Huh. Kind of reminds me of prohibition, to be honest! A banned substance in times of trouble that is distributed by organized crime to the masses who don't care about the source, but demand the product. This is a tonkatsu bootlegger, and I'm fucking here for this content
Dude that's an amazing picture. There is a serious poetry in this kind of stuff in my mind. It speaks to the tenacity of human drives and how wherever there are rules, there are people who are dead set on breaking them. lil I have to thank you for helping me to see that there is value and beauty in contradictory things, that human life exists in the tension between binaries.
Please post the original article, rather than the version on the pocket website. Someone* went to all that trouble to plan and write an article - the least you can do is send some traffic and maybe revenue their way. The added benefit is if you enjoy the writing you can see what else they have written. * Hunter Lu's article list including The Illegal Ramen Vendors of Postwar Tokyo