It’s a little past 3 p.m. on Tuesday, two days after the closing ceremony of the Olympics. It’s scorching in Tokyo, the temperature hovering near 35 degrees Celsius.
In Ueno, a bustling working-class area in the northeastern part of the city, pedestrians sweating through their shirts are making their way down the district’s crowded alleys lined with numerous izakaya pubs.
Despite Tokyo being under a state of emergency — during which restaurants and bars serving alcohol are asked to close — many joints are open, and customers can be seen downing ice-cold mugs of draft beer and chomping on yakitori skewers.