We found a place to drink, a small German themed pub not too far from the Shinjuku station, and sat at the bar. It was empty asides from a middle aged couple sitting at the corner table, and a gray haired man sitting at the bar. We each had a couple of beers and ate bar snacks out of the little glass dishes placed on the bar. We talked to the gray haired man, an architect, about cardboard houses. After not too long we decided to go and the bill came, something like one hundred twenty thousand yen, which was something like one hundred dollars at that time, and I said what? and the bartender explained she had to charge us extra for sitting at the bar and eating snacks.

_

This morning in the Travel section of the New York Times there is an article about the tiny, back alley bars becoming increasingly popular in Japan. The article quotes a bar owner in Japan named Mark Dykman: "If you are intruding on a close-knit scene, the proprietor will ignore you and maybe over charge you. You won't be asked to leave, but you will want to leave."