Pay Day

Posted on 2005/11/26 12:15:14 (November 2005).

[Friday 25th November]
Finally, after getting on for 9 months with no regular income coming in, I got paid today. It was great to see those numbers lit up in my new bank account....! Naturally in the evening I was keen to actually spend some of it, so we went off to Ikebukuro to visit my two favourite places in Tokyo. First, a couple of drinks at Quercus Bar, where some kind of promotion was being held (a tasting for a new bottling range I believe) and I have never seen it so busy. We slipped out after a bit and headed over to my favourite restaurant in Tokyo - Rohlan, where the vegetarian Taiwanese delicacies were as fabulous as ever.

After dinner, finding my thirst for whisky had not yet been sated, we returned to Quercus for a bit. It was still very busy, but managed to fit in short bursts of conversation with Watanabe-san, Iritia-san et al. A particular highlight was meeting Ichiro Akuto, who is now (as I understand) running the Chichibu distillery. He is the Ichiro of Ichiro's Malt fame, for those who know their Japanese whiskies. Naturally it seemed only proper to mark this occasion with having a dram (I wonder is there a Japanese word for dram?) from Chichibu, and I bathed in a luxurious heavily sherried specimen from 1985. As Watanabe-san is apparently a good friend of Akuto-san, he has possibly the best range of Chichibu malts in Tokyo (therefore probably in the world!) and so this is definitely the place to go for those wishing to try this rare Japanese gem.

Post a comment