the Japanese

I had one of the funniest nights in my life :)

I went to this little pub-restaurant in Shibuya, very close to my hotel, mostly attracted by the external appearance, a sort of straw hut with a stone paved entrance and a basement of pebbles with water running around (very very japanese). In fact, it was an Izakaya, namely, a sake house, which serves small foods like "tapas", with a wide selection of alcohols, notably a long list of sakes, but also beer and whisky etc.
So, I started with a beer and a couple of things (mmmmm...... some of the best food I ever tasted, at least among japanese food, but I can say it rivalled with many other meals I remember). Then two guys sat next to me, and started eating some strange meat, and drinking sake. So I went for sake too, and a few more yakitoris. Then I got curious. Knowing how shy are the japanese, I approached, and asked what kind of meat were they having etc. They got immediately very friendly, and we started talking and eating (and drinking !!!) together. I talked also about my travel, and made some issues about Japan, and one of the guys went about wabi-sabi. So I showed them my photos on their cell phones, and the discussion got longer and longer. In the end, after a vast number of sake rounds, one of the two dubbed me as a "wabi-sabi master" and he said that I knew about Japan more than many japanese, which made me very happy :)) and of course we talked about girls, and women, and wives; and soccer, the pope, St Peters, Rome, Venice, and the nexcoming wedding of one of them, and the honeymoon his wife was dreaming about (guess what?!?!? Venice ;)
we all went ot the bathroom, since one of the guys found that it was very much wabi-sabi (indeed, it was...), and we ended up talking about WWII, and similarities between japanese and italians (there are some, indeed).

The very nice thing was that, when we jumped up to get the check, one of the two, Motonago, wanted to pay the whole bill, for everybody! it turned out he had won a large sum with pachinko that same afternoon, and decided to spend all the money in drinking :)) too much fun, he was the unmarried one, he has a girlfriend who lives in Russia on the coast facing Japan, 2 hours away from Tokyo.

So, in the end, I got two new friends (engineers in a small construction firm, where the boss is apparently poorer that the engineers working, I advised them to quit, at the first good chance), a free (fantastic) meal, and was able to make it to midnight, so the jet-lag is partially killed.