It is a blessing to have friends around the globe, but it is also hard to keep in touch. After a few years, if there are no chances of meeting up, correspondence may relent or fail us, and sometimes we loose touch completely for years. But then, if we are fortunate and determined enough to meet again, old friendships seem never lost, and sometimes more 'mature' friendships blossom.
And then there are those cases which are almost 'formal'. Correspondence is rich at first, and then diminishes down (yes, even with emails!) to the once a year New Year's greetings. This is what has happened with my friend Yoko. We got busy. We got married, and we had children. And we lived in two different continents. At the beginning I could go back to Japan and meet her briefly, check on the kids and so on, but after a few years it became hard.
But in the last New Year card I wrote to her I had the impulse of writing also my blog address, and there she was, back in touch, and telling me that her husband had opened a restaurant in Tokyo. So, to celebrate our renewed contact, I will show you her restaurant!
Now, the vegetarians followers of this blog may be surprised that I show pictures of a meaty restaurant, but as probably 98% of my friends are not vegetarians, and some of them read my blog anyway, here is something for them to look at! And in a way I like to show meat and fish eaters the same courtesy that I would like to receive from them (and that, fortunately, I mostly enjoy anyway).
Yoko tells me that her husband's shop (in Japan this is defined as a shop, not a restaurant) is called EN 縁
(in my dictionary the kanji translates as relation, or connection, Yoko please let me know if this is wrong!)
Yoko says: "Because beef and the internal organs meat are mainly cooked on the charcoal fire, with the aid of a clay stove called SITIRIN, they are very delicious!
Please stop by when you come to Tokyo!"
I will do Yoko, and maybe you could cook, just for me, some tofu!!!! And we will drink some sake together :-)!
