Txoko

"Txoko"
In Basque country, hospitality is one of the most important thing for good relationships.
The first thing I realized when I got here was that people here are very honest and reliable, and they try to give you as the best hospitality as they can.
"Txoko" idea came from those ways of their tradition.
It is most likely you invite special guests to your house and serve foods and drinks and give them the best treatment. As inviting your guests to your real house is not so common here, you invite them to Txoko and you cook yourself or you bring a chef to cook.
In Txoko place, everybody is equal, I mean any individual person like man, woman, child, elder, no matter who you are. This is also one of the traditional thinking of Basque.
Since a long time ago, women have worked as men, they have owned their property, and kept their family names after marriage.


To use Txoko, you have to be a member of it, and when you want to use it, you just write your name and the time on the board, so you can book the space for your special guests.
Usually, there are all kinds of ingredients are prepared at Txoko, and you report what you used and pay for it later.
It is all your responsibility if you report exactly what you had, but it seems like only 1% is the difference between the people's reports and the actual uses at the end of the year.


Also, I see people are telling the bartender what you had at the bar before you leave, and they completely trust the customers.
First time when I saw that, it amazed me to be honest.
To me, I thought Japanese are very honest, they are maybe too innocent to lie.. but didn't think there are people like us here.


Speaking about food, Basque food has been said one of the best cuisine in the world.
There are a lot of restaurants from Basque are listed on the top in the world.
I have been some restaurants serve such a nice decorated and delicate tasted dish.


Somehow, Basque and Japan have some common in some ways, I think.