Against my better judgement I thought I’d post a little bit about my dinner at Denya (the yakitori I often go to). Since Kuniko was away doing a reunion party I ran down to Denya and got a good seat near the end of the bar. I hadn’t been there in a while, so the master and I caught up on current events. I was surprised to see one of the Denya regular customers working as an assistant for the master. The master said that he helps out on Sundays. I think the look of shock on my face showed – they were giggling about it for a little while.
The place was not busy but not dead. There were a few other customers, so the master was pretty busy. We still had time to catch up. We talked about the upcoming Futami matsuri, and he invited me to carry the portable shrine again this year. I’m really looking forward to it. It might be the last time that I get a chance to do it – I could be moving out of the area at the end of my contract next year.
I ordered lots of food and lots of beer. The master told me that my “pace was very fast” in Japanese, and I told him that I don’t have a “slow” setting. It’s just fast and faster. We talked about the “2nd party” after the wedding party – he wanted to know if it OK to invite his wife. He’s going to close down the yakitori that day, so I feel like we should definitely do something fun. The second party is something that I’ve got to get more involved in planning – the wedding is coming up pretty soon. The purpose of the second party is to include the people that you couldn’t invite to your wedding. In my case, that’s all the Denya guys’ girlfriends/wives, among others.
I ordered up tamagoyaki – a rolled up egg dish that Kuniko and I make for our lunches every day. The master was making it and he asked me if I would like to try it with a kimchee base added – he knows I like spicy foods. I took him up on the offer, and he served up a spicy, hot egg roll that was really, really good. I broke off a piece and sent it over to the regular customer that was serving as an assistant (Kimura-san), and he tried it out. I don’t think he liked it as much as I did.
Well, I’m back home, and thinking about running out again to buy a few things for tomorrow. It’s only 9 o’clock here – Kuniko shouldn’t be back for a long time yet.
That’s it for the drunken post – I hope I didn’t make too many errors in typing this. Can’t wait to read this tomorrow when I’m sober…
