Drinking in Japan

Kimonos on Coming of Age Day.

Monday, 9 January was a public holiday here in Japan for Coming of Age Day:  a day which acknowledges all the Japanese people who reached the legal drinking age of 20 in the previous year.  If such a holiday existed in Australia, I would expect to see drunken youths strewn about most cities.  But like all Japanese holidays, Coming of Age Day is a very dignified affair.  All I saw were many sober 20-year-olds in their finest Kiminos walking to and from the coming of age ceremonies held at their local council offices.    

Coming of Age Day made me reflect upon drinking culture in Japan, and don’t be mistaken, there certainly is a culture.  I think the image of Japanese drinking culture, as it exists in the mind of foreigners, is more shaped by myth than fact.  In today’s post, I hope to set out some of the facts as I’ve observed them in the last 10 months.

Yes, Japanese love to drink!

The first thing to know about Japanese drinking culture is that the Japanese love to drink.  It’s an undeniable fact.  And when I say “drink,” I mean drink in considerable volume.  Alcohol is readily available in large amounts and at affordable prices.  Almost every restaurant and bar in Japan offers what is called a nomihōdai.  This is basically unlimited alcohol for a fixed period of time at a fixed fee.  A standard nomihōdai will be for about 2 hours, cost around USD30 and entitle you to unlimited beer, whiskey, wine, sake, umeshu and shōchu.  Nomihōdai is (unsurprisingly) very popular and a common way to have a drink with your friends or colleagues.  

Asahi ranges from "kids size" (135ml) to "adequate" (1000ml).

If the existence of nomihōdai doesn’t convince you that the Japanese love a drink, consider this:  alcohol is available from every 24-hour convenience store, beer is usually bought in 500ml cans (1000ml cans of Asahi are also available), vending machines sell alcohol, and you can drink in public places.  I remember once walking through a park on a Sunday afternoon and seeing an old lady seated on a park bench drinking a 500ml can of Kirin!

I think there are three reasons why Japanese drink so enthusiastically.  Firstly, they are naturally friendly and out-going.  Secondly, there is no religion in Japan that makes people feel guilty about drinking.  Thirdly, there is a lot of good alcohol in Japan.  And that leads me to an important matter:  Japanese alcohol.

Japanese booze

Japanese mainly drink three things:  (a) local beer, (b) local spirits and (c) local whiskey.  Please note the word “local.”  Foreign drinks are uncommon in Japan which is yet another manifestation of its insular nature.  

On the beer front, Asahi and Kirin are the two main players, but Sapporo, Yebisu and Orion are also popular.  The local spirits are sake (rice liquor), umeshu (plum liquor) and shōchu (distilled rice, sweet potato or barely).  

Japanese mainly, in fact almost exclusively, drink Suntory brand whiskey.  That’s the whiskey which Bill Murray’s character was advertising in Lost in Translation.  Strangely, whiskey highballs are very popular in Japan.  Just plain old scotch and soda is the order of the day.  You can even buy it by the can in convenience stores.

Responsible drinking

You would think the prevalence of drinking in Japan would lead to problems.  It probably would in most countries, but not here.  English ex-pats in Tokyo have remarked to me that if any bar in England offered nomihōdai, it would be drunk dry in an hour then smashed up.  In Australia, any such bar would be drunk dry and if not smashed up, it would certainly be the site of some violence.  In Japan, there are no such problems.  I haven’t witnessed a single fight in Japan nor been accosted by a drunk.  

A subway sign warning you not to be drunk on the platform.

I think there are a few reasons for the absence of alcohol-related problems in Japan.  Firstly, Japanese people are naturally courteous, even when drunk.  Secondly, drinking is often done only with your friends in a location isolated from strangers.  Many traditional Japanese drinking houses (called Izakayas) place each group of drinkers in their own closed booth.  This is different to western-style bars where a group of drunken strangers is thrown together in one room to punch each other up!  Thirdly, Japanese appear to all be happy drunks rather than aggressive drunks.

There are two other goods things about drinking in Japan.  Firstly, very few people in Tokyo drive, so drink-driving is almost non-existent.  Secondly, although drinking is popular, there is no pressure to drink.  This is a far cry from Australia where it is (sadly) acceptable to pressure people to drink and viewed as a sin to be a non-drinker.  That is not the case in Japan.  If you don’t want to drink, no-one will mind in the least.  If you order a water, you won’t be ridiculed for being a “wimp” but probably told that it is a good idea and joined by everyone else. 

