The vast size of Tokyo (and its connected/neighboring suburbs/regions) means that it is generally impossible to get off work, go home, and then go back out to meet friends. There is simply too much travel time involved and - as often as not - people live in opposing directions, so meeting people close to home doesn't work either.
And so people tend to go to izakaya drinking places that are around transfer stations and at a crossroads for all the people attending. This works out fairly well, but what if your hours have been cut (due to the bad economy) and you can't afford the typical (reasonable, but still not exactly cheap) cost of meeting friends this way?
One option, is to go to a "stand bar", which is a bar with no seats, so you stand - thus "stand bar". (That term probably doesn't make much sense in native-English speaking countries, but if you just consider it to be a distant cousin of English and a local noun, it works. Better still, just use Japanese, and then the English connection is easier to ignore: 有楽町スタンドバー)
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://uk.youtube.com/lylehsaxon
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