Torikichi

it is a very tricky question that people from all over the world may face several times in their lifes - maybe only during fractions of seconds before quickly banning the thought to the very back of their minds.. the answer may be a short and decisive yes if you start to relax in a onsen with view over several snowy volcano peaks - at other times the question may be following you during days and you keep waking up at night, trembling, sweating..
what if you keep being exposed to this question every time you went to the supermarket? sprayed onto the facade of the okura frontier hotel in tsukuba? and what if the answer to this question is negative?

if the answer is not 100% positive, a very good way of boosting it is to go to a yakitori place. (in tsukuba for instance there is the torikichi) when you enter such a place it may look like this:

your first impression will be a very strong smell of grilled chicken with a slight beer note. depending on what is being grilled, you may not even spot the grill-chef. there will be a whole mix of people, some wearing suits and ties, others blue overalls, training jackets or just casual after work clothing. attached to the walls is the menu or the daily/monthly specials. i.e. everything that is related to chicken or vegetables and can be put on skewers.

after entering the place you sit down, either at the bar or at a table (put off your shoes before sitting on tatami mats). you will be instantly served a very japanese appetizer and a small warm and moist towel which allows you to clean your hands (and face).

then check the menu - the small skewers will mostly be served in pairs - and choose your favourites. (if you're lucky, there is an english version of the menu - but the daily/monthly/chef-specials will be missing; if you're extremely lucky, you brought a japanese friend with you who can translate the kanji into kana or better: english). don't hesitate to try also the most exotic sounding items on the menu. if they eat it, you can eat it as well.

with a loud "sumimaseeeeeeeen!" you will get the waiters attention who will instantly take your order (which can be quite long..). the drink of your choice will most probably be "biiru". (although some like the "ume-shu rokku" quite as much)

relax, drink and wait for the skewers to be grilled on the charkoals directly in front of you (if you choose to sit on the bar) - they will be served at different time intervalls, as soon as they are ready. (if you're swiss, you can pimp your order by ordering "somethingsomething chiizu")

a typical round of people in the first yakitoria phase may look as showed in following figure:

but after some time and beers later you will suddenly realize, that the last skewers had been served a long time ago. what you do now is: you yell "sumimaseeeeeeeeeeeen!" and place a new order of all your favourite grilled items.

enjoy

in case you read everything up to here (don't you have any work to do?!) you might come up with the question: "..so what is it that the yakitoria does to people?"
the answer is simple: it changes you gradually from Antonio-Inokis to decent, relaxed and beautiful looking people.

(next two pictures: before and after)



after several re-orders and side-orders, the $$$-time will approach. but if you are a frequent yakitoria-goer, you will have an extra kaban full of coupons and beer-vouchers which will ease or rather lower the amount of yen to be payed.

in case you didn't bring enough cash (and japan is THE cash society) you might suddenly be seeing the yakitoria from a different angle (and i tell you - cleaning the single male/female toire is not a asa meshi mae)