Drinking With Coworkers

Last night after work, I went out with my coworkers for my welcome party and another colleagues going away. We went to an all-you-can drink restaurant in Shibuya, where for the equivalent of $35, you get a room for 2.5 hours. This includes all you can drink as well as dinner in the form of an eclectic mix of plates: avocado tempura, cheese sticks, spaghetti, hot dogs, and a mixed desert platter. Nothing is stranger than watching people eat spaghetti and hot dogs with chopsticks, but they insist on doing it.

In Asian countries, including Japan, it is common for a boss to invite their minions out to drinks after work. Attendance is mandatory, and everyone heads off to one of these all you can drink places and gets drunk. In the Japanese workplace an employee is never to contradict or disagree with a boss, so these drunken evenings are the one safe time employees can tell their bosses what they really think, and the bosses can get some honest insight. The next day back in the office, everyone can talk about how drunk they were, and all is forgiven.

I was shocked at the range of topics covered over dinner: number of sexual partners, one night stands, some employees even showed pictures of themselves with clearly visible tattoos (all these things are major no-nos in polite Japanese society). I would never talk about these things in a work setting in any country, so I was especially shocked to hear these topics thrown around in Japan. My lack of participation in the discussion and mere enjoyment of the shitshow has earned me the title of the "innocent" one at work - and no one back home believed me when I said I was wholesome.

This whole all you can drink concept would never work in America or Europe because of how much people can drink. But the Japanese are lightweights, so it's not surprising that it's so popular here.