So if you ever are in Japan and fell the need for a drink, do not hold back!  There are more bars and restaurants than you can imagine and endless goods drinks to be had.

Thank you for reading and take care.

Our Man in Japan.

A Very Japanese Holiday Season

Happy New Year!  I’ve just spent my first Christmas and New Year in Japan.  In fact, it is my first Christmas and New Year outside of Australia.  I was wondering what to expect.  Now that it’s over and we’re rocketing into 2012, I can tell you all about it.

Christmas 

I think we’re all familiar with the standard Western Christmas.  Putting aside differences in climate between the Hemispheres, Christmas is a public holiday day spent with your family exchanging presents and eating turkey, pudding etc.  You know the drill.  Christmas in Japan is a decidedly different affair.  I think the following six points illustrate this.

First and foremost, Christmas is not a public holiday in Japan.  Yes, you read correctly.  If Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday or Saturday, you’ll be spending the day at work.  That said, 23 December is a public holiday for the Emperor’s Birthday (which is like Christmas for the few nationalistic loonies in Japan!) so you can’t feel that deprived of holidays.

Secondly, in Japan you are not expected to spend Christmas Day with your family.  If anything, Christmas is a “date night” for doting young couples.  It’s almost like a second Valentine’s Day.

Thirdly, buying a present for your family and friends is not expected.  Retailers must hate it!  However, if you’re a devoted young man on “date night”, your fair lady may be expecting a gift!

Fourthly, Japan is not a Christian country.  I don’t think that distinguishes Japan greatly from Australia since the average Australian does not seem like a particularly devote Christian (or a Christian at all) despite what they may write in the census.  I think Christmas is the only day that many Australians attend church as if it makes up for the complete year of Sundays they have otherwise missed.  In Japan, you can skip church along with the rest of the population.  And rest assured, there will be no nativity play at your local elementary school.

Fifthly, there is little in the way of Christmas decorations, carols and other fa, la, la, la, la, ho, ho, ho, ho, deck the halls stuff in Japan.  You’ll see the odd Christmas tree in a department store but not much more.  However, the one thing Tokyo does have is “illumination,” which are outdoor lighting displays.  These are many of these around Tokyo but they are not in Christmas colours and would be just as appropriate at any other time of year.  Some are quite impressive, such as the one at Tokyo Midtown.

Tokyo Illumination:  All lit up like a Christmas Tree?  No, just all lit up.

Finally, no-one seems to care that much for the “Christmas spirit,” which is so heavily promoted in Australia.  In Japan, you are not asked to “dig deep at Christmas time” to help various charities nor are you under any obligation to be nicer to anyone than you are for the other 364 days of the year.  That said, everyone is already pretty nice here, so there’s really no need to ramp it up just for Christmas.

New Year

I think we’re all equally familiar with the traditional Western New Year:  stay out all night drinking too many over-priced drinks then spend the next day hungover, un-tagging yourself in embarrassing Facebook photos thinking “there must be better ways to spend the first day of the year.”  In Japan, this is not the custom, except perhaps with some of the younger generation who have adopted such revelry.

Traditionally, Japanese New Year’s Eve is a quiet time spent with family.  People may visit a Shinto Shrine at midnight to say a prayer for the coming year.  Before midnight, they may eat toshikoshi soba at home with their family.  This is a special type of noodle eaten just before midnight on New Year’s Eve.  

 

On New Year’s Day, itself, they will eat Osechi which is the traditional food of New Year’s Day.  Osechi actually comprises several different types of food all of which are very organic and healthy.  It is served in a three-layered box where each level looks somewhat like a bento box.  Like many Japanese foods, Osechi is meticulously arranged and presented.  Each item of food symbolizes a particular virtue that you are hoping for in the New Year.  Unfortunately, I don’t know anything more about the meaning or history of Osechi, but I can tell you that it’s very nice and one of the best Japanese dishes I’ve had.

Zōjō-ji post balloon release.

So did I partake in the traditional Japanese New Year?  To an extent, yes.  Although I didn’t eat any toshikoshi soba, I visited Zōjō-ji at midnight which is the most popular shrine in Tokyo for seeing in the New Year (very crowded!).  At midnight, people release helium balloons carrying a piece of paper containing a wish for the New Year.  Hundreds were released at Zōjō-ji.  On New Year’s Day, I ate some wonderful Osechi prepared by the family of one of my Japanese friends.  All in all, much better than spending the day with a hangover!

In closing, wherever you may be, thank you for visiting this blog in 2011 and I hope that you continue to drop by in 2012.  Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

Our Man in Japan.