Submitted by: Keri West - Akita City, Akita
Take a look at the photo I’m including with this story. I took that shot on an average afternoon, just because the building was so tiny and run down. It looked like a garden shed compared to all the modern cement buildings of Akita City. Two weeks later I was walking by again, but this time, it happened to be late on a Thursday night. Jazz night. Yep, on the first Thursday of every month, that tiny building is an after-hours jazz club. There’s just enough room for a row of 6 bar stools and a long thin bar (when my friend sat down on a stool he effectively blocked all exits from the building). The bar back is overflowing with tapes and CD’s of the greatest crooners and torch singers of the 30’s and 40’s. Blue smoke and Julie London’s voice fill up any remaining room.
The clientele that night included: a blue collar guy from the nearest construction site, Johnny Cash’s Japanese twin, a thoroughly sloshed housewife, and the owner/bartender himself; a Tokyo company man who spoke four languages and operated the jazz club in his free time, just for the love of it.
One of my favorite things about living in Japan is that every little back alley has something interesting going on. You can walk down the same street for months and then one day there will be a door open that was never open before. Suddenly you’ve discovered a sake factory, a seasonal sweet bean pastry vendor or the local Taiko drum club. Definitely, definitely go inside.
