This is a flying start version of my article for mstdn.beer server’s advent calendar.
Usually, I write by myself in English, but the Japanese version of the article below is too long to rewrite in English, so I asked Gemini to translate.
I’ll publish the original Japanese version on 17th Dec and will link to the mstdn.beer Advent Calendar 2025.
—-
Hello everyone,
I moved here from mstdn.jp in April this year. https://mstdn.beer/@three_eight I don’t really have a handle or username, but if I had to say, I go by “Three Eight.”
On social media, I mainly live by “talking to the wall” (self-reflection/posting without expecting replies), but I always make sure to reply if someone speaks to me. Nice to meet you all!
In my private life, I am married and have two daughters. I try my best every day, navigating the changes in values I’ve felt since entering my 40s. I struggled with what to write… I impulsively signed up for the Advent Calendar, but this is my first time writing an article for one. Moreover, although I occasionally write English diary entries on this blog, those diaries are basically “talking to the wall” style, so writing something about my private life with the awareness that other people will read it might be the first time in my life.
Since I dedicated myself to reading this year, should I write about the books I read? Should I try being the one who writes about things I bought that turned out to be good, something I constantly read about? Originally, I used to do SNS with my real name + photo on platforms like Twitter, and mstdn.jp was my first time participating in SNS anonymously, so I was scattering thoughts I normally wouldn’t share. Maybe I should write about those things?
Recently, I’ve been asking Gemini various things a lot, so perhaps I should introduce what kind of things I ask and what kind of answers I get. Should I try to write ambitiously about my work? I work at a foreign-affiliated company and am the only Japanese person on my team, so I thought about writing about the culture gap I feel there. I had many things on my mind. About drinking alone… After much deliberation, and since I belong to the Beer server, I’ve decided to talk casually about my weekly routine of drinking alone, to fill the space.
I personally started enjoying drinking alone in my mid-twenties. I was quite active in socializing with regulars, and I even met, dated, and married my wife after being introduced to her by one of the regulars. Inevitably, the frequency with which I can freely go out drinking has decreased since my children were born, but I have continued my once-a-week solo drink for the past 7-8 years.
The place is fixed: a yakitori restaurant about a 10-minute walk from my house. It’s a small place run by a master in his late 40s alone. It’s cheap, delicious, and the drinks are strong—a true friend to drinkers. I’ve tried various places, but there aren’t many that combine comfort, taste, and affordability, so I’ve been loyal to this one yakitori place.
Frequency of Visits to the Yakitori Restaurant
Since I’ve been going for quite a long time, the way I visit has changed. Before COVID-19, I was going to the office, so I would visit between 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM, on no particular set day.
During the height of COVID-19, there was a self-restraint period when I couldn’t go, but once that lifted and the place reopened, I started going on specific days, combining the trip with picking up my child from their nearby cram school. My eldest daughter has grown up and can now go home alone, but now I enjoy my time there every Friday, starting early around 5 PM and aiming to leave before 7 PM.
How I Interact with Other Customers
While I’ve been drinking alone for a long time, one thing that has changed since my single days is how I interact with the staff and other customers.
When I was single, I had more freedom with my time and schedule, so I would make friends with the regulars and match our drinking times. The restaurant was also proactive about hosting events, so I actively attended birthday parties and gatherings with the regulars.
However, now I don’t have complete freedom regarding the time I drink that day or my future plans, so if there’s an opportunity, I chat as pleasantly as possible, but I try to keep the relationship limited to the time spent at the restaurant. The master has invited me for a drink several times, but since it was always for after the shop closed, it hasn’t materialized.
Fortunately, most of the customers are elderly men, so I can enjoy my solo drink without any unnecessary temptations or strange conversations.
Drinks and Snacks I Order
Originally, I was a devoted fan of Hoppy (a low-alcohol beer-like beverage mixed with shochu), drinking it from the first glass until the soto (Hoppy mixer) ran out. I don’t know if it’s common, but the master pours the shochu to about 80% of the glass, so it really packs a punch. Perhaps due to age, I’ve started feeling sleepy when I drink, so when I get drunk on Hoppy, I often end up sleeping with my children at 9:30 PM on Friday.
Since it’s Friday night and I’d like to stay up a bit longer, I often start with a beer, followed by shochu with soda, Tomato High, or Green Tea High.
For snacks, two daily specials are available, so I usually order one of them first. Yodare-dori (drooling chicken), Nira-tama (chive and egg), Pera-katsu (thin pork cutlet), Kakuni (braised pork belly)… I can’t remember all of them, but they are usually better than what I have at other izakayas. In addition to this, the shop’s staple menu item is niku-dofu (meat and tofu stew) where the meat is chicken, topped with a soft-boiled egg. I usually have two drinks with these items.
After that, I order about four skewers of yakitori: liver, chicken tail (bonjiri), heart base (hatsumoto), and bacon-wrapped soft-boiled egg, and then have two more drinks. This has become my routine.
Entering My 40s
I’ve been rambling on with a story that is neither poison nor medicine, but this utterly ordinary act of going out for a drink has become an important part of my life. Having entered my 40s, it feels like the remaining time in my life is now shorter. No one told me this, but I have a growing sense that time is becoming more precious, and its value is starting to reverse with the value of money.
I also feel that my job has come with greater responsibility and pressure than before. My salary has increased, but it’s like a zero-sum game, or maybe one-sum. If you add up all the factors related to me, the total is zero or one—there is no sense that only good or only bad things are growing significantly.
In the midst of this, the fact that I have something I genuinely want to do—drinking alone—and that the feeling of “Friday is the best” is getting stronger and has become my own personal ritual for enjoying it, the very existence of such a thing makes me feel grateful.
I feel like there might be more to write, but I’ll put down my pen here and submit this as my contribution to the mstdn.beer Advent Calendar 2025.
The release date is Wednesday, but… Happy Friday!