My Dinner Got Canceled, So I Ate Hot Pot Alone in Hanoi | Japanese Salaryman Vlog

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ☕ Buy Me a "Hotpot" If this video helped me survive one more workday, that's enough. https://ko-fi.com/stillworkingtokyo •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Hi, I'm Hide. A 41-year-old Japanese salaryman. It was almost 10 PM in Hanoi. I was supposed to have dinner with a customer. Then, about 10 minutes before I arrived... Dinner was canceled. The customer was busy. We'd both had problems at work that day. So I understood. But there was one problem. The restaurant was already expecting me. And the customer had even called ahead to tell them... One person was coming. That's... also kind of awkward. So I went in. My Vietnamese is very limited. Hello. Thank you. Check, please. And cheers. That's about it. Then I checked the menu. The smallest hot pot was for two people. 550,000 VND. Les than $20! Fine. Let's do it. Then the food arrived. Shrimp. Shellfish. Meat. Vegetables. Mushrooms. And more. Yeah. This was definitely for two people. The restaurant was small. Very local. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have walked into a place like this by myself. Then someone came by trying to sell me something while I was eating. I'm in sales too. I respect it. I'm not even close to that aggressive. Then I started eating. The soup looked extremely spicy. Surprisingly... It wasn't. And it was really good. There was only one customer in the restaurant. Me. The server kept coming back. Cooking the food. Filling my bowl. Helping with the hot pot. We could barely communicate with words. Somehow, it didn't really matter. I kept eating. And eating. And somehow... The pot barely moved. Then something happened that I really appreciated. My ice had melted. The server supported with kindness. New ice. New cup. That actually got me a little. I don't usually give money just because I'm overseas. But this time... I wanted to buy them a beer. Then I looked at what I'd already eaten. Twenty, maybe thirty shells. Five or six shrimp. And somehow... There was still food left. I was already full. But wasting all of it felt wrong. So I made a decision. I'm borrowing tomorrow's appetite. Then I found the noodles. And somehow... The desiccant went into the pot too. This is Hide style. I'm a Japanese salaryman, by the way. I kept eating. Then I found one giant chili. Nope. Not doing that. Finally, the noodles were ready. I ate them too. And somehow... There was still more. Eventually, the check came. I paid. I thanked the server one more time. Then I walked back into the Hanoi night. A dinner that started with... "Seriously? I'm eating alone?" turned into one of those nights I'll probably remember for a long time. Funny how a bad night can turn into a good one. Still working. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 📖 CHAPTERS 00:00 Dinner Plans Changed 00:32 Dinner for Two Became One 01:08 The Hot Pot Arrives 02:01 Sales Never Stops 02:25 A Very Local Restaurant 03:44 This Is Definitely for Two 04:22 Everything Goes Into the Pot 06:32 Finally Ready 07:08 First Bite 08:31 The Only Customer 11:17 This Pot Never Ends 15:35 The Server Noticed 16:07 How Much Did I Eat? 16:42 Past My Limit 18:54 One Giant Chili 19:19 Finally, the Noodles 20:50 The Check 21:24 Back Into Hanoi 21:37 A Night I'll Remember ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Have you ever had plans completely fall apart... and somehow ended up having a better night because of it? ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 🇯🇵 Recommended video    • Surviving Tokyo on $14.7 — A 41-Year-Old S...      • Work Never Ends in Japan — Inside a Small ...   ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 🚩 Tags #JapaneseSalaryman #HanoiFood #VietnameseHotPot #SalarymanVlog #VietnamVlog