Irrashaimase! Welcome to the Izakaya! This series of illustrations was inspired by our latest visit to Nagi Izakaya and partly because of the series, Midnight Diner.

An izakaya is a Japanese bar that serves small dishes and alcoholic drinks. These are a few of what you can order. They are not meant to be paired together, at least, I don't think I'll pair these specific dishes together! But, this was the best use of space at the time of illustrating 😂

Ok, the karaage and gyoza pair, I normally eat with ramen. Yes. And I struggle to eat everything, but that's what friends are for.

Karaage's not my favorite Japanese food, but it's normally safe for my taste. Only one or two instances wherein I did not enjoy it that much. Too salty.

Gyoza, always the pan-fried and not the steamed version. That's how I normally like my dumplingsssss.... ah joke. Only gyoza, all the other dumplings I like steamed. 👌 I subscribe to an unhealthy amount of Japanese food resto-vlogs. In one of the videos, the restaurant owner shared that gyoza originated in China (jiaozi). 😮

Hoppy. I don't drink, but an izakaya's for drinking so this is not complete without any kind of beverage poured in these bars. Hoppy's an alternative to beer, with low alcohol content.

Tonjiru and tamagoyaki. They're based on one of my favorite shows, Midnight Diner. It's an izakaya ran by Master who has only tonjiru in the menu. It's like a pork stew. But his customers are welcome to order anything as long as he can make it. That includes the tamagoyaki, the sweet rolled omelette. His customers come from all kinds of background, but when they sit inside his restaurant, they are all equals. No one's too famous. No one's too crooked. Most of them become friends too, celebrating the holidays and new beginnings together in Master’s izakaya.

Maybeee, I'll draw all of Master's food someday. ☺️ The original's a manga by the way.

Yakitori. Chicken skewers!

Agedashi tofu. For when I want something a bit lighter. I think the tofu's the silky one. Hmm, not sure.

Edamame. I can eat it, but I will not order it. First time to have this when we were treated to lunch in a fancy Japanese restaurant. This was the appetizer. Of course, I waited for them to start eating because I didn't know how. 😅 And I already forgot 🤣

Yakizakana is grilled fish. To date, Komoro Soba's the only Japanese restaurant where I eat grilled fish, mackerel to be exact. It's great and affordable too 👌 Also, I just don't order that in other restos. No particular reason 😅

Bi–ru–. Again, because this is an izakaya menu. Ah, we wanted to visit Drunkard's alley when we were in Tokyo. We didn't get there though, but we walked through an alley that looked like how I pictured it to be. Jk. It was just dark with lots of lights. 🤣 Good enough for people who don't drink anyway.

Nagi Izakaya

Birthday dinner with Mama. Tonkatsu, ramen, and the shrimp chahan. With coke. Coke's important.

Illustration Notes

This is my second Procreate illustration, and it's still food-themed!

• Same brushes as the Hot Pot.
• Drew each dish and drink in a large format and put them together. I was able to put in more details. HAHA So much for making things as simple as possible. 🤣
• I never thought I would have a hard time with the background colors. The colors would "change" when I switch screens LOL At first I thought it was the screen protector so I took it off, but ehh. I still don't know what it is exactly. This is it. Everything's kind of brown 😵‍💫🤣 I did my best 🤣 Ah. My laptop screen protector has these extra fine lines that are not that noticeable, but when I'm looking at photos and drawings for editing.. they kind of bother me too WAHA
• I practiced my hiragana. Now I realize I did not post them here, I will not edit for that lol Pretty happy Google and Apple can translate what I wrote. It's just kampai and itadakimasu 😝