It’s not so hot today, a mere 29C. Not that you’d know it, the humidity is the worst since I arrived. Even the natives are feeling it now, the only escape is the inside and aircon. It’s a miserable day, overcast but without any rain to cool the air. Roll on September!
In the meantime, this weekend is a bankholiday weekend – hurrah! I’m off to a place called Ebisu for an evening at a Belgian restaurant with The Tokyo New Friends Group. It should be fun, I just wish I didn’t have to go outside to get there!
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5 hours later.
It wasn’t in a Belgian restaurant and it wasn’t much fun :/ my first meetup fail. It was actually at a guy called Steve’s house, which was sweltering because he wouldn’t turn the a/c on. The ‘Belgian’ food was cooked by him and the 4 dishes came out about 45 mins apart. We each got maybe 2 large forkfulls of each. The final dish (pasta) was somewhat more generously supplied, or it would have been if Steve hadn’t have snaffled half of it back off the table and eaten it with 3 friends in his kitchen. Leaving the remaining 8 of us watching hungrily through the hatch. Even this wouldn’t have been so bad if the food hadn’t consisted mostly of Spam. Clams with Spam on a bed of rocket. Overcooked ‘sirloin’ steak with Spam on a bed of rocket, rocket and Spam on a bed of pasta, oh, and homemade chips with soured cream and sweet chilli sauce*. I mustn’t forget the half a glass of Hoegarden to make it authentically Belgian. And don’t go thinking it was a pint glass, or even a half, it was maybe 150 ml. For this he charged an event fee of £28.
*actually, they were really good. Shame there were only 5 each.
OMG – you got spam scammed! shit bag Steve >:(
I don't know :/ there is other evidence to suggest it is a scam (he does these things about once a fortnight) but for it to really be a scam at least 5 of the other guests would have to be in on it!
I suspect it is a "business" and it's just a somewhat over priced one. I think he continues to make money because he has a dedicated core of followers who actually think it is worth the money and enough new people each time to keep it going. It is also possible that usually it is better than the one I went to!
He also organises other meets that are free or pot luck, but he seems to have stopped organising those lately in favour of these. If there is another one anytime soon, I may go to that.