My third and final post on a Shinbashi area establishment (for now anyway!). This one is very special, and I doubt that my writing can do it justice. Right after we finished a couple of drinks at John Begg as posted about below, we headed out looking for more cool places and adventures within the Shinbashi area. We walked south along the western side of the station, through the normal bustle of a Shinbashi Friday night. Oh yes, and did I say it was raining and we had no umbrellas? Stall after stall, shop after shop underneath the train viaduct. All of them, or probably more accurately most of them, packed. Then up ahead, my friend spotted the word "Pub" on a green and white sign in English, which stood out amongst a sea of Kanji. Here is what it looked like. However I should note now that as with John Begg, these are not photos taken from my camera. Details on that later. The "Pub" sign I am referring to is actually the second and larger of the two (I didn't realize there were two at the time until seeing this picture!).
Upon seeing the sign we headed in for a drink. What we found was quite interesting. After ascending up some steps there was a bar which was filled with an older crowd of mostly Japanese men and some ladies. We were the only Gaijin in the place. Obviously a locals only type of clientele. It was smokey, and there was a curving bar along the entire right side of the long and wide room, and towards the back there was a Karaoke machine with an older man belting out some long ago tune on a sound system that sounded quite muddled. We took our seats at the bar, and ordered a couple of large bottles of Asahi. I felt like I was an actor in a B movie from the 1950's. Here is a picture of this bar during a much more sedate and quiet evening.
A very friendly bartender woman named "Stella" who was from Singapore chatted us up and poured our drinks. She spoke very good English. Stella told us this Pub was owned by the 86 year old Mama-san who was working alongside her behind the bar. She has worked here for over 50 years, and had owned it with her husband before he died around 15 years ago. We said hello to the Mama-san, who was very friendly, seemed to have a great spirit, but regrettably spoke no English. Here is a picture of the Mama-san.
After a short while my friend commented that he didn't think this was an ordinary bar, and he said to look around at all of the tables. There seemed to be a woman at each who were chatting with the men, and pouring their drinks for them. Aha! This was a "Hostess Bar". Upon further discussion with Stella, she showed us some black and white photos of what the place looked like in the 1950's. It was a Caberet at that time. Here is one of the shots. Notice the orchestra up in the balcony. At the time this picture was taken, the Mama-san owned (or rented) the lower floor of this building too. In the early 1960's they put the floor that we were standing on in, and sub-let the lower level out to another business. The Mama-san can be seen in this photo on the left.
After the aforementioned new floor went in, here is another picture of the staff I believe from the 1960's. The Mama-san and her husband are in the middle.
Well truth be told we did not feel altogether comfortable sitting in this bar, with Stella constantly filling our glasses up with seemingly each sip we took. It seemed like they were trying too hard to get us to drink more. Little did Stella know she was serving people who needed no such assistance. Quite the opposite actually. So we decided to leave, probably only 30-45 minutes after arriving, and after only drinking those two beers. I became worried about what we would be charged, as they could easily have ripped us off as they seemed a bit surprised to see us leaving so quickly. Stella looked over at the Mama-san and asked her how much we should pay (I couldn't say for sure this was what she asked but I certainly believe I am right!). The answer? 2,000 yen. A fair price I thought for the two bottles. We thanked them all and left, back out into the cold and rainy night.
So what makes this place, and this post, so special you might ask? Well, when I came back to the U.S., I tired to find out information on this place. I could not remember the name, so luckily Google had mapped the street and a quick look in street view gave me the name - Pub Kodama. Then I Googled Pub Kodama Shinbashi. The first thing that came up is the following link.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/tokyoeye/archives20110803.html
It seems NHK did a 30 minutes special on this woman, whose name is Hideko Yoshida. When I went to this web page and watched the accompanying four videos, I was stunned. What an amazing story, what an amazing place, and what an amazing Lady!!! I hope your computer has Flash capability and you can watch these videos. Please take the time to do so if you can. All of the pictures above (and below) are screen shots I took from them.
The old Shinbashi train viaduct pictured above was built in 1909. Under it's arches are housed many amazing people, places and things, including Susie's Jazz and Drink, John Begg and Pub Kodama. I hope to return to Shinbashi and Pub Kodama soon, and bring along with me a Japanese speaking friend. I want to communicate with Yoshida-san, and tell her that I think she is an amazing person. I want to spend some money there (for drinks) and repay her for her loyalty and dedication to her business. Who knows, I may even get up the nerve to sing a song or two. "What a Wonderful World" indeed!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment