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Comment by doctorhandshake | Hacker News Reader

I was a fan of Tokyo (and Kyoto and Osaka’s) “Old man bars” after stumbling into a few on my first few visits there. Having discovered Tokyo Jazz Joints on Instagram before my last visit, I used some of their writeups for inspiration on where to check out this time around.

While I have been both shouted and clapped out of a Japanese bar and told a bar was closed when it was clearly open (both immediately upon walking in, presumably because of my gaijin appearance), I’ve never had a negative experience in a jazz bar in Japan. If it’s your intent to quietly enjoy a drink and maybe some salty bar snacks, you will be treated with a low-key hospitality I’d describe as ‘genteel’ - it’s now a quality I look for in bars here in America because it is totally my speed.

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They're really getting old, sadly. I've been to various old bars around Japan and the venerable Pit Inn jazz club in Shinjuku for a matinee gig. I must have been the youngest person in all of those places. It was always pleasant to chat with the proprietors and regulars about their history and practices (except the well-known silent one-armed bartender in Golden Gai). I guess other styles of bar are popular among younger people, including the more anonymous chain izakayas and wine bars.

One bar owner in Sasebo, Kyushu (JAZZ SPOT EASEL) said that, despite getting very few customers, he continues to open each evening because he "really doesn't want a patron to come and be disappointed to find this place closed". What a sentiment. He talked about how young people are leaving smaller cities for better opportunities, causing them to hollow out. After closing, he brought me to an amazing, tiny (5 or 6-seater), hidden 50-year-old bar in a cave-like bomb shelter run by an even older man, who had his own stories to share.

For these people, it's a passion that has become their daily life. An era is fading as they retire or pass on, without younger people to take up the mantles. As visitors, we'll get to experience it for a decade or two more at most, I think. Definitely worth experiencing if you travel Japan, easy to find with just Google Maps, and even better if you can speak some Japanese.

> After closing, he brought me to an amazing, tiny (5 or 6-seater), hidden 50-year-old bar in a cave-like bomb shelter run by an even older man

I think this part is fantantastic. Stay until closing and the proprietor will happily take you to go to some other place that is still open (not all of course, but it’s happened more than once), even 1 o’clock at night.

I don’t think these places are disappearing though, they’re just changing. The current generation just does not bond over jazz. I’m thinking of a small Star Wars themed bar that has a similar feel but has a decidedly young proprietor.

I visited some very similar places in Japan that had the same kind of set up (nice hi-fi, small and tidy bar meant for listening, extensive carefully curated music collections) that were different only in that they played different types of music, and they were full of young people.

I liked the concept of "old man bars" - tough a lot of UK pubs would fit that description, but not really a "spoons" pub

Oh, spoons. Where the whole family can come in to hang out with the town drunks all day.

Experienced this outside of York, more country side.

> to hang out with the town drunks all day

I hate spoons. It's the worst of the corporate world (race to the bottom, conformity, lies, undercutting family businesses) sold as "what the working-classes really want". It's the McDonalds of alcohol and tabloid-culture, with a Scrooge-like owner to match.

I would would say "old man pubs" and "flat-roof pubs" are fairly widely used categories for pubs.

Here's a thread on Reddit discussing the former in Edinburgh:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Edinburgh/comments/6g422z/best_old_...

Ah I remember some of those when I was staying in the Balmorral for an extended period for work.

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