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Memory Lane
You’ll find some sixty restaurants—mainly izakaya-style joints serving grilled meats, beer, and sake—all crammed cheek-by-jowl on narrow smoke-filled alleys taking up half an acre off Shinjuku Station’s west exit. The district’s name, Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane), evokes its status as one of Tokyo’s last parcels that looks much like it did in the immediate post-war era. In the evenings, Memory Lane’s izakaya serve up inexpensive yakitori chicken skewers or nikomi, a Japanese beef tendon stew.
