Japanese Drinking Parties

another japanese/tradition is the drinking party...it has a word..but i am yet to remember anything beyond 'hello' 'my name is...' 'good morning..'. anyway, wednesday was a welcome party for a new translator in our japanese partners company. now, the japanese are a very reserved race of people, yet, after a couple of glasses of sake.....they change... after work drinking here is not a past-time, its almost a religion. cliches of drunken japanese businessmen in karaoke bars is 100% true. man, they like to drink. turning down an invitation to a drinking party is considered extremely rude, so i had to attend. i had booked myself into the hotel where the 'do' was to take place. my aim was to stay sober and keep my dignity, as i am the customer you know! anyway, one of many many great japanese customs is that you are never allowed to pour yourself a drink. the protocol is that you visit the other tables with a bottle of beer, and pour each member of said table a drink. this gets everyone up and mixing, and is incredibly sociable, its a lovely custom. the etiquette is that you cannot refuse an offer of a drink, that is highly rude. so when someone visits you with a drink, you have to take a sip out of your current drink so that they can re-fill your glass....this is fine, unless you are a westerner, and the are trying to be extra polite to you...by extra polite, i mean, coming round and offering you a drink every bloomin 30 seconds. they see it as a way of being polite to offer you a drink, now, being newish, i didnt want to offend anyone....so i had to keep accepting....( i learned a valuable word that night.....ekki....it means 'down in one') so much against my better judgement..i ended up a little tipsy/hammered. this gets worse when the beer runs out and the saki comes out...seriously, its rude to say no to a drink.....the night started at 6.30pm...and by midnight....i was fulfilling a lifetime ambition to be singing karaoke in japan....god i am bad at karaoke...again though...it is extremely rude to say no to karaoke... i hear that i didnt hit a single note....woke up feling sooooo poorly. went to work where i had to go home at 11:00am....so so poorly....lesson learned methinks... funny thing is, there are a few japanese managers that i wasnt sure if they disliked me or not...i mean, coming into their company and telling them how to run it..but after a few beers, we were all best buddies! they hold great value on personal relationships, and these drinking parties are vitally important to the business culture here...amazingly so. things are all done here on relationships and trust...

after a couple of hectic weekends im taking it easy this weekend, i treated myself to an 80 gig ipod today, and have spent the last 3 hours putting 2 years worth of photos onto it, and all the music i have here and in malaysia onto it.....ipods are great!

planning first trip to tokyo in a couple of weeks with a few guys from work...more to follow

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