A Yakitori Alley

We went down a Yakitori Alley near the Shinjuku station. These tiny yakitori (meaning grilled bird) joints were crammed beside one another down a just as tiny alleyway. They lined both sides of the walkway, and you could fit no more than 5-6 people in each "restaurant". Can you call it a restaurant?

The smell was amazing as we wandered through the alley and each joint was bustling with patrons. In each one, customers lined the small stools around the grill, as the owner/cook grilled the orders as they came in. Apparantly, this is the kind of place businessmen love to haunt on their way home from work. Enjoy some beer yakitori, then head for home.

"Yakitori (焼き鳥, やきとり), lit. grilled bird, is a Japanese type of chicken kebab...Traditional yakitori consists only of various chicken parts and vegetables, but in modern usage refers to any sort of beef, pork, fish, seafood or vegetable kebab, which get skewered on skewers named kushi. Yakitori is typically served with salt or tare sauce, which is basically made up of mirin, sweet sake, soy sauce and sugar. The sauce is applied on the skewered meat and is grilled until delicately cooked and is served with the tare sauce as a dip." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitori