Bar たくや

Last Saturday, my good friend Jason made the trek out to Koga so we could hang out. Ibaraki is a pretty large prefecture, but its infrastructure is pretty conducive to easy travel. However, my little spot of Ibaraki, in Koga, is about as disconnected from the rest of the prefecture as you can get. My trains don't go into Ibaraki, but into the surrounding prefectures and the roads from Koga are rather indirect to get to the capital or other cities. This makes it hard to hang out with Ibaraki JETs very often because it is quite the undertaking to travel 2+ hours by train or car.

Anyway, Jason decided to make the journey, and we had a nice time. I guess this is where I should mention that Jason is dating my good friend Chika, but she had a huge table tennis tournament on Saturday, so she couldn't hang out with us - but we saw her on Sunday. :) Anyway, on Saturday night, after dinner we went to this new bar near my apartment. This bar just appeared out of nowhere, but I am glad it did. It is called Bar Takuya and has a tiki/Hawaiian theme. It is a small place, but well decorated. On the outside the door is bright blue and due to the grand opening, there are fresh flowers everywhere - lilies, orchids, carnations, etc.

Jason and I stayed for two hours or so and had a really great conversation. We hit on all kinds of topics, it is really nice to have a friend like him. The drinks were good and pretty well-priced, compared to what I have paid for drinks in and around Tokyo. After we were finished and paid the bill, I asked the bartender if I could take a flower home, in Japanese. He spoke back to me in his best English and said, "Sure, take this one!" He gave me a huge, beautiful orchid plant that his mother had given to him upon the opening of his bar! I will post a picture, but they are really gorgeous and brighten my apartment in such a big way!

Surprises and experiences like this are what I am going to miss about my life in Japan the most.