Nice moments in Japan

When you come to visit or live in Japan, you will enjoy many nice moments. Sure, there may be some bad moments too like any other country on the globe, but you can put big money on you having mostly nice, put-a-big-smile-on-your-face kinda moments. Let me share one I had tonight.

It stems from a simple enough gesture, but nevertheless, reminded me of my gratefulness to be here. So, I was out with my fellow Podunk JETs tonight at a yakitori izakaya/restaurant. We enjoyed our meal and were just about to leave when one of my mate's students recognised him. The student came over and we were having fun talking with him and his grandmother and brother who were on their way out when the chance meeting occurred. And here it is. The 'mama' (name for the chief hostess of an izakaya) spots the exchange taking place, and soon enough had organised 3 cups of on-the-house tea for our new friends.

Now I said it was a simple gesture, but mama had really impressed me by organising this. It is like they really approved and wanted to facilitate the interaction of us with the nice little Japanese family. So with the tea served, we indulged a bit longer in our conversation with our new friends.

Nice form mama. Nice form Japan.