{"id":40152,"date":"2018-08-31T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T23:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=40152"},"modified":"2024-11-25T17:39:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T08:39:15","slug":"kyoto-karasuma-bar-yokocho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/kyoto-karasuma-bar-yokocho\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover 10 Bars at Karasuma Bar Yokocho in Kyoto"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Karasuma Bar Yokocho is closed permanently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, what is even a yokocho<\/em> (\u6a2a\u4e01)<\/strong>? A yokocho<\/em> is an alley bordered by small izakaya<\/em><\/strong>, these bars\/restaurants<\/strong> are similar to the concept of tapas<\/strong>: a place to have a drink and grab small portions of delicious food. These alleys started appearing in Japanese cities at the end of World War II<\/strong>. Yokocho<\/em> (\u6a2a\u4e01) were originally black markets<\/strong> called yamiichi <\/em>(\u95c7\u5e02), created as a form of resistance to the unique Japanese culture in a context of food shortage and US occupation under the Showa era. The Kanji ‘\u4e01(cho)’ literally means ‘encountering<\/strong>‘ or ‘crossing<\/strong>,’ which is very close to tapas in Spain, where people of all generations and styles get together and interact in a relaxed atmosphere<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, yokocho<\/em> bars are where you sit (or stand) at the counter, elbow to elbow with your neighbours, where conversations spontaneously engage with other customers or the owner. Usually, people don\u2019t just stop at one stall but rather do it “pub crawl” style: “\u306f\u3057\u3054\u9152\u3059\u308b” (hashigo zake suru, literally meaning “going up the alcohol ladder”). Frequent customers have long been mainly men of a certain age, mostly regulars. But these last few years, yokocho<\/em> are seeing a growth in popularity and are starting to open to women, younger people and even tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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