Bar Breath

A few weeks ago I made a strategic navigational mistake while leaving Shinbashi Station in Tokyo and ended up in the basement of the eki-biru (if you've never been to Japan: many stations, especially in cities, have a building above / below / beside / opposite the station with a variety of shops, restaurants etc.). This particular basement was lined with izakaya-type establishments, all of which were closed, but from the look of them would appeal to the kind of people who hang out around Shinbashi for fun, and for a minute I thought I'd stumbled into some kind of mid-80's gastronomic ghost town. Then I realised it was Sunday morning, and the only action on a Sunday morning in Shinbashi is the crowds heading to the Yurikamome.

Being completely deserted and without the aural hubbub which usually dominates such places other senses came into play, and I couldn't help noticing a very distinctive olfactory undertone of stale beer and even staler cigarette smoke. Hastening towards the nearest exit, (which put me neatly on the wrong side of an uncrossable street), I realised that that was, of course, the answer to a question which had been bothering me ever since I'd sighted the below establishment: what, exactly, is "bar breath"?

Bar Breath - バーブレス (seen in Yoyogi, link).