Almost directly across the street from our apartment is a restaurant called Shoumin. It’s an oden restaurant (more on oden here), but they have raw, grilled and fried food as well.
Since it’s both convenient and utterly delicious, we’ve been there quite a bit. Probably 10 times, all told. A few visits ago, I was there by myself, but the proprietor was very keen to confirm that I was, in fact, Patorikku-san and that my wife’s name was Yukari.
When we went to eat last night, they brought a bottle to our table. Potted and painted into the side of the bottle were our names, written in katakana.
In Japan, these are called keep bottles. Typically you buy a bottle of whisky, shouchu or other hard liqour, put your name on it and then leave it at the bar or restaurant for your next visit.
At Shoumin, they do it a bit differently. They give you the bottle and you can, if you want, fill it up with the beverage of your choice. You can also just take it home with you. We left ours there, empty for now, as a proud sign of our regularhood.
We’ll be back soon, though, maybe to fill it up with some of Yukari’s favorite, umeshu (plum wine) and to enjoy the incredible buri sashimi that is in season right now.
Posted by pmk at November 10, 2005 3:40 AM | TrackBack