A rare treat.

Dinner with a good friend is the perfect antidote to a long day at work - especially on a school night! We headed off into the city and found a lively little place with a quirky Japanese take on Italian food and a chef with enough English to make ordering off a menu, without picture clues, easier than anticipated.

The carpaccio turned out to be fish rather than beef but was a delicious if unexpected choice and there was prosciutto and salami with some seriously raw salmon (sigh!) The main beef dish was just perfect, if like me you enjoy your meat on the rare to blue side - not sure what the 'well-done' brigade would have made of it all! To top it all off, at 100yen a glass, it served the cheapest drinks in the city.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. Ralph Waldo Emerson