Eating and Drinking in Shizuoka

What is life but an adventure in food and drink? It had never really occured to me before, but consumption of calories is entertainment, pleasure and delight.

Last night we attended (yet another) dinner party - this time in Shizuoka city (capital of Shizuoka prefecture). It was a nomihodai - all you can drink; as you may guess, many pitchers were consumed by all!

After dinner, the four of us who'd come from Susono (about an hour away) wisely decided not to go to the nijikai ("second party" - usually where more alcohol is consumed!).

In the exciting "big" city of Shizuoka, ramen trucks do good business selling tasty noodles to businessmen leaving the bars:






We caught our Shinkansen bullet train back home.

The Shinkansen is a nice, somewhat expensive express train, and while the etiquette states that eating and drinking is "not done" on local trains, it is almost mandatory on the Shink. So, naturally, we each got a tall boy for the ride home:



After arriving at Mishima station, we then enjoyed a 20 minute taxi ride to our little Susono station (the local train had stopped running by this time, and would have taken 45 minutes in any case!).

We all got out of the cab at Susono station somewhere after midnight. Though still open, our usual local hangout - a slightly run-down izakaya - was nearing closing time.

Tenga, our local bar:


So, against all better judgement, one of our group convinced the rest of us to get more beer at the local 24 hour convenience store. We then, inelegantly, sat in front of the station and proceeded to drink. This was followed by more trips to the convenience store, and more drink...