We were expecting rarefied cuisine at Nakajima, a 1 Michelin-star restaurant in Shinjuku serving kaiseki, a traditional Japanese banquet. Although the meal started off fairly formally, we loosened up after a few flagons of decent cold sake. The chef-owner had been admonishing his staff in a rather gruff manner but eventually we figured this was mainly bluff and he was just a big softy. By the end of the meal we were all great mates and even posed for photos to shouts of “Beckham”. The meal ended in a happy avalanche of broken English, Japanese and bad bowing as we were dispatched into the lift. We are starting to feel that Japan, at least tourist Japan, is more manageable than reports suggest.