Somehow I had planned my schedule weeks ago so as to have lunch with Zoner on this, my first day back at work. To compound the insult of being back in the office, he suggested walking or to Yaesu and trying RosandCrown and Goldmansachs Are Dead, or something to that effect. These guys run a chain in Tokyo that’s a little like Hub – faux-English, with properly-sized beers in a low-fuss environment. This is a little fussier than Hub though; they try harder to look English, with wallpaper that almost looks like embroidered fabric and some other touches that I imagine are meant to gladden the hearts of any poor bastards unlucky enough to hail from Blighty.
I already gave away the joke on the interior; it’s supposed to be a bit like going round your local for a bit of a pissup. Just cleaner, with no stray odors (every time I see English pubs on TV, like in Morse or the like, they look like the carpets must smell. Carpeting a bar isn’t a good idea.) and no English spoken.
And no English served either. Zoner had a curry, but not in the sense that you’d get right plastered on pints of best and then pop round the curry shop for a feed before attacking the Paki owners, a proper Japanese curry. I had a menchikatsu, and I must have used this simile before, but it’s like a crumbed-and-fried hamburger. Hmmm, I think I just used an English term without even meaning to. I don’t know what’s what any more.
Keen insights into British culture. Bravo!