A man strolls through a narrow alleyway clustered with tiny bars and restaurants at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) - It's no secret Tokyoites are masters of making the most of space.
Take the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district: Tucked between the Kabukicho entertainment district and Hanazono Shrine, nearly 280 bars and restaurants are squeezed into an area about the size of half a soccer field.
The Golden Gai is a sliver of old Tokyo in a modern metropolis filled with endless gleaming buildings. It's a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction, for sure. But it's also a place for a few drinks and friendly chatter among exhausted workers known as "salarymen."
Everything is smaller and narrower in this warren of shacks. Most bars seat seven or eight with little room to move. Some foreigners jokingly pose for photos that exaggerate their struggles with small doors and narrow staircases.
That didn't stop 6-foot-7 Alaina Traxler, of Portland, Oregon, from enjoying his first visit. Traxler loved its coziness and intimacy.
"I was folded up in there. I'm literally taller than the room is," Traxler said. "Absolutely worth squeezing in."
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People walk through narrow alleyways clustered with tiny bars and restaurants at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A tourist is silhouetted as she looks at the map of the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A man walks down the steps of a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Bar owner Marie Yoshida, far left, chats with a patron in her bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A group of patrons laugh as they listen to entertainer Tadashi Yokoda, far left, in a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A bartender fixes a drink in a bar decorated with thousands of messages written by patrons at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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In this Sunday, July 28, 2019, photo, two musicians entertain patrons in a tiny bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A group of Japanese women are crammed around a table as they eat their dinner in a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Tourists, right, stand outside a bar donned with signs at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A sign is taped to the door of a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A couple smokes cigarettes in a parking lot adjacent to the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Tourists form a line along a narrow passageway outside a ramen restaurant at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A man walks up a narrow staircase leading to a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A man, right, makes his way through a narrow passageway between two buildings at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A woman, left, peeks into a packed izakaya-style restaurant at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A bartender, in costume, prepares a drink for a patron in a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A sign is posted on the wall clustered with bills from various countries in a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A man plays his harmonica while drinking in a bar at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A man walks down a narrow staircase sideways after having a bowl of ramen at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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