It is true that that cricketers, and sportsmen in general, have earned this widespread freputation for being just plain uneducated boozers who spend their time watering down mountains of junk food and with gallons of cheap beer. Fortunately enough, some friends and I who all play cricket beg to differ!
Last Saturday, I joined some members of the Predators Cricket Club, all from Tokyo, on their night out in Shizuoka City.
As our merry band were pretty thirsty and hungry after a hot day, we all first repaired to Caffetteria Il Cuore where we confirmed that reputation of ours with plenty of lager with pizzas, pasta and what else.
It was that a few of us opted for an early bed (incidentally, two of our original company had been missing from the very beginning as their chihuahua pet had forced them to spend the night in a local hotsprings. Lucky ones?), the seven of us thought it was about high time we enjoyed the real local food and drinks!

The seven of us included no less than five nationalities: Andrew and Jeff, red-blooded Australians, ever-joking South African Francois and his Japanese Missus, Katsura, smiling Sri Lankan Asanka and Chanaka and myself from Bourgogne (sorry, France!).
We first tried a favourite of mine, Odakkui, but it was already overflowing. We were in a bit of a fix until Odakkui’s Master persuaded Yasatei to stay open for our lot!
In the end it proved the prefect choice as our Sri Lankan friends were not too keen on red meat.
While the rest faithfully kept to the draft beer except for Francois who opted for a superlative local rice shochu called Doman by Hamamatsu Brewery, Andrew and Jeff asked me to introduce them to the local sake. They certainly showed a lot of pleasure tasting Shosetsu (Kansagawa Brewery, Yui Cho), Isojiman (Isojiman Brewery, Yaizu City) and Hana no Mai (Hana no Mai Brewery, hamamatsu City)!
They also proved they also knew their food when they ordered “age-dofu”, “kara-age” (twice!), “edamame” and appreciated the first snack consisting of tofu, yuba and jellyfish!

Some pictures had to be taken for posterity (and the Predators’ Homepage!). I suspect that Andrew in particular did this to convince the Missus to join him the next time they come to play cricket in Shizuoka City (great place for shopping, by the way!). V-signs everywhere and a slightly happy old geezer! It was past midnight by then! Sorry, ladies!

Andrew and Jeff, in true Ozzie spirit, did not seem to have enough yet and the three of us moved to local expat bar to justify once again our reputation with Abbot beer on the tap!

Yasaitei
Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Tokiwa-Cho, 1-6-2 Green Heights Wamon 1-C
Tel.: 054-2543277
Business hours: 17:30~22:00
Closed on Sundays
Reservations highly recommended