What is a "Yatai"?

This is a picture of the local ‘Yatai’ palace I went to quite early on Sunday morning. (Picture taken during the daytime the following evening.) There are loads of these little dens of iniquity dotted all over Tokuyama town centre (Probably Japan as well!) and all offer similar delicacies, which are noodles, vegetables, meat of sorts, wine and beer, beer and more beer. Oh and more beer, nearly forgot that one!

This particular steamy embalming palace is easy to find, as it is virtually opposite the local ‘Love Shack/Hut’. The amount of passing business these little street bistros get is pretty significant. As you can imagine, the seating area is quite small, a few benches parked around a small table with boiling hot water for noodles and foodstuff’s submerged in side pots on top of the table. The customers park their respective carcasses on the bench, ask for there food and get stuck in. Lots of slurping later, they are gone with an extremely quick turn round to boot. I can imagine these joints going down well in England, not. They would either be smashed to bits or full of ‘Brits on the piss’, etc. (The latter definitely has two meaning in this particular context!!!)