cAmilla's Little Rest Time in Tokyo--Meeting Angels in Japan

by cAmilla Wu

You're not going to believe this, Right... me, neither. But it really happened just now!

I was hungry and tired from work and planned to go out for some food. I was actually thinking about "RAMEN" since it is always my first choice in Japan. After a five-minute walk from where my hotel is, I decided to check on the restaurants that I had never visited before.

My attention was completely caught by a live commercial activity during my walk. Two gentlemen were happily dancing with floaties and promoting the trips to Okinawa. I was curious about their dance and found myself standing just right by a bridge leading to restaurants. After fulfilling my curiosity watching their cute dance, I stepped onto the second floor to see what I could get there.

In the beginning, I thought that I had chosen a wrong place to feed my stomach since there weren't many people eating in the restaurants. Then I realized that it was only 5 pm when my stomach started to roar, which might be a little bit early for dinner time here in Tokyo.

Following my instinct, I was welcomed to a place with local traditional cuisine by one of the lovely staff dressed in traditional Japanese costume.

I was amazed at the interior design that brought me back to a warm and cozy village where people were friendly and showed great hospitality to their guests. The lanterns on the ceiling offered soft light that comforted people's hungry feelings.

The waiter offered me a hot towel after I put my bag down on a chair. Then he started to introduce the menu and suggested some popular dishes in the store. I tried BBQ chicken, Gyoza and Ramen. The texture of chicken was great and wonderful. By the time to serve Gyoza, the same gentleman cooked Gyoza dish right on my table for me. I felt like I was the VIP in the room. I believed that people would feel the same way as I did having food here. I had a strange thought coming to my mind all of a sudden... "Would there be some hidden price when I pay since my Japanese is not so fluent and there could be some misunderstanding during our conversation?..."

My doubt was soon erased by a high-quality designed menu which showed the fixed price of each dish clearly without any surprising fee added on later. The menu is like a storybook. Each dish is well-introduced with fine pictures and a short story telling people where it is from, how it is made or why it is famous and popular. The gentlemen and ladies that served me offered great patience and passion even though they had to spend more time explaining the details to me. They would have been able to serve more tables. I got an extra free dish from them after they knew that I am from TaiWan. They have won my heart with their sincerity!

After enjoying my dinner, I was ready to pay. They asked me to wait for a second and I thought that it could be their busy time and it was my turn to show my patience. Surprisingly, they brought me a plate with sweets and a photo just taken during my dinner time. The plate was delicately decorated with Tokyo Tower I used to visit and what was even more... my country flag! "Oh... someone please bring me the camera right away, I really need to keep this precious moment!" I was shouting out loud in my heart!!!

I would love to stay longer if I had more time. They even walked me to the door and presented a lovely pack of Miso sauce as my souvenir. I was deeply touched by their amazing service. It was just a simple dinner and there were about five customers when I walked into their place. By the time I left the restaurant, it was already packed with at least more than sixty people without any vacant seat. I could see the reason why!

A surprising souvenir from the restaurant!

My lovely rice dish on the house! Yeah!