Shinjuku strip faces reckoning - JP

[dArKeR]

By HIROSHI MATSUBARA

Few museums preserve the atmosphere of Tokyo's chaotic postwar era better than the Shinjuku Nishiguchi Shotengai drinking strip, commonly known as Omoide-yokocho (Memory Lane), at least in the minds of heavy drinkers.

In the shadow of skyscrapers, department stores and other commercial buildings, the rickety buildings occupying the 2,000-sq.-meter area on the western side of the JR tracks preserves the atmosphere of its days as home to a bustling black market after World War II.

But the dingy alley's days are numbered -- landowners are planning to demolish some 80 wooden shacks to make way for a nine-story building by October 2008.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040609f1.htm

Too bad, this is really a nice place!

[ochazuke]

1. Betcha this happens

Somebody builds a replica of the old drinking places inside a new building and it becomes a big hit. I heard that a shopping mall patterned on early post-war Japan was really popular.