Greetings from Beppu

which is a small town on the south western coast of Japan.

Tonight was an experience. The hotel doesn't do room service (and I felt like getting out anyway) so I went wandering, looking for a restaurant that takes Visa (not so common as you might imagine). I found one and walked in - one of the waiters approaches and immediately I know we have a language problem :-) But I do chewing motions and he ushers me to a table, presents me with a menu and waits expectantly. I open the menu and there isn't a single Roman character! All I could do was look helplessly at him!

He evidently could also see problems ahead - he disappeared and a moment later a young lady appeared. She also had as much English as I have Japanese. Fortunately I was seated close to another diner who had ordered food that looked and smelled delicious - so I gestured in his direction. He grinned at me! The waitress grasped my general meaning and disappeared for a moment; reappearing with a dish of skewers of uncooked meat. I pointed at this and at that and we agreed on a set of 4! She disappeared and I thought all was ordered. Nope! She returned with a dish of vegetables. Once again I pointed at this and that! Smiles and nods and she disappears again. And once more returned, this time with a drinks menu. I asked, rather helplessly, for red wine. No spark of comprehension. I know neither the word for red or the word for wine in Japanese (and, as it turns out, I was in a beer tavern) but she prompted me with the word beer. Ok I nodded - a beer sounds good. Now for the difficult question. Which kind of beer? But she helped me out by showing a bottle of Kirrin beer. By this time I'm not up to the nuances of varieties of beers! The Kirrin was fine by me (and it was a very good beer indeed).

The food was fantastic!!! So good that I ordered a second serving.