Izakaya

One of the best ways to introduce overseas visitors to the Japanese culture has got to be a night at an authentic restaurant. So on the second night of my parents stay in Japan, I invited mum, Jeremy and ten of my teaching friends to dinner at a Japanese style Izakaya Restaurant.

We went to an Izakaya I had been to several times before which is fifteen minutes walk from my house. When we arrived we all took our shoes off, put indoor slippers on and our shoes in plastic bags for storage while we were eating. But taking our shoes off to come in is not the only thing a foreign visitor needs to remember. During a night at an Izakaya there is generally a lot of alcohol consumed so when you need to go to the bathroom you put on a special pair of bathroom slippers you can find in the toilet, that are used within that area only. The restaurants are generally set out with soft tatami matting (hence the slippers) and hardwood floors and of course being Japanese there are no chairs. Everyone sits on a floor pillow beside the table and luckily there is a lowered area beneath the table where you can put your feet as if you are sitting. I have noticed that most Japanese people don’t seem to require this luxury and fold their legs up while dining as if it’s the most natural thing in the world! I wish I were that flexible.

In a traditional restaurant here, you don’t order in courses, rather each diner orders several small dishes for the table and everybody shares the food. The benefit of this is that you can sample all sorts of different food in one night. Some of the foods we sampled on this occasion were Sashimi; raw fish with rice, Okinomiyaki; Japanese style omelet with fish and vegetables, Yakiniku; beef strips you barbeque yourself on a small grill and Ton Katsu; deep fried pork. The food was excellent and fairly cheap at 350-500 yen per dish. I mentioned earlier a trip to an Izakaya involves a lot of drinking and you can generally pick up a Nama (draught) beer for 450 yen or so.

Izakayas are very popular here and going out for dinner and drinks in large groups of friends or coworkers is generally the way people socialize here, rather than going out to bars or nightclubs. It’s probably a good healthy way to drink as you are eating a lot of food as well as consuming alcohol, but I think you don’t tend to meet or mix with other people as much as you would if you went to a bar back home. We had an excellent time at the restaurant and continued our party into the night in true Japanese style by visiting a local Karaoke bar. Everybody including mum and Jeremy of course was in fine form and after an early morning taxi there were more than a few croaky sounding voices the next day.