While Tomomi Kahala hopefuls battle their way across Shibuya's Hachiko crossing to the nearest karaoke bar, those looking for a bit of live entertainment and a huge dollop of good-humored banter head straight for a cluster of rickety wooden watering holes that time seems to have forgotten.
The 42 bar-cum-eateries that make up Nonbeiyokocho, or "Guzzler's Alley," would each struggle to accommodate a junior basketball team, but for their gregarious customers, size really doesn't matter.
At Tori Fuku, Toshiyuki Chikaraishi squeezes in at one end of the bar and pours a drink for his fellow guzzlers: "I've only just met them, but that's what I like about this place -- it's a different social realm," he says.