One year, not too far away I had the privilege to be in Japan as an exchange student. Not in Tokyo, but somewhere out there. But, during the new year I was there anyway, with my family that joined me during xmas break. I had the experience of counting the seconds until new year at the famous Shibuya crossing. This time we were standing there at the crossing with tens of thousands of people. There were police with their megaphones asking people to get away from the street as soon as the counting was done (and yes, they did say please, as they do there). It did still take for ever for people to get out of there, once they had the chance to invade it. At least if you’re the one waiting in a car for the crossing to clear, that is.
We then proceeded towards the station, and then on to the other side of it. There, nearby we found by a chance, a rather small bar up on the second floor, which advertised 500jpy for a cocktail, no matter what it was. And the advertisement was mostly fulfilled, to our great satisfaction. Before that though, we still had to walk there, While we were crossing a street using a staircase that crossed the street over the air, I was looking down on my feet, until I came across a wallet lying there on the ground. I did look around to see anybody nearby, but absolutely no one was there, not that near at least. I looked inside to see any identification (and I must admit, I was intrigued to know whether there was any cash, not to steal it though, but in case you didn’t know, Japan is a full on cash society, so, everybody has cash in hand. As there wasn’t any that wallet was probably already been found before, sadly for the owner). There was some cards but nothing relevant to this story anyway. We looked down from the stairs and noticed that there was a police patrol squad. And we did take the wallet to them. They didn’t ask anything else, but, where did we found it.
Anyway, we did find this small and crowded cocktail bar. There was the counter and a few chairs, two four seat tables in the corner and that was it. Packed with 20 people. Usual in Japan, but rather crowded in many other places. At first we just had to stand by the wall, but soon enough there was some room at the counter. This was one of these places where you could smoke inside. There are many of them in Japan, whether you like them or not. This place was special in a way, because of the professionality that the bartenders had. It is quite usual to see an old man there behind the counter, then a middle aged man and then the youngest of them. Not that it is exactly like this in places, but I mean that there is usually the owner of the place, guru, being the oldest, then the chef in charge being the middle aged one and then lastly the youngest in charge of work while the chef in charge is busy in some other way.
How do you then see the professionality in their work? It can be seen from the seriousness that they take their work. It can be seen when they smash the ice, and then hand pick the ice cubes that look aesthetically perfect. And most of all, it can be tasted as they use real ingredients and liquors. I have to say, long island ice tea has never tasted soo looong. Only downside to it is that it takes time to make perfect drinks – but at the same time you gladly look at the artwork of making these drinks. You just have constant smile on your face, and therefore you gladly wait for it. And at least you can have a smoke while you’re at it. Later on we struck up a conversation with the youngest bartender which could do a bit of english. We were asking him of any places that you could go to. We didn’t mean any girl bars or anything, but instead he kept on recommending these places exactly to us constantly. Oh well, we didn’t say anything about it as we tried to be polite and listen to what he had to say, but we didn’t intend to go to any places like that. This bar can be recommended though, and should someone recognize the place from this story, go there, its great! At least for a drink or two!
Now you’re probably wondering, how this has anything to do with japanese kindness? After this cultural dive, i’m ready to tell you why: As we walked outside of the bar, stairs down and were about 300 meters away, we heard some running steps from behind us. Before we could understand what happened, the youngest chef ran to us, and gave my friend his lighter, saying that he left it at the bar. We were completely blown away, thanked dearly, and then he ran away as fast as he did first appear. Ran the stairs up, and we never saw the guy again. And this exactly. is just one example of japanese kindness. Visit Japan if you can, its crazily great!
Should you enjoy more stories from Japan as a foreigner
, let me know in the comments below! There’s quite a lot to tell. I’ve just scratched the surface.
Doomou arigatou gozaimasu !