yakitori.friendship.skewer

finally there is some space to breath at work, the pace slow down a little due to a schedule conflict with new york and you have to pull the break and stack everything to friday.  thus you went out with two others colleagues from your client side.  you had a hot date with pretty sakura this morning but you don't want to bombard your readers with never ending sakura, although what you see this morning is totally mind blowing.  but you want to write about something slightly different tonight. about yakitori.  about friendship and about how tokyo is still a fine and fun city to be.

you just click with them from the beginning. perhaps you all speak english.  perhaps you all are gaijins (foreigner) in this country.  they are your lunch mates if your schedule fits.  tonight is a yakitori night. skewer night.  at a small alley nearby tokyo station (東京駅), otemachi (大手町), nihonbashi (日本橋) called yaesu (八重洲). tokyo central is small, every 500 meters you encounter a metro station.  in a local salarymen or OL heavily congregated area, you walk in to a small yakitori eatery.

 L is photo shy but her shyness turns this into a hilarious snapshot.  she is american japanese that audible loud in the office and you could hear her even you are sitting 5 rows of table away from her.

 your nutritions for friendship tonight, share among the three of you, some useful japanese terms you learnt along the really yummy and delicious small bites and skewers.

hatsu (ハツ)  - chicken heart

rebā (レバー) - liver

sunagimo (砂肝) - chicken gizzard

edamame (枝豆) - pod bean

ginko (銀杏) and many other skewers

to wash down with namabiiru (beer).  it has been a long time since you drink a glass of beer, but tonight you decided to flow along since it is a yakitori night. some namabiiru to nourish the friendship is acceptable tonight.

you work with H closely on day to day basis.  she is an oz with half japanese and half egyptian blood.  a timid lady but once you get to know H, she is quite fun to get along with. 

 this is how H, L and you eat the raw cabbage with a spread of marinated miso. totally yummy and healthy to compensate the namabiiru.

you all get to know each other better after the march eleven major earthquake.  you all share opinion and keep contact when all of you were on some sort of evacuation in different continents - north america, australia and europe.  you all travel back because your time and season is tokyo. you all have a choice of not returning, but you all made a choice to come back because no matter what the world may say about japan, tokyo is still a safe place to be.

as you eat, as you chat, as you laugh, a stronger bonding and friendship cultivates at the same time.

tonight you thank God for friendship!