.
Hi, it’s “Drunk Uncle”!
Today I went to “Tachinomi Waka” in Shin Koiwa on my way home from work.
The first thing you’ll see when you exit the south exit of Shin-Koiwa Station is Shin-Koiwa Lumiere Shopping Street. The glittering shopping street has a total length of approximately 420m. “Lumiere” means “light” in French, and as the name suggests, it is bright and lively.
Today, we’re going to “Tachimomi Waka”, which has a reputation in the neighborhood as a standing bar with Showa-era prices, and which mysteriously invites old men to come to the back alley.
Look at the menu outside. The 400 yen Hoppy set is still reasonable even with the recent rise in prices. The medium-sized shochu is even cheaper, and it feels like you can’t resist ordering it. Enter the store and you will be drawn in.
Inside the store, the counters are arranged in a U-shape, and the regulars are drinking and talking.
The Taisho(master) is having a conversation with the regulars. I don’t like it when customers are too close to the master.
Since I am from the lowest caste in the bar, I feel a little uneasy as I am seated at the end of the counter.
Looking at the menu, it seems to be extremely cheap, as expected. The Taisho manager and landlady run the business.
I ordered a 250 yen sake at the right time so as not to disrupt the conversation between the regulars and the Taisho.
I don’t know the type of sake, but it’s probably second grade sake… This tension is even worse than Izumiya Honten in Omiya.
Next, I ordered Napolitan for 150 yen and squid natto for 250 yen. This place offers cash-on-delivery, so make sure you have some change.
Both taste good, and the squid natto has a nice crunch.
Looking inside the restaurant, the chef appears to be a heavy smoker.
As expected, he doesn’t smoke while cooking, but almost always have an unlit cigarette in his mouth, and as soon as he’s done cooking, he lights it and takes a blissful puff. I looked at him with disdain, wondering if that’s what a man’s job was like, but I started to feel something similar to Big Daddy’s (a.k.a Kiyoshi Hayashishita, a famous Japanese TV star, ) mentality: “This is the kind of person I am”.
However, I don’t mean to be arrogant and say that “all cooks should be non-smokers”, but when I saw him throw a cigarette butt on the floor and make a mess, I felt like it might be physiologically impossible for him to do so. (I’m sorry if I misunderstood).
And for me, who love Oishinbo(Japanese comic), an episode that came to mind was an episode in which an apprentice chef named “Ryozo Okaboshi” smoked behind the scenes, due to the stress of serving food, and “Yuzan Kaibara” was furious at him (see episode “Conditions for the Chef”).
It’s just a matter of likes, dislikes, and vibes that don’t match up, so I go back to the principle of “having a quick drink at a standing bar and then leaving quickly” and leave the bar.
Thinking of the taisho’s back saying, “This is the kind of person I am”, I trudged back along the Lumiere shopping street toward Shin-Koiwa Station. Is it a matter of feeling that it feels a little darker than the outbound trip?
I really felt that I still lacked the courage to stand up to the strong-personality Taisho (sorry for the too many poems this time).
Bar information
Tachinomi Waka
Address: 1-49-12 Shinkoiwa, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo
Payment method: Cash only! of course
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