I bid my farewell and thanks to Yokohama and took a train to Monzen Nakacho in Tokyo. I walked past Daruma on my way to the hotel, and since it was early afternoon, it wasn't open yet.
But I grew concerned when I saw the sign on the door, which read
owarimashita, or "finished." What was finished? Had the shop closed? I had sent the owner a couple of e-mails but didn't recieve any reply. Had the shop gone out of business? Had I come to Monzen Nakacho for nothing? I found my hotel (a 2-minute walk from Daruma), dropped off my bags and went for a brief visit to the
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Meguro-ku (more on that in a later post). I returned to my hotel and officially checked in and rested in my air conditioned room (Tokyo was extremely hot).
Later that evening I left my hotel walking past Tomioka Hachiman Shrine and headed for Daruma, praying it was open.
Approaching Daruma I was releived to see it was open and bustling with customers.
I enetered with my camera, and the owner and her sister were surprised but gave me a hearty greeting. They remembered me from
4 year ago! There were some regular customers I met before and they seemed to remember me as well. The owner pointed at an empty seat at the counter - the same seat where Yohida Rui sat when he featured Daruma on his
Sakaba Hourouki (or "Tavern Wandering") TV show in 2007. This was also the seat where a scene from the recent drama,
Konya wa Konoji de (or "Tonight Is U-Shaped") was shot (2022). A
meshi tero dream!
Daruma is run by two sisters who took over the shop after their father and mother passed away. The older sister, Aya, (in the center) is definitely the boss and her younger sister, Ma-chan, (on the right) does most of the cooking. That evening Aya's 24-year-old son was helping out.
Gregarious regular customers and new friends, delicious food and drink and lots of possibilities for good photography. Since Daruma had been featured on TV and other media so much, they didn't mind me taking photos at all.
Is this any way to order another drink?
Ma-chan makes a
bento for a regular customer every evening for his lunch the next day.
A little before 10:00 PM, Aya put the "finished" sign on the door, although that didn't stop a few more regular customer from entering. It had been a long and exciting day. And so I said good night to all at Daruma, but not farewell. There was still much fieldwork to do at this
izakaya. As you will see...
Monzen-Nakacho is considered to be a
shitamachi.
Shitamachi (or "lower town") usually have a large shopping street or arcade and several smaller streets and alleys with izakaya, tachinomiya and other interesting shops. They are associated with common people and have a traditional, nostalgic feel. To me (and many others), this is the real Japan. So much more to explore in this area. As you will see...
Daruma on TV:
Yoshia Rui no Sakaba Hourouki 「吉田類の酒場放浪記」, BS-TBS:
https://bs.tbs.co.jp/sakaba/
Daruma @ Yoshida Rui (#226, 12/3/07):
https://bs.tbs.co.jp/sakaba/shop/226.html
Daruma @ Yoshida Rui (#226, 12/3/07) video (for educational purposes only):
https://vimeo.com/448780349/d78fb8b82b?share=copy
Onna Sakaba Hourouki 「おんな酒場放浪記」、BS-TBS:
https://bs.tbs.co.jp/onnasakaba/
Daruma @ Onna Sakaba (#461, 4/17/20):
https://bs.tbs.co.jp/onnasakaba/shop/461.html
Konya wa Konoji「今夜はコの字で」Season Two, TV Tokyo:
https://www.bs-tvtokyo.co.jp/konoji2/
Daruma @「今夜はコの字で」Season Two (shop list):
https://www.bs-tvtokyo.co.jp/konoji2/location/
Other media sources:
Daruma @ Akaboshi Detective Group:
https://www.akaboshi-tanteidan.com/gendaibusiness/dancho/dancho-no51/
Daruma @ VAoJ (2019):
https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2019/08/izakaya-darumain-monzen-nakacho.html
Misc.
"4 Best Historic Neighborhoods to Experience Old Tokyo" @ Live Japan (2020):
https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-ueno/article-a0001610/
"The little curiosities of Monzen-Nakacho" @ The Japan Times (8/2/19):
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2019/08/02/travel/little-curiosities-monzen-nakacho/
Tokyo Photographic Art Musuem webpage:
http://topmuseum.jp/
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