"Visiting 'The Dug' in Shinjuku"

August 20th, 2013 (火曜日) Shinjuku (18:18)

Shinjuku Dug - B1 - the only space left, but a nostalgic and greatly appreciated atmosphere it is!  (The whole three-story building used to be completely filled with "The Dug".)  Brick walls (real brick in front of concrete?, old mechanical clock to my left melodically, steadily ticking away.  On the glass of the clock, in gold letters, it says "Little Joker", then (in smaller letters) "Big Golden" (in all capital letters), and on the bottom of the glass, in larger font again, it says "Long Cut." (including the period).

There is an old wooden counter beneath the paper I'm writing on, mellow jazz music playing through old speakers, dim, atmospheric lighting, a candle inside what looks like old glass in an interesting shape that casts interesting patterns of light and shadow across the old wood counter and onto the sheet of paper I'm writing on.  The clock is four minutes fast - a man in his twenties(?) at a nearby table reads a book in the dim light.

Until a few minutes before, another man, seemingly in his early twenties, was reading a book - smoking a cigarette... and... maybe my mis-perception, but it seemed as though he was in a perfect space - savoring the historic "the Dug" atmosphere, and was slightly perturbed that a stranger from distant lands across the seas sat two seats down at the counter that had been all his.  I glanced over after sitting down and seemed to perceive ripples in the pond....  He left soon thereafter, and now - at the counter - there is just me and a woman (down around the bend) in her twenties talking up a storm (slight exaggeration - but in the mellow atmosphere with cool jazz music and ticking clock, it seems like a storm).

The ear her speech is aimed at is the bartender in his... twenties (again!).  Another bartender appears to be in his thirties and there is a mysterious customer sitting off in a corner apparently in his... sixties?

Running shy on time - time to stop writing and just savor the atmosphere a bit before moving on.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://youtube.com/lylehsaxon
http://lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
http://lookback1997.blogspot.jp/
http://tokyoht.blogspot.jp/