They Don't Drink Sake!!

Meet Brother Sato.  He is our guardian angel, but I'll tell you about that in a minute.  He was one of the first people we met at the branch.  He is always here at the church- serving.  He often comes and works at the church, cleaning and working outside.  He was the branch president here for ten years.  He is used to serving.  He often spends his days off work driving the elders around; helping with their work.  We had to go to a conference in Sendai by bus.  It was a big, grueling day.  There is no parking at the bus station, so Ken had to take the elders and I to the station, drive back home, then walk about 25 minutes back to the bus station to go.  We thought he would have to do the same thing when we got back.  We arrived at night in a huge snow storm.  When we got off the bus, there was Brother Sato waiting for us.  He drove us all home.  So you can see, he's our guardian angel.  But let me tell you how he got the title:
Last Thursday, he spent the entire afternoon with the elders.  He drove them to Sakata- a town about 25 minutes away and spent the day visiting people with them.  He then drove them to where we hold English class at 6:00.  He waited for them, then drove them home after.  Ya, he's that kind of guy. 
Ken and I had some visiting to do before class and then went to class, so we didn't get any dinner.  So, since Brother Sato was taking care of the elders, we decided to stop in Sakata and grab something to eat.  We approached a little place that said in Kanji "Yaki Tori"  That means cooked meat.  That sounds fine to me, so we pulled in and went inside.  It was a little café and no one was there except the chef and the waitress.  We were just getting settled in a booth when Brother Sato burst in the door and shouted, "They don't drink sake!" (Sake is Japanese beer.)  Then there was lots of Japanese that I didn't understand.  But when he left, he had negotiated the price down since we weren't drinking sake and he had ordered for us.  I guess that a Yaki Tori place is a bar and the cooked meats are little appetizer-sized dishes that people eat with their sake.  The elders told us later that they were right behind us and when Brother Sato saw us pull in, he pulled a U-turn and came back to save us.
Later that evening, we had to go to the church to do some computer work.  There was a group there, working on the Sweet Honey Pancake Party (which I'll blog about soon).  The first thing they asked, "How was the yakitori?"  Our reputation was spreading fast.  Later in the week, we were talking to someone from Sendai (three and a half hours away.)  The first thing she asked, "How was the yakitori?"  Oh, dear.  So when someone asks you, "Did you hear the one about the missionaries that went into a bar?"  say, "Yes, I heard that one. . . and it's a good one!"

Yaki Tori

See. No Sake!

Yaki Tori

The chef and waitress

Addendum:  The next day, we were driving the elders home after a meeting. We stopped at Yamaya.  It's a liquor store, but it's also an import store.  We had heard you could get American foods there.  So we stopped and went inside.  As we went in, I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if Brother Sato saw us here at the liquor store?"  A half-hour later, we walked out of the store, and guess who greeted us??  Yep, Brother Sato.  Unbeknownst to us, the elders had called him.  He lives nearby and came over to play the joke on us.  We're gaining quite a reputation!