Posted October 31, 2012 by Jonelle Patrick2 Comments Food

Standing Room Only…Restaurants?

StandingKushi — Fried meat on a stick, SRO.

Taking the single-guy-wolfing-down-a-microwaved-burrito-over-the-sink to new levels, check out these SRO restaurants! Not uncommon, especially near train stations, these places solve a major problem for harried Japanese citizens: how do you grab a bite when you’ve got 30 minutes from office to meeting and 20 of those are going to be spent in a subway car?

Let’s review the obstacle course:

1: No eating or drinking on trains.

2: No eating or drinking while walking around.

3: No auto in which to dine while vrooming to meeting.

4: Nowhere to throw your trash if you think you can get away with furtively gobbling down a rice ball from a convenience store while hiding in a nearby alley or behind a planter.

There are several varieties of standing room only restaurants to choose from: kushiage (fried meaty bits on sticks), soba, udon or ramen (bowls of noodles), and even sushi! But all deliver the two things people working like demons need most: speed and calories!

StandingSoba — In this restaurant, you can slurp up a bowl of noodles between trains

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Read a novel set in Tokyo…

A young woman dressed as a Gothic Lolita is found dead in a car with two strangers. But the more Yumi Hata learns about her friend’s death, the more she’s convinced it was murder…*read more*

Jonelle Patrick View All

Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!

2 thoughts on “Standing Room Only…Restaurants?” ›

wow — but it makes perfect sense

Jonelle Patrick says:

October 31, 2012 at 10:22 pm

The funny thing is, I have this problem all the time, but I never think of going into these restaurants. Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen a woman in one! It’s really a guy thing.

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