Losing the face

Hello from Tokyo, (12.1.2009)

Finally I'm in the land of traditions and modern life and even though I have been able to visit this wonderful place before this trip will be totally different. So I will be staying in Tokyo from the 13th of Jan until 16th of February doing research for my master thesis but right now I'm more excited to explore Tokyo and Japan. The trip to Japan was superb! Got great service and was able to stay with Jenni and catch up. We were also facing a problem which is not concidered to be a problem for example in Finland....We were having tasty dinner at the "Naamapaikka" after a nice evening walk in Shibuya area when the waitress bring a bottle of red wine to our table. Of course we were confuced and it turned out that an "older" Japanese man across from us was kind enough to offer us the wine. In Finland I would know how to act but in Japan it is not that simple...if we would drink the wine we owed him something if we would refuce he might lose his face and the waitress cannot help us either...After few sakes the man has enough courage to come over and join us. We lost our appetite right away but were able to handle the situation somehow. We mumbled vague (am i able to use that expression...?) and refuced when he offered his company, drank our teas and left...It sound a silly story after writing it down but the situation was really uncomfortable. This was the first little conflict I had between the cultures and I'm sure I'll never enter the same restaurant by myself again...too bad because the food is delicious. More stories to come (I'll try to write more intresting ones as well...)