A friend invited me to a German Wine Party in the Ichigaya area of Tokyo last Saturday, a four course gustatory experience on the fifth floor of a function facility called Arcadia Ichigaya near Ichigaya station.
The meal was interspersed with six different varieties of German white wine, one of them very good, one of them rather insipid, and the others in-between. The wines came hot on the heels of each other, necessitating some swilling just to keep up.
The there were about half a dozen large tables with about 8 to 10 people per table, average age about 60. The old guy who ran the whole thing was a sprightly 80-year old wine importer.
The guest of honor was the chief of the economic bureau of the German embassy in Tokyo. I exchanged business cards with him at one stage. I thought I had met a few people there whom it turned out I hadn't, and one or two people I didn't remember greeted me by name.
It was pleasant enough as an evening of decent food and mainly decent wine. Afterwards my friend, his friend and I went to a cafe near Ichigaya station where we chatted for an hour over more wine and cheese, and where the friend and I exchanged Twitter names.
This German Wine Party group has a function like this once every two months. Pleasant enough this time thanks to having been able to meet my friend (a surprisingly difficult thing to do in Tokyo, despite the city's relatively small size considering its population; everyone's always busy) but there are other venues I'd like to try with him next time, not least our favorite haunt, a sherry bar not far off Ginza.
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