Sunday, October 15, 2006
Tokyo report 1
One of my favourite activities while in tokyo was sake drinking after a day's work.
I know... Not much of a surprise there for me.. Lol
We had discovered a bar near our hotel again... And we had a really interesting time. You have the main roads, and then many side streets with shops etc... And dotted all over along these streets are these little shops. On the exterior, they look rather traditional japanese... Wooden sliding doors with rice paper panels running along the top half of it, the half-curtains hanging in front of the entrance... That sort of thing.
Such places are generally rather small, sorta like the length of half a mrt carriage, and just a little bit wider. In this particular bar, on one side of the place, you have tables and chairs... While on the other side, it's more traditional... you have the raised platform and short long tables for you to sit, kneeling or cross-legged. The staff were really friendly, nevermind the language barrier... 'sake' is easily understood.
Because the place was really nice and all that, and very near our hotel, we ended up having a drink (or two or five!) there almost every night before heading back to our hotel... Nevermind that we might have already had a couple of drinks somewhere else. Since it's on the way back to the hotel, might as well drop in for a final drink for the night, right?
On a particular Wednesday night, some guys came in not long after we had arrived. They ordered a variety of drinks and of course curious little me kept sneaking peeks at their tables, trying to guess what they were drinking. One of them started sending us liquors to try which was cool since we didn't really know of other poisons apart from sake and beer so it was a good opportunity for us to try their different alcohols. The guy soon came over and started talking to us... While his english wasn't fantastic, we could still have a decent conversation and actually got to know what we were drinking. He was also kind enough to order for us other dishes like japanese kimchi and some arkshell thingy to try. Lol, we felt bad and decided that we should really start ordering our own food so we got more yakatori plus some hot soupy stuff with white radish etc. in the end, that guy paid for all the weird liquors plus the 1-2 rounds of sake he had ordered for us, and the food he had got for us too... So nice right?
What made it so interesting and fun was the ease by which we could strike up conversations with the locals... And they were more than happy to talk to us too and were just totally hospitable. I enjoyed the warm company a lot, and yes, I did also wish that more of that could happen back home too. It was just so new to me, to see strangers actually being able to easily talk to each other. And though we were strangers in their land, we were made to feel so welcome... With open arms, they accepted us.. So we did drink there a lot because we just felt so comfortable there we didn't feel the need to explore the area and find other drinking spots.
Perhaps it had to do with the bar itself... A small local cosy place patronized by regulars (I think!)... Where people are able to relax and let their guard down and just talk over drinks, food and smokes. Now that's a good way to relax after work... So while the japanese do work very hard, I guess they also know how to relax.
When I think back on my trip, that bar does pop up a lot in my mind... A very good way to remember my japan trip... Not so much coz of all the sake we consumed there, but for the people of the bar... And the japanese are a lovely bunch of people.
I know... Not much of a surprise there for me.. Lol
We had discovered a bar near our hotel again... And we had a really interesting time. You have the main roads, and then many side streets with shops etc... And dotted all over along these streets are these little shops. On the exterior, they look rather traditional japanese... Wooden sliding doors with rice paper panels running along the top half of it, the half-curtains hanging in front of the entrance... That sort of thing.
Such places are generally rather small, sorta like the length of half a mrt carriage, and just a little bit wider. In this particular bar, on one side of the place, you have tables and chairs... While on the other side, it's more traditional... you have the raised platform and short long tables for you to sit, kneeling or cross-legged. The staff were really friendly, nevermind the language barrier... 'sake' is easily understood.
Because the place was really nice and all that, and very near our hotel, we ended up having a drink (or two or five!) there almost every night before heading back to our hotel... Nevermind that we might have already had a couple of drinks somewhere else. Since it's on the way back to the hotel, might as well drop in for a final drink for the night, right?
On a particular Wednesday night, some guys came in not long after we had arrived. They ordered a variety of drinks and of course curious little me kept sneaking peeks at their tables, trying to guess what they were drinking. One of them started sending us liquors to try which was cool since we didn't really know of other poisons apart from sake and beer so it was a good opportunity for us to try their different alcohols. The guy soon came over and started talking to us... While his english wasn't fantastic, we could still have a decent conversation and actually got to know what we were drinking. He was also kind enough to order for us other dishes like japanese kimchi and some arkshell thingy to try. Lol, we felt bad and decided that we should really start ordering our own food so we got more yakatori plus some hot soupy stuff with white radish etc. in the end, that guy paid for all the weird liquors plus the 1-2 rounds of sake he had ordered for us, and the food he had got for us too... So nice right?
What made it so interesting and fun was the ease by which we could strike up conversations with the locals... And they were more than happy to talk to us too and were just totally hospitable. I enjoyed the warm company a lot, and yes, I did also wish that more of that could happen back home too. It was just so new to me, to see strangers actually being able to easily talk to each other. And though we were strangers in their land, we were made to feel so welcome... With open arms, they accepted us.. So we did drink there a lot because we just felt so comfortable there we didn't feel the need to explore the area and find other drinking spots.
Perhaps it had to do with the bar itself... A small local cosy place patronized by regulars (I think!)... Where people are able to relax and let their guard down and just talk over drinks, food and smokes. Now that's a good way to relax after work... So while the japanese do work very hard, I guess they also know how to relax.
When I think back on my trip, that bar does pop up a lot in my mind... A very good way to remember my japan trip... Not so much coz of all the sake we consumed there, but for the people of the bar... And the japanese are a lovely bunch of people.
