The Dog Bar - Masuya

During our 2006 trip to Tokyo, we would often walk by this Izakaya on our way home from the train station. During the day, a dog would always be sleeping out front of the shop when we passed by. Because we didn't know the actual name of the place, a few of us started referring to it as the "Dog Bar" because of the ever present sleeping dog. Turns out the place is actually called Masuya which has nothing to do with dogs, go figure? Well, for one reason or another we were never able to stop off for food and drinks here, but vowed to visit during our next trip to Japan. In 2007 we kept our promise and finally went for a visit. If you look real good you can see Timmy standing off to the far right of the picture with a beer in hand as usual.

If you haven't already noticed from my previous postings, we like to drink outside. Here we are standing outside Masuya in the crisp night air, good friends enjoying a tasty beverage together while watching the world walk by. Sightseeing and culture aside, this is the reason we enjoy traveling to Japan! In a previous 2006 posting about Akitaya, I mentioned how they stacked table tops on beer crates outside for us. At Masuya, they used these cool blue 55-gallon drums instead.

The food was pretty good, and the sake was even better. Timmy in his usual fashion had quickly made friends with our bald headed waiter named Kenji. Kenji-san took very good care of us, which was probably due to Timmy's good looks and "boyish" charm. We ordered some sake from Kenji and he poured for us like it was free! Now it is pretty common for Japanese restaurants to place your sake glass into a wooden masu and purposely over pour the sake until it overflows from the glass into the masu. It's a sign of hospitality, and that little bit of over pour makes you feel that you are getting your money's worth. Well Kenji-san not only overflowed our glasses, he also overflowed our masu onto the table. Using some quick "bar math" we came to the conclusion that each of us had received the equivalent of three glasses of sake each. If you don't believe me, take a look at the picture above.

Masuya's location afforded us a beautiful view of Tokyo Tower which you can see in the background of this picture. Oh and that shady looking character in the background is Timmy. When I first took this picture I was pretty pleased with myself, having positioned my mug of beer against the night sky with a beautiful full moon and Tokyo Tower behind it. It was only when I looked at this picture the next day that I realized that my beautiful full moon was actually the glowing sign of the Chinese restaurant next door. I guess Kenji-san really did pour us a lot of sake that night!