Golden Gai in the late afternoon

Golden Gai is an area of Shinjuku where lots of small, hip, but ramshackle bars are crammed into four or five of narrow streets. The buildings themselves were put up fifty or more years ago, and their age is showing despite the best efforts of some of the bar owners to give the places a new lease of life with a lick of paint. Some of the bars are little more than corrugated iron or wooden shacks, though others are a little more solid. Of course, the area really comes to life at night, but just wandering around in the afternoon gives you taste of post-war Tokyo bohemian life.