Shaken not Stirred

Kyle wanted to get dressed up and have a night on the town. Really, he just wanted an excuse to wear one of his hand-tailored suits that he bought while stationed in Bahrain in 2003. Well, he came up with a reason. He decided to rally the troops and host what he named "James Bond Night." The boys all wore their hand-tailored suits and the girls got dressed up in our favorite LBDs (little black dresses).

The evening started with Kyle making a phone call to the restaurant/jazz club called Bar Dicha. He attempted to make a reservation, but when he asked the person on the other end of the phone "eigo ga dijoubou des ka?" (is English okay) they said no. So, he couldn't speak English to the staff at Bar Dicha. Well, I was feeling a little gutsy, and as you all know, I always like a challenge. So I pulled out my Japanese phrase book (thank you, Wendy) and started hunting for phrases that would convey that I was trying to make a reservation. I dialed up the restaurant and stumbled through the phrases. The person on the other line started speaking a bit of English and I continued to speak a bit of Japanese. At the end of the conversation I was quite confident we had a reservation for six people at 7 p.m. Kyle looked at me and offered a proud high five! When we arrived at the restaurant with our well dressed group in tow the waitress looked at me and asked, "Are you Jen-san?" I replied with yes (or hai) and she seated us at a beautiful table for six (roku)! She then looked at me and asked "Nihongo o hanashimasu ka?" which means "Do you speak Japanese?" Of course I DON'T so I got a good laugh out of that question.

After dinner Kyle proclaimed "James Bond Night is not complete without a martini!" So we traipsed to one of my favorite establishments, Niche, for a tasty vodka martini. Kyle was so excited to tell the bartender he'd like his martini "shaken, not stirred." The bartender just looked at him and sort of uttered a nervous laugh. I guess James Bond's cool points don't permeate all cultures . . . .