Nihonbashi Brewery (and Japan in general)

We visited Japan over Christmas/New Year period. I have lots to report but before I put up posts about the many amazing places we saw, I want to give a huge shout-out to this place – The Nihonbashi Brewery craft beer pub.

Well, in fact it’s a big shout-out to all of Japan. I feel the whole country deserves praise for this one. Please read on…

Last Night in Japan

It was our last night in Japan. Tokyo city one of the biggest and most populated areas on the planet. Central Tokyo to be even more exact. Right next to Tokyo station. It was early evening after dark and office workers were pouring out of the many tall buildings in the area. Add to that a healthy mix of tourists, shoppers and huge number of commuters scurrying in and out of the massive Tokyo station.

We wanted something to eat and where better than a craft beer bar? (Any regular readers will know that we have visited many such establishments.) This place was right near the station and was almost empty when we arrived, so perfect.

The beer was very good – and interesting. By the time we left the place was very busy. But the real story is this:

When we were back in the hotel – all the other way across the other side of the city -packing our bags for the following morning’s flight, it hit me. I had left the camera in the Nihonbashi Brewery bar. Not just any camera but a fairly good Canon SLR camera. (Probably cost about $1000/€600+ new. OK, not the best but hey… good enough.)

Damn it! Maybe that beer was better than I thought. None of us realised while going for the train and travelling back. Over an hour had passed. Damn! How could that even happen?

What should I do? I decided to hot-tail it across the city in a taxi and try my luck. Even a return taxi fare would be worth it if the camera was still there. But that was the real question. Was it? We phoned the place and although (as we already knew) their English was not that good, it seemed that they did in fact find the camera when they cleaned our table.

Half an hour later I arrived back there and when I ran in one of the employees saw me and said “Camera?”. The relief on my face must have told its own story. She went into a room behind the bar and retrieved it. Outside the taxi driver was waiting and in just under an hour I had done it! Round trip and camera recovered. Must learn to keep a closer eye on my stuff though… Don’t you just hate it when you know you have been so stupid?

Compare…

So a huge thanks to the people at the brewery but also the people of Japan in general. The lady at the hotel who spoke good English and explained where I wanted to go (and why) to the taxi driver, and the driver himself. Generally very helpful, friendly people despite a huge language barrier. More on that to come of course in future posts…

In the end it cost me 8,000 Yen – only about $80 (Australian). That’s about £40 or €50. Imagine trying to do that in London or Paris and not being able to speak the local language. I doubt anyone would even bother. Would the camera still be there when you arrived? Most peoples’ immediate response to that question would probably be “No! Not a chance”. Even giving it the benefit of doubt I would have to say it would be fairly unlikely. In Madrid the camera would have been lifted off the back of my seat while I was still in the bar! Trust me. That has happened! And we lived there! Sadly, you don’t have to be a naive tourist to get robbed in plain sight in the big cities of Spain. Yet here we were in a city reported to be home to over 37 million people!

In Dublin – a much, much smaller city than Tokyo – it would cost you at least €50 to get from one side to the centre, never mind across to the opposite side of the city centre! Absolute minimum, probably more like twice that – doublin’ it. (See what I did there?)  Dublin taxis are a huge rip-off if you didn’t already know. Sorry Dublin (Ireland even), but I would not have bothered making a similar journey there; fairly confident that the camera would not still “be there”. 

I had no idea where I was most of the journey but felt safe and knew that I was not getting ripped off. But most of all the camera was there waiting for me safe in the back room of the Nihonbashi Brewery pub.

This really is a “feel good” post. It just shows that there are still mostly good people out there. It is a bit like my post about my son losing his wallet recently (you can read that one by clicking here.) Meanwhile, there will be lots more to come on our trip to Japan.

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