Octopus Balls and Beer with Students at My Local Takoyaki Bar

I went out for dinner with a couple of my former students the other evening. We met at a yakinikku restaurant where we grilled various cuts of meat on at tabletop grill before heading down the street to "Takomon," the octopus dumpling joint that serves as my "local."

Tako = Octopus

Mon = Gate

The two students are about to enter their fourth year, and ever since I first taught them in their first year we have joked about going to Takomon to have an octopus dumpling party. Apparently, if a student couldn't remember my name she'd refer to me as "Takomon-sensei."

Three years later, it turned out that a couple of the students really did want to try the octopus balls of Takomon and so, now that they are officially adults and permitted to drink, we fixed a date and made Takomon the final destination of the evening.

One of the girls lives in a different town so her boyfriend drove over after finishing work to pick her up. While we were waiting for him we could hear the other customers in the main section of the bar getting more raucous with the booze... One stout woman was particularly loud.

When we paid the bill and began to leave, the said lady grabbed me by the hand as if to keep me in the bar. We laughed it off and headed out to my student's boyfriend's car. Suddenly, there was a racket behind us and it turned out that the stout woman had followed us out. Again she grabbed me by the hand, shouting "Come on! Come on!" I pulled away. The student hopped into the car, and they drove off, leaving me and the other student to fend off the woman, who was insistent that I - or we - "Come on" back to the bar.

Just as it was getting to the point where a more forceful escape may have been needed, our student and her boyfriend returned and I ushered the other student round to the door and she hopped in. I decided the best way of escape would be to hop in too, though there was not much space, and the woman started to hold the door, "No! No!" she cried... Our driver shouted at her and I was able to shut the door and said, "Go, go, go!" and we sped off and around a corner, where the couple dropped us off and resumed their homeward journey.

I escorted the remaining student (who lives nearby) back to her parents' apartment, and strolled back home. Thus ended an amusing evening on a rather strange note. Mind you, as I have often told the students, you never know who will meet at the Gate of the Octopus!

Cheers!

David Hurley

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