Bashi-san and Mana-chan

Posted on 2008/03/28 00:30:51 (March 2008).

[Saturday 22nd March]
Today was another day largely devoted to meeting up with Japanese friends. Our first appointment of the day was a late lunch with Bashi-san, a guy who Chie had met at the Hiroshimakenjinkai in London. Having grown up in the US he was a fluent English speaker, but still I liked the way during the course of the afternoon the three of us switched backwards and forwards between English and Japanese. It's interesting to watch somebody who can speak both languages fluently - they quite often seem to take on a different personality each time they switch languages.

So we had a late lunch - some Indian food - followed by a bout of karaoke. It was mine and Chie's first karaoke visit of this trip, and we were really throwing ourselves in at the deep end here - Bashi-san was a seriously talented singer. Apparently he used to be in a band at one point (although he hastened to add he wasn't actually the lead singer) and had also been in a singing competition on Japanese TV. So mine and Chie's tuneless squawkings were even more of an embarrassment than usual, but still, the injured pride aside, it was actually great to do karaoke with someone who can actually genuinely sing for a change!

We said our goodbyes after karaoke, as Chie had another appointment in the evening - to meet her friend Mana-chan. We had a little bit of time inbetween the two, so Chie went off to do a bit of shopping, whilst I planted myself in a nearby bar. It actually turned out to be a sort of yakitori (barbecued chicken) place, a little shack were everyone stands up to eat. I felt a compulsion to order something, so after a few minutes trying to make head-or-tail of the handwritten Japanese menu, I eventually managed to identify a few vegetable items. I don't think I've ever really eaten at this kind of place before, and have to admit I quite enjoyed it. I had some gobo (burdock?), Japanese green peppers, and aubergine. They were all just lightly seasoned and then barbecued, but surprisingly tasty. I guess that was partly just down to the sense of adventure at managing all by myself.

So we then went to meet up with Mana-chan, who'd booked us a table at a Spanish themed restaurant. I didn't realise Hiroshima had anywhere that did Spanish food - I remember Chie's Mum coming to London a few years back and us trying to find some sort of cuisine she wouldn't have had before - tapas seemed to do the trick that time, but apparently it is no longer that unfamiliar to the residents of Hiroshima. I'm not sure I was particularly bowled over in this instance though - it was the sort of place where everything seemingly innocuous I ordered came with bacon, the portions were very small, and most irritatingly of all the girls ordered Paella which took so long to come that they didn't actually have time to eat it before being shooed off the table (we only had it booked until 8). Chie asked if they could give them something to take it away with and they said they couldn't for hygiene reasons. So in short they'd made us pay for food which they weren't going to let us eat - that seemed pretty poor form. Still, Chie seemed (quite unusually for her) to be prepared to just let it drop, so I didn't kick up a fuss either.

After that, given that it was still only 8ish, we decided we should find somewhere else to go, and Mana-chan suggested a bar which did lots of foreign beers. Superbly they had Dom Kolsch (albeit bottled of course). It hadn't really occurred to me you'd be able to get this outside of Germany, so I made a mental note to try and hunt this down in London.

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