15 - How to work automatic beer-dispensing machines in Japan
My all-time favorite yakitori joint is in Shibuya.
It's called 〇金 (maru kin).
This symbol, 〇, is pronounced maru, and it means "round." This explains the logic behind Marukin's logo:
There are precisely 3 awesome things about this 居酒屋 (izakaya, "Japanese drinking establishment"):
1. The location is awesome.
2. The chicken is 美味しい (oishii, "tasty").
3. They have a 30-minute (interval), self-serve, all-you-can-drink service.
Details, please.
1. The location is awesome.
This izakaya is located in Senta-gai, which is one of the most awesome (and famous) streets in Shibuya:
You can actually see 渋谷センター街 (shibuya sentaa gai) written on these guys' little portable shrine:
Here are directions from Hachiko Statue at Shibuya station:
I know what you're thinking: I don't care about maps, dude. Explain to me why there is a glowing samurai in those first pictures.
The answer is--I don't know. It's Shibuya. ^_^
They probably had a little festival or something. (Those portable shrines are called 神輿 (mikoshi), by the way. Here's a Wikipedia article about them.)
You might be slightly comforted to see this equally confused Japanese couple:
Has anyone ever looked so confused before?
Doubtful.
Anyways...
2. The chicken is 美味しい (oishii, "tasty").
Or maybe I just love skewered chicken with beer.
If you're gonna go, maybe you should Rikaisama their menu page to prepare yourself.
3. They have a 30-minute (interval), self-serve, all-you-can-drink service.
So if you pay 299 yen (which is less than $3), you get all you can drink at a do-it-yourself bar:
Here's a blurred out (T_T) pic of the menu stating such:
Uber-quick breakdown:
お得
otoku
good deal
７０種
nana ju sshu
70 types!
飲み放題
nomihoudai
all-you-can-drink
３０分
sanjuppun
30 minutes
(Note that 30 is sanjuu, but the juu gets shorten when it attaches to pun, giving us sanjuppun / さんじゅっぷん).
１時間～
ichi ji kan ~
(minimum) one hour
２９９円
ni hyaku kyuu juu kyuu en
299 yen
＋税
purasu zei
plus tax
単品
tanpin
individual items
(So next to this is the price for each individual item if you don't take them up on their awesome deal.)
My favorite is this automatic beer-dispensing machine:
That sign above the beer says:
① ジョッキをのせて
jokki wo nosete
Place your mug here.
(Note: I have no idea why they use this word jokki for beer mugs. It's in katakana, ジョッキ, so maybe it's a foreign loan word?)
(Double Note: 乗せる [noseru], "to place on" is a transitive verb, while 乗る [noru], the intransitive version, means "to get on; to ride.")
(Note: There is no word "then" in this Japanese, but I wrote "then" because in the previous sentence the verb 乗せる (noseru) is written in the te-form, 乗せて (nosete), meaning that it's the first half of a sentence not yet completed. In other words, a direct translation is something like "Place your mug here, and then just press this button.")
All the ingredients for a lovely Shibuya adventure.