Cult beef

On Saturday I realised I had been in a new country for almost a week without getting horribly drunk. To remedy this, I went out drinking in Funabashi with two Swedes and a Frenchman. My Japanese is bad and theirs is good, so they communicated in Japanese, I spoke to the Frenchman in French and the Swedes in English, and they all translated me into Japanese. I felt like I was boozing with the UN.

Japanese people don't go to pubs or bars, they go to these things that are half way between a bar and a restaurant. It's ok to sit there drinking all night, but you usually sporadically order small plates of food while you do so. I like the idea. We sat at a table with no seats. There is a big hole under the table that your legs disappear into, and you sit on a cushion on the floor.

Next to us there were three very amiable and gregarious salarymen. We got talking (well, I was pretty much mute), they bought us some food and drinks, we swapped business cards (see Oleg, I'm networking!). Finally, they invited us to their house this Sunday. The Swedes and I thought this was a great idea, but the Frenchman was pretty sceptical. They tried to convince us with offers of "Free beef! Free beef!" but the Frenchie wouldn't budge. Once they had left, he explained that they were members of some crazy (possibly tube-gassing) religious cult, and they were trying to recruit us. In my opinion, this makes the idea of going to their house on Sunday even more appealing. Especially since they don't speak English, and I don't know enough Japanese to allow them to brainwash me. (If they can brainwash me with just "1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Where is the train station? It is to the left of the supermarket" then fair play to them.)

Hopefully we'll be going on Sunday, so I'll report back and try to take some pictures.

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If men in suits say that
You can have free beer and beef,
Why would you refuse